Explore Magazine Summer 2025

"What qualifies as a hike?” You wouldn’t believe how many times I’ve been asked this—usually by outdoorsy newbies sheepishly wondering if what they did last weekend met some preconceived “adventure standard.” “If you call it a hike, it’s a hike,” I say. Sometimes I nudge them in the direction of walking upon natural surfaces, but heck, I’m not judge and jury of the outdoors. You said you hiked—you hiked. I’ve been guilty of it too—proclaiming I took my five-year-olds for a “hike,” then later downgrading the activity to “forest walk.” Why though? It was a hike to them! Same goes for camping. Despite my family having owned an RV park for some 75 years, until about five years ago I didn’t have much personal experience actually using an RV. (You…

High in the Rockies near Banff, above a perfectly calm alpine lake still crusted with a thin layer of ice at the edges, Tim Patterson bends over the water before we set off on the snow-covered trail. He prays in his native tongue, an Interior Salish I do not understand. But I do understand the feeling and power it represents as he asks for blessing and protection for our journey and honours the might that the water, rock and snow around us possess. As he speaks, I, too, feel powerful, capable of accomplishing great things, of going far and testing limits, though our small group will conquer no summits today; that is a settler mindset. Today, after arriving via helicopter to this hidden basin, we will be present, see and…

After living in Jasper, Alberta for years, Graham Wylde thought he knew his backyard. But when he returned to the town after a major wildfire last summer, he discovered boulders and creeks where, before, he had only seen forest. “It threw off my sense of place,” says Wylde, the visitor experience manager for Jasper National Park. “I was seeing the place through a new lens.” It took time to reorient himself, and he says visitors should expect the same when they return to the park or any area after a wildfire or natural disaster. It’s something we will all have to reckon with. As the Earth warms, wildfires are becoming more common and more severe. That means Canadians across the country will be recreating in charred landscapes and rehabilitating ecosystems…

It’s a wonder I don’t walk headlong into a spruce. My eyes are always cast down, scanning for the next wild bloom. I have my not-so-fashionable 1980s shoulder bag ready to go, packed with a DSLR camera, a water bottle, a heavy-backed book in case I want to press a few blooms. It’s time to find some flowers in Manitoba. MAY–JUNE NARCISSE WILDLIFE MANAGEMENT AREA Late snow doesn’t stop the prairie crocus from pushing up through the gravely soil to catch the first warm rays of the season. Those pale blue petals certainly make it look like a member of the crocus genus, but this local favourite more closely resembles a buttercup, botanically speaking. The Anemone patens grows from seed and not a bulb as a true crocus does. Those…

All backcountry campers create equipment lists they check over and over again before embarking on their wilderness adventures. They includes must-have items, such as a first-aid kit, navigational device, cozy sleeping bag and a roll of toilet paper—the bare necessities needed for any trip in the woods. But what about the list of luxury items; those pieces of gear that really don’t need to be stuffed down the side of your pack but the urge to take them along is overpowered by common sense? Here are my must-have-but-I-don’t-really-need items to lug along a grueling portage or elevated hiking trail. Camp Chair A lightweight camp chair is the number-one item listed by my backcountry camping mates. Yes, you can sit on a soft rock, a smooth log or use an old…

If it wasn’t for Greg Hill’s insatiable thirst for adventure, he could have made a great accountant. Whether it was tree planting, ski touring or driving an electric car to his next adventure, Hill’s mind was doing math. “I’m always running the numbers in my head,” he says. In his autobiography, I Could Die At Any Moment, he recounts some of these calculations. How many more trees did he have to plant to afford a winter of skiing? Was he still on pace to hit two million vertical feet of ski touring? Will he have enough charge to reach the next trailhead? Importantly, it wasn’t just in his head. He meticulously recorded and published the stats and accomplishments because he knew people weren’t going to just take his word for…