The Happy Camper
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Is it just me or are the bugs absolutely horrible this season? I just finished two back-to-back trips and was so happy to finally be free of pulling ticks off my pant legs, swatting at deer flies buzzing around my...
Some outdoorsy types dwell on paddling large bodies of water in record time, others bag peaks and others simply collect Tilley hats. All are obsessions or crazed fetishes; all give reason to continue going outdoors.
My mania is searching for lost...
The south “panhandle” section of Algonquin Provincial Park doesn’t seem to get as much traffic as the more popular access points along the Highway 60 corridor. Maybe because it’s a relatively new addition to the park. Historically, there was a...
Finally! I’m heading out on my first canoe trip of the season. It’s a little late due to the darn pandemic, but at least I’m now able to head off into the woods and water to deal with minor discomforts...
I’ve been doing quite a few Whisky Fireside Chats on Zoom during the pandemic, but none have left me more speechless than my interview with Colin Skeath. In 2017, he and his nephew, Davis Gould-Duff, were the first to paddle...
I've seen magic happen: the moment when a young, high-anxiety kid spends quality time outdoors, and then transforms into their truer self. Their reconnection with the outdoors proves our innate affinity with nature and why living without it can be...
I’ve spent a lot of my career taking various people out in the woods, from troubled youth to greenhorn adults. It was always enjoyable—but it was always still a job. I carried a heavy burden; being responsible for making sure...
Cliff Jacobson is one of North America’s most respected outdoors writers and is the most published canoeing/camping writer of this century. His numerous titles have been translated into Spanish, German, French and Turkish with sales approaching one million copies. The...
Jim Stevens is the Sales Manager at Eureka Canada and has been designing tents and other pieces of camp gear for well over two decades. He’s also been a good friend of mine for many years, and we've shared a...
The outdoor community is blessed to have singers/songwriters who use wilderness travel to inspire their music. It could be their time in the woods and water that influences a song, or a song that stimulates them to head back out.
I’m continuing to do Whisky Fireside Chats on my KCHappyCamper YouTube channel. I’m not running out of interesting outdoorsy types to interview, but I am running a little low on good whisky.
One of my favourite interviewees this week was good...
I had the privilege of doing one of my Whisky Fireside Chats (online due to the COVID-19 pandemic) with Patrick Kelly from Kelly Kettle. What an incredible, historic piece of camp gear.
The Kelly Kettle dates to the 1890s, to a...
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