For adventure enthusiasts I can’t imagine a better year-round Canadian destination, with world class surfing (wave dependant), mountain biking, hiking, trail running, sea kayaking… and more passive activities such as whale and bird watching as well as walks with coffee on a seemingly endless maze of trails that are extremely well maintained there isn’t too terribly much that you can not do in Tofino. With just shy of 2,000 permanent residents, Tofino is located on the tip of the Esowista Peninsula at the southern edge of Clayoquot Sound. It is situated in the traditional territory of the Tla-o-qui-aht First Nations.

I didn’t go on my first backcountry camping trip until I was in my mid-twenties. Just as soon as my first trip finished I was itching to plan another - but planning your first trip can feel like a daunting task and it is hard to not allow your mind to wanter to all of the what-ifs. So for the sake of your safety (and sanity) I have put together some tips to help you plan your first (or first of the season) backcountry camping trip.

I have never been a big reader… I will be the first to admit that. But give me a good documentary, an audio book or an online class and my attention can not be waived and as we spend more time at home I have (with a lot of your help) compiled an extensive list of books, movies, documentaries, short films, TV shows, podcasts and miscellaneous online resources to help us all feel a little but more inspired and prepared to get outside.

My mother is a many-times Boston Marathon runner, her sister a world champion IronMan competitor and as for me… I like to put heavy things on my back and walk uphill. Moving fast has never come naturally to me. But about a decade ago, to distance myself from my “freshman 15” I decided that I, like my mother, would be a runner. She is three inches taller than me, her hips line up with my armpits and our running technique would be akin to watching a race between a gazelle and a pug (I am not the gazelle in this comparison in case that was not clear). I remember the day I decided to start running. It is 2.5 miles from my parents’ house to the highway (they live on a farm, in the country, on the top of a hill) and I ambitiously (read: naïvely) thought that 5 miles would be a good starting distance. I made it down the driveway, too

I am not a cold weather person. My blanket statement is that I am either a very terrible Canadian or somehow skipped adulthood and went straight into the snow-bird lifestyle. In true Canadian fashion my parents signed a young Andrea up for figure skating, and then hockey… I eventually learned to ski and even took a swing at the rodel when I was in Austria - but no amount of exposure or ‘fun’ would compare in my mind to even the simplest of summer days. I could go on forever about the mis-adventures of winter and I but in the end it all adds up to me skipping the past few Canadian winters and heading anywhere but home

I woke up long before the sun on my first morning at WhiteCap Alpine Lodge and peered out my window to a sky filled with starts and a layer of fog filling the valley floor. After a few weeks in the city the silence felt almost deafening. I crept down the stairs in the WoodHall building where I slept, out the front door and down the path toward the soft glow of the main lodge. This is where Ron, the patriarch of WhiteCap sat beside a wood burning fireplace with a fresh cup of coffee in hand, a pot on the stove. It is moments like these, quiet conversations around a fire dozens of miles from cell phone towers, cars and any other conscious human, that remind you of what is important in life. A story of a baby born on a set of stairs wrapped in newspaper, tales of children learning to ski in the backcountry and the indirect route that life (more often than not) takes.

Earlier this summer I set out to purchase a new camera - I was using an entry level camera from another brand and, although it worked fine for what I was doing, I was not reaching for it as much as I would have hoped for and my photos were not using out the way that I envisioned them. It was either time to invest in an arsenal of lenses, upgrade my camera or switch brands altogether. So I sat in front of my computer doing research and made frequent stops to my local camera store for a few weeks (and asked a handful of my friends whose advice I did not take - sorry!) and all of the paths I took left me with the Fujifilm X-T30 in hand and I could not be happier.

Two things that run through my veins: a love for the mountains and a really good cup of coffee. I have spent the past handful of years trying to find a way to leave my heavy bags of beans, grinder and aeropresse at home and find an instant coffee that I enjoy. In that time there have been some really wonderful strides in the field… and so this post was born.

This post is everything I wish I knew about visiting Havasupai before I was able to visit. After two amazing and life changing visits to this desert oasis I have compiled all of the information you need to know before going!