My god, I had forgotten how beautiful this place is.

Orchards and vineyards clamboring up the hillside, away from a sunlit lake...shiny happy people playing on the beach...

Truly an oasis in the desert.

The old highway used to come into the valley from the south, high up on a mountain, so that when you turned into the valley you were looking down on neat little farms that stretched up ahead of you a bit, beginning to be dotted with water, until they turned into that splendid long, thin lake, disappearing to the north.

We used to camp on a beach called Lockheart Beach, about halfway up the lake to Nelson. Because the lake is so narrow, the mountains on the other side are rearing up right before you, and in the evenings, as the sun sets, it sends unearthly rays through the slits and crags down on to the water -- it looks terribly Cecil B. DeMille-ish, actually, too good to be true.

- Wolf Lake, near Westport, Ontario.

I never get tired of the Dallas Road cliffs and shore in Victoria. And I'll be seeing them tomorrow!

There is a road that is south of the 401, from (I think Brighton?), all the way to the Prince Edward County area, that runs all the way along Lake Ontario. Looks like California. It's not on the maps, so you'll have to experiment.

Bridal Veil Falls, on Manitoulin Island. You can jump right in and get crushed by the weight of the falling water.

Northern Ontario at night - up Sioux Lookout way.

A small fast river, just northeast of Tweed. You can lay in the white water all day.

(Who was it who said the last chapter of The House at Pooh Corner was the most moving passage in English literature).

Haven't been in Prince Edward County since I was ten or so, but loved the Sandbanks.

Cape Spear.
Cape Breton.
The St. John River Valley.
Mount Royal.
Tobermory/Manitoulin.
North shore of Superior.
Lake of the Woods.
Southern prairies (hypnotic!).
The Qu'appelle River Valley.
Lake Louise, Lake Agnes.
Rogers Pass, Spiral Tunnels -- seen from the dome car.
The interior plateau, complete with tumbleweeds.
Fraser Canyon, Fraser Valley.
Insular Mountains (on the Island).
Clayoquot Sound.
Long Beach.

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Sounds like a hell of a trip, lance. I have to say that the prairies have a place in my heart more searingly pure than almost any other.

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'Twas. Starting in Toronto, I went all the way east, then all the way west, then settled in Victoria. Hitchhiking, train, bus, ferry...complete with backpack, guitar & long hair. I sometimes got mistaken for a hippie.

Re: prairies & other wide open spaces -- Dave Bidini said the best Canadian music is spooky and wide and expansive. New Year's Day, driving the back country north of Kingston up to Ottawa. Cold, clear & sunny. Old limestone canal towns (did someone say Westport?), with church steeples glinting across the snowy fields. Whale Music on the tape player. Thinking back, I know what he meant.

Now this is a minority taste, sounds perverse, and partly derives from my work. But sometimes I find industrial sites beautiful. Working ones in a kind of muscular, get-the-job-done way. (Iggy Pop: "red tint by the railroad tracks/concrete poured over steel grids"). Derelict ones in a sad, lonely, remnant-of-something-that's-passed way.

On that note, I've just learned I have to go to Edmonton on very short notice, to do more work at one of these derelict places. I'll be signing out of here for about a week.

Keep rousing that rabble, brothers and sisters,

I had the good fortune of living only an hour away during my younger years, and have personally done the circuit 3 1/2 times. Believe me, it never gets old. So if you like the outdoors, go!...the only real prerequisite is being in decent physical shape. Some canoeing experience couldn't hurt either.

Wow, aren't I the carny barking on the midway today! My cheque had better be in the mail, Tourism BC.

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Trapper Johns bar in downtown Victoria (is it still there?)

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It (Big Bad John's) sure is there, in all it's glory!

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East York and Scarberia with all its pleasantries.

The Windsor waterfront with its panoramic view of downtown Detroit.

Saskatchewan's Black Strap Mountain (garbage dump turned ski hill).

Moncton and the lovely province of New Brunswick (need I say more).

Thurso, Quebec with its pulp mills and pleasant odours.

And last but not least Calgary. A mecca of culture and progressive politics.

Also, My Beach.

(all photos by me)

Then on Sunday I biked all the way to the Mackenzie King Estate in Gatineau Park. That was one hellish bike ride, but well worth it. I stuck to the paved paths, but there are lots of really rough paths that wind their way through the woods. Ice cream never tasted so good as the cone I bought at the King Estate after 2 hours of biking, mostly uphill.

One of these days I'm going to really test my legs. I'm gonna try to bike up to the Champlain Lookout in Gatineau Park. The view is breathtaking, but the road up there ain't easy if you're on a bike.

Liam: I really like the Windsor waterfront!!! I enjoyed biking the length of it all the time when I lived there. I DID enjoy the view of Detroit. I think Detroit looks really pretty . . . from a distance. And I loved watching the big ships sail through.

[ August 07, 2001: Message edited by: Kneel before MediaBoy ]

The Medicine Bowls in Courtenay BC. Stokum falls in Courtenay BC.

Seymour Narrows north of Campbell River while a superpod of Killer Whales passes through.

Hope. Why? MOUNTAINS! RIVERS! BIG FOOT! and the Lake of the Woods.

Friendly cove north of Gold River.

Long Beach.

____HORNBY ISLAND!____

I'll think of more.

A good pair of hiking boots can carry you down a neverending stream of awe-inspiring places. Especially where these mountains meet the sea. Places of sweet contradiction. Bursts of delicate alpine flowers yielding to a stark 500-meter gorge. Where the sight of a grizzly cub on that next little ridge makes you grin lovingly - and soil yourself.

Of course, there's a pit inside even the sweetest plum. At the deepest destination of almost any alpine hike... even days after seeing your last human... it's near impossible to find a vista not marred by one, five, even a dozen massive clearcuts.

If I have two votes, my other one goes to the South Shore of Nova Scotia. For the tremendous diversity of scenes, people, ghosts and living memories - spotting the coast all the way from Halifax to Yarmouth.

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I'll never be able to afford a house like that, but in B.C., I could live in a trailer and be very happy.

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Same here, Trisha. I live with my partner on the bottom floor of that house in the photo. The guy who built the place lives on the top two floors. I haven't paid less rent in many years.

Rural housing costs here can be way low. Two friends just left (for Toronto) a 3-bdrm log cabin in the nearby Kispiox Valley that always defined "cosy" and "beautiful" for me. I think they were paying $500/mo.

This weekend, we visited the nearby-ish town of Granisle (pop ~500) for the first time. It's a fairly depressed spot. But it has its charms, especially the natural ones. And our eyes bugged pretty far to see several solid houses selling for less than $50K.

Un/underemployment are a complement to the low cost of living. So you're right, skdadl: I'm blessed. Blessed to be working. I do a lot of telecommuting: Three days/week editing at rabble; another day freelancing for Toronto folk; and finally, a solid day freelancing locally. So I don't rely so much on local economies.

I'm torn on how the "Internet economy" - esp. telecommuting - is changing the structure of work. For instance, it tends to spawn contract relationships, sans security, sans benefits ... it often favours self-exploiters ... it can wrench our daily work away from the life of our local community.

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I even wonder if telecommuting could be a small part of a renewal formula for little towns where primary industries are shriveling.

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Well, you see, it should be, and I'm another bit of evidence. I'm basically doing the same kind of work you do, pretty much the same way, only I'm stupid enough still to be doing it in Toronto!

And I'm THIS close to buying that beach of 'mine.' Really.