This is #ProjectNomad

I spend a lot of time outdoors, both in group settings and alone, and while I wouldn't say I'm a natural leader, I do have a couple of bedrock principles that I try to rely on when it comes to working with a team. I think they're worth thinking about, whether you're setting out on an adventure or just going about your day to day life. 1. Carry Your Own Weight I mean this metaphorically as well as literally. What it comes down to is this: Nobody but you is responsible for your

Every so often something happens in your life that's so perfectly-timed and apt for the occasion that it must have been scripted. (Or, I guess, it's just well-timed coincidence.) I've been thinking a lot lately about one of those such occasions. It happened about a year ago, and for a while, it stuck with me, and then I kind of forgot about it. But I guess because in some ways I haven't been feeling that I've made much progress in the last year, it's come back to me. I think

Check out the first post in this series here. I'm invariably the first person in my tent at night on any camping trip. It doesn't matter where we are, or whether we're hiking, portaging or car camping; I just really, really like being cozy in my tent at the end of a long day, with nothing to do but wrap up in my sleeping bag and relax. Lazy bastard that I am, I'm also usually the last one out of my sleeping bag in the morning. Such was the case on Day 2 of our summer portagin

"Oh, shit. Shit. It's not us, is it?" "It's us." "Shit!" I woke up to flashing blue and reds through the windshield of my friend Jason's truck. We were on the highway in the middle of nowhere, Ontario, and a provincial police officer had just lit us up as we and some hapless vacationers in a minivan pulled out to pass a slow-moving driver. We pulled over. Waited. Watched in the rearview mirror as the officer ambled up the shoulder toward us. He was a young guy. He leaned in t

I'm not sure if you've heard, but this province is burning. It's been pretty wild around here at the eco lodge. We're not and haven't been in any danger, but for much of this past month, the skies have been filled with choking amounts of smoke as other, less luckier parts of British Columbia are consumed by wildfire. First things first, we count our blessings that we've not been in any danger. There's been a fire burning about fifteen kilometres north of us, and I make it a r