Welcome to my blog! I’ll write about all things self-propelled and tasty. My favourite subjects are urban hiking, hiking the Rockies (or anywhere else!), active transport on foot and bike and cooking colourful food with fantastic flavours. I also love to write about my active adventures with my kids and husband in Calgary, across Canada and anywhere else we visit. Please subscribe to my blog!
Why walk you ask? Check out Doc. Evans on YouTube 23 1/2 hours.
The Blackfoot Diner milkshake is “Like sucking cake through a straw” I am having a lot of fun researching my new book, a brand new version of my book Calgary’s Best Hikes and Walks. On Mother’s Day, my family joined me to test a new route for the book in the Inglewood, SE area. We started at 15 St, SE and followed the Bow River Pathway to Pearce Estate Park and the new Harvie Passage Whitewater Park on the Bow River. Harvie Passage water park...
read moreMy son and his biking pals made the Calgary Herald newspaper in the fall of 2012 after being spotted biking to school in a snowstorm. And they have made the Calgary Herald again in March 2013 due to their cycling habit. They bike year round, on their own, no overseeing parents. This used to be commonplace, but nowadays, parents don’t let their kids enjoy the independence that they so love and crave. The kids were asked to present at the Safe and Smooth Symposium on March 21, 2013. I produced this video for the presentation. Check it...
read moreIt’s time to play in the snow! Grab your friends and your family, a duffel bag full of clothes, your backpacks, some snowshoes, a crazy carpet, a shovel (for building snow forts at the trailhead!) and a heck of a lot of yummy food and thermoses of hot drinks; you are going snowshoeing in the Rockies! Snowshoeing is as easy as walking! It’s simply left, right and repeat. There is no skill needed, no technique. But you do need to have some cardiovascular fitness because it can be challenging when you step off the beaten trail. And...
read moreJournalist Tom Babin at the Calgary Herald just did a fantastic story on some cycle commuting kids in Calgary. One of them, my son, was part of that gang. Like I said in my previous post when I critiqued the Alberta Walkability Project, the built environment plays a minor role in getting people to be more active on a day to day basis. What makes these kids bike instead of taking the warm school bus is that it’s fun to bike!! It’s fun to bike on any day and especially through the snow and ice. It’s also fun to do it with...
read moreWe have all heard that walking is good for us for a whole bunch of reasons. And in case you have not heard why walking is the best acitvity for your health, then check out one of my favourite presentations on why you need to walk more by Doc Mike Evans. The bigger question is why do people walk? Or better still, why don’t people walk, or exercise, more? Active living, or incorporating activity into your every day, is the goal of all health advocates. The active living message has a hard time competing with our multi-tasking car...
read moreIn Yoho National Park, BC, there is a hike that has it all. The Iceline Trail is a switch-back climb to glaciers, water features spreading across glacier scraped rocks, lakes and views of Takkakaw Falls, Canada’s highest waterfall, pouring off the Daly Glacier. We hiked the Iceline last weekend, on a spectacular blue sky fall day. We’ll repeat this fantastic getaway next summer, on August 23-25, 2013. It will be a lodge based catered getaway! Great hikes and great food. Hard to beat that. So, back to our...
read moreYes, this is in fact, the best salsa recipe on the planet. My husband Keith made this salsa for a Mexican themed dinner party we hosted at our place a few weeks ago. I walked into the house after a full day hiking in the Rockies, dunked a tortilla in the salsa and was blown away by subtle flavours of roasted garlic, loud and clear tangy cilantro and smooth Italian parsley. All this wrapped in an rich addictive sweetness. I have named the salsa, “Keith’s (best) Salsa (in the world)” but it was my fellow Fit Frog hikers, Colin...
read moreAlong with hiking and being outdoors, I am also passionate about creating really, really tasty food. I spend much of my non-walking (and walking) time accumulating ingredients and converting them into into scrumptious meals. And then I HAVE to go for a walk. And of course, the more I hike, the more top notch food I need to consume! It’s a catch 22 but a good one I think. It is peach, apple, pear, tomato, carrot, potato and pepper (to name a few) season at the moment. I have been frequenting my favourite,...
read moreI have discovered that enjoying the slower pace of summer means I spend a lot less time on the computer and therefore this is my first blog since June. I think everyone should have a social media holiday. A break from constant updates allows you to focus on the moment without thinking about how to write about it later. My family and I spent 7 weeks visiting the Maritimes and Eastern Canada. When we returned to Calgary, we hung out and relaxed, walked the city and hiked and camped in the Rockies. It was a summer full of long hot days...
read moreI think that a hike that ends with a homemade cake is one of the best hikes ever. My friend Carmen makes THE BEST cakes in the world. This is a 6th year that I have enjoyed one of her post-hike cakes on my birthday, in the mountains. My regular Club Fit Frog hikers start asking about the June birthday hike date in the winter. Yesterday, after a mostly sunny (slightly rainy) hike in the Elbow Valley area of the Kananakis Rockies, we enjoyed this decadent creation. The hike was a colourful trek through fields...
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