A former journalist and business analyst that now works in the world of travel marketing. Based in Toronto, Red Hunt has travelled to more than 50 countries over the past 15 years. You can follow Red on Instagram or Twitter.
When I ride my mountain bike around home in Toronto, it is normally on flat pavement or easy waterfront trail paths. Nothing too exciting, but still plenty of fun.
Well, up at Buckwallow, in Muskoka, the idea of flat pavement is far from your mind as the many winding trails all have you riding through the forest, over rocks and bumping against trees and logs along the way.
The Buckwallow Logo
With somewhere near 25km of trails, they are rated intermediate to difficult with plenty of singletrack as well as doubletrack options.
My little mountain biking group didn’t include any hardcore riders, which I was happy about, as my mountain biking skills are novice at best. When I lived in the Galapagos Islands I rode a bike everywhere, but that was still on easy roads and paths, not pure mountain bike trails.
Ready to roll at Buckwallow Mountain Biking trails
As it had been a couple of years since my last real mountain biking adventure, I was curious to see how I’d fare! Riding along the one hoof and two hoof trails, I seemed to meet my skill level on the two hoofed trails.
Winding around and up and down, we had a great time testing ourselves on some top quality bikes. Well, except for one of us who managed to try out the trails on a crazy looking “fat bike” with tires the size of a dirt bikes. Let’s just say those big tires had a knack for climbing over barriers that were meant to keep us on the trails!
The Crazy Big Tires on the Fat Bike…
My bike was great though, and by the end of our adventures I was excited to try some more challenging vertical drops and quick turns. Hard on the brakes, sliding down sheer rock surfaces with the back tire skidding along…that was fun times! Moving along at a quick pace also helped keep the pesky mosquitoes at bay, as they were quite plentiful in the forest around Buckwallow.
A fellow Mountain Biker riding the trails at Buckwallow
The lunch afterwards at Inn on the Lake in Bracebridge felt well deserved and I started to think that next time I’ll start tackling more challenging options, maybe even a three-hoofer. But really, what I want to try is to ride that crazy fat bike in the snow in winter, now that would be fun!
Lunch break at Inn on the Lake after Mountain Biking
Editorial note: This mountain biking adventure was courtesy of Muskoka Outfitters and Explorer’s Edgeas part ofan epic 3-day “Quintessentially Canadian” tour in Ontario during the Toronto TBEX conference.
I’ve known about the Beer Makes History Better tour for a number of years, but never had the timing right to join the tour myself, until recently.
Run by Tour Guys founder, and fellow beer lover, Jason Kucherawy, this isn’t your typical beer tour, it’s more of a light history tour of Toronto with beer stops thrown in. It’s actually a great mix of fun and learning, as everyone – tourists and locals – are bound to walk away with a few interesting tidbits of information on beer or Toronto.
St. Lawrence Market – a stop on the Beer Makes History Better tour
I have recommended this tour to friends visiting town many times, but always felt a bit guilty as I hadn’t done it myself. Well, now I can finally recommend this tour with confidence! Jason entertained us with Toronto beer history and Toronto city history, as well as teaching us all a bit about the styles of different beers.
Kicking off at the Hockey Hall of Fame, he impressed everyone with his top secret tip of how to spot the Stanley Cup, without having to pay to enter the Museum. (Take the tour to find out!) Then we moved on down the street towards the Flatiron building, learning about the history of Gooderham & Worts. Smartly, before we had to consume too much education, we were at our first pub for some beer consumption.
Yeast Farts and Alcohol Sweat at C’est What
Too much to choose from, the impressive C’est What beer Menu
As we perused the impressive list of local beers at C’est What, Jason gave us our first beer lesson. A quick recap of the difference between top fermented ales and bottom fermented lagers and a review of the beers on the menu. He put effort into trying to determine appropriate beers for each person’s tastes. As we began to enjoy our first drinks, Jason eloquently spoke about the key ingredients of beer, in particular yeast. As he put it, the yeast eats up the sugars in the beer, and farts out CO2 and sweats alcohol.
Bet you hadn’t quite thought of beer in that way before, huh?
We had some great discussions over the first beers, including talking about whether farming of certain grain crops was started to make bread, or actually started to make beer? Hmmm.
Beer + Mustard = Good Eats. Choosing some mustards at St. Lawrence Market.
As we moved on to our next stops, Jason pointed out some interesting parts of the city. Old water fountains with separate drinking bowls for humans, dogs and horses; and signs commemorating historic places of Toronto.
The LCBO and St. Lawrence Market
Buying beer in Ontario means one of two things – visiting the Beer Store or the LCBO. As our tour friends from Denmark, the US and UK listened on, Jason pointed out how the government controls most of our access to alcohol. In some ways, good, in other ways bad, we all agreed that at least it wasn’t as bad as it used to be – the original LCBO stores required you to have a liquor buying license and were not allowed to display any products in plain sight!
Getting the low down on the LCBO during the Beer Tour
Learning a little more about Toronto, as we meandered around St. Lawrence Market, the Beer Makes History Tour, took a beer break and we sampled some fine Niagara wines, local mustards and other treats. The market is really a must stop for anyone who is coming to Toronto, not just for the foodie aspect of today, but for it’s important role in the early days of Toronto.
Half Full, or Half Empty? Beer at Betty’s.
The Betty Ford Beer Connection
Munching on some nachos and enjoying some more local beers, our little tour group was gelling quite nicely, enjoying the casual vibe of Betty’s. This Toronto bar has quite a history to it apparently, as Jason was eager to point out. Most people found it quite amusing that the bar was originally named Betty Ford, but had to change their name for somewhat obvious reasons.
Betty’s is your typical neighbourhood dive bar. Nothing fancy, just comfy and simple. They do stand out though by offering a better selection of beer than most little bars.
Some Final Learnings and Final beers…
After a couple of hours, and a handful of beers, the last stop of the tour was in sight. We ventured towards the Distillery District and learned a little more about the Gooderham facilities and buildings that still stand today. We saw all the pipes that still connect the building, which one used to carry alcohol. It was a perfect place to end the tour, as we were now at the home of the Mill Street Brewpub, and new Mill Street Beer Hall.
Historic Distillery District in Toronto
After enjoying some final samples in the retail shop, our group split up. Some buying some Mill Street beers to take back home, and others stopping to enjoy a few final beers, and some food, at the Mill Street facilities.
The tour took just a little longer than 3 hours, but didn’t feel rushed at all. We had plenty of time to drink some beers at each stop and also take some photos and learn about the development and history of the city of Toronto. All around, probably the best walking tour I’ve done in the city!
Algonquin Park is one of those special, quintessential Canadian experiences. Hiking, camping, canoeing and Moose-spotting are favourite Canadian past times in this part of Ontario, and when is the best time of year to spot Moose? Spring time!
I’ve had the pleasure of visiting Algonquin Park more times than I can remember, including guiding groups of tourists around parts of the park. I’ve always had a soft spot for this park because of it’s impressive wildlife watching opportunities, with Moose being the #1 desired animal for me, and pretty much everyone else.
Algonquin Park Moose – Springtime
The most Moose I’ve seen in one day was 13 (in Springtime of course), but despite there being so many of these odd looking creatures in the park, most of my summer visits have resulted in seeing no Moose. How come? Well, they’re just so good at camouflage!
Take a look at this photo. This is the same Moose that was pictured above. But after slipping only a few feet into the bush, all you can see is a silhouette. The springtime vegetation was just starting to fill in during this trip, so if this Moose was standing there in summer, he’d be totally hidden by leaves and branches. If you’re driving or walking by, you probably won’t notice this shadowy figure. Especially after he takes a few more steps deeper into the forest and virtually cloaks himself in darkness.
Algonquin Park Moose – Camouflaged
That is the trick with these giants of the forest, they’re just so hard to spot sometimes! While spring is the best season to spot them – less vegetation, and they like to be near roadways, getting salty nutrients after a long winter – any season is a good time to go looking for Moose.
In summer, thankfully they love eating water lilies so spotting a Moose while canoeing down a lake is always a possibility in Algonquin. The same goes for autumn, but by then you have the added bonus of leaves changing colours and the male Moose will be sporting impressive, large antlers. In winter, finding animals like Moose in the park is made more fun by being able to see their tracks in the snow.
Moose in Algonquin Park – they are the tallest members of the deer family
Now, in general, the Moose tend to like grazing open waterhole and grassy areas, like this guy was. But not during the heat of the day in summer. They like to take shelter in the shade then, so it’s always best to look for Moose in the early morning and late evening hours, after sunrise and before sunset.
This particular Moose was one of 9 I saw on a day trip to go canoeing in Algonquin Park with Algonquin Outfitters, a trip organized by Explorer’s Edge. Some people I was with said they saw 14 or so Moose that day, but my eyes couldn’t spot them all!
This Moose could use a nice, new coat of summer fur…
A lot of people laugh at the weirdness of these creatures. They look awkward, being so tall, and have odd faces. This guy also happens to be one of my favourite Moose I’ve seen in all my visits to Algonquin. His antlers are starting to grow, with a smooth, furry “velvet” on them, but his fur is still matty and ugly-looking from the winter.
Have you ever seen a Moose in the wild? What do you think of these Moose pictures? Is he cute? Ugly? Weird-looking?
Editorial note: While I am always looking for my next great outdoor adventure, this particular experience was compliments of the great people at Explorer’s Edge, who sent me on a 3-day “Quintessentially Canadian” tour in Ontario as part of the TBEX Toronto conference.
Yapahuwa, or Yapawwa, is an ancient complex that tends to be overlooked by visitors to Sri Lanka.
It was one of the first places I visited, after a long journey from Canada. I was still tired and jet-lagged but figured a day in the sun, exploring an exciting new country would be a good thing.
A Stupa at the top of Yapahuwa Fortress
Greeted by monkeys and only seeing a couple of other tourists here was a great start, my kind of place as I hate crowds. But soon it became apparent that my recent arrival into the country was still weighing on me as the hike up to the top of the hill temple was tougher than expected. It’s not the first time I’ve arrived somewhere full of excitement and adrenaline only to have my energy quickly zapped by altitude or tiredness.
But really, the first thing you want to do when you arrive somewhere new is explore! Who wants to rest and “waste” their first day in a new country…as smart a practice as that may be.
Yapahuwa Staircase…up, up, up!
So, I hadn’t yet adjusted to the crazy heat of Sri Lanka, having flown in from cold wintery Canada! But slowly, slowly I made my way up the staircases and paths to the top and was rewarded with a perfect panorama view of the surrounding countryside. Green fields all around, it became pretty obvious why Yapahuwa was a strategic and important place for kings, as you could see enemies approaching from far away at this viewpoint.
View from the top of Yapahuwa Fortress
It was probably the shortest hike I did in Sri Lanka, as parks like Horton’s Plains and the Sinharaja Forest Reserve offered up multi-hour, more intense hikes. But those hikes didn’t have the jet-lag factor and seemed easy compared to this one. Still, despite being so tired, I was happy that I got high at Yapahuwa and had time to enjoy the view!
A Toque Macaque, one of many monkeys hanging around the Fortress
This Lion Statue was the Staircase Guardian at Yapahuwa
Cruising down the river in a longboat, I couldn’t help but wonder if some of the friendly Borneo people at the nearby villages might still have inklings of being Head Hunters and that there was a chance I could be in danger.
Our longboat ride from Limbang to the Head Hunters Trail in Borneo
That thinking was pretty delusional, likely brought on by a combination of extremely hot, humid weather, and me drinking cheap beers in the longboat, which I had picked up in Labuan. It did make for a more entertaining couple of hours along the river though, trying to imagine what it was like coming down this river knowing that your head could be put on a stick. I often find myself imaging what first explorers to places like Borneo went through, usually with a bit of envy that their adventures were surely more exciting than mine.
In reality, the Head Hunters Trail is just another walk in the park. A park that is a dense, muggy rainforest. With lots of leeches and near 100% humidity that kills cameras. The humidity here was so intense that my camera lenses fogged up almost instantly and even the outer protective casing of one of my lenses began to peel off. There may not be any Head Hunters here any more, but it is still an evil place for the digital traveller.
Near the start of the Headhunters Trail in Sarawak, Borneo
The hike itself is an 11km hike from Kuala Terikan to Camp 5 in the Borneo jungle and it’s all through lush green forest, with dripping wet branches and muddy pools of water everywhere – and that’s not even during the rainy season! This is leech-check territory, so keep all your pant, waist, neck and arm seams tightly closed off or else the little blood-suckers will get you!
Hiking along, after a leech check! Camera foggy from 100% humidity.
I learned here that it’s often best to be the first or second person hiking along a path where leeches may exist. It’s a case of the first person waking up the leech as they walk by and the second person aggravating (or exciting) the leech. The third person may or may not get lucky and pass by before the leech is ready to grab on…but the people after that will be facing a pathway of excited, wiggling leeches thirsty for blood.
More like the humid, leech-infested trail…
I did indeed have some leeches on this longboat ride and 11km hike, but they were all caught by my hiking buddies during leech checks. So none of them got past my clothing barriers, bug spray and heightened sensory awareness. I did laugh when I took a refreshing cold shower later on and saw a massively, blood-filled leech in there. It seemed that someone else had an unpleasant surprise!
So…back to the Head Hunter Trail…
If you’re lucky you will spot some wildlife along the hike, such as wild boar or porcupines or monkeys. More than likely you’ll hear a lot of birds and rustling of animals in the forest, but won’t see that much. The hike is done over average terrain, nothing too intense, except that the weather zaps your energy pretty quickly, especially as you’ll be carrying your backpack on this little trek. (Another reason why I was drinking those beers early in the day…to lighten the load!)
Camp 5 along the Headhunters Trail in Borneo
At the end of the 11km hike, you emerge from the forest and come to a picturesque setting on the edge of the limestone cliffs. A river presents itself for swimming and a suspension bridge symbolizes the end of the trail (or start if you’re going in reverse). Here is Camp 5, and after a few hours of getting dirty and sweaty in the jungle, a cold beer and dormitory bed seem like luxury – a decent reward for surviving the Head Hunters Trail.
Raining at Camp 5, don’t expect your clothes to dry here!
