The Summer List - eastern Canada
Ways to have more fun in Canada's hottest season
Ryan Stuart & James Little Featured in our August 2009 issue.
Here are just a few of our picks for places and events you've got to see out there this summer.
Watch the fastest paddlers
The world’s best flatwater canoeists and kayakers will be in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, August 12 to 16, for the Canoe Sprint World Championships, the largest international sporting event ever held in Atlantic Canada. An estimated 100,000 spectators from all over the world will converge on Lake Banook as flatwater stars from 75 countries, including Olympian Adam van Koeverden, duke it out for bragging rights.
See a wild black bear
Richard and Vivianne Gognen—the operators of Little, Big Bear Safari—can almost guarantee a black bear sighting on their property near Acadieville, New Brunswick. From the safety of a viewing stand, visitors typically see two to 10 wild black bears in a two-hour stay. Richard, also known as the Bear Whisperer, puts small amounts of bait out to attract the bears, including one female and her cubs that he rescued. ($45/adult, $100/family)
Howl with the wolves
There’s nothing like hearing a wolf howl, and there’s no place where you’re more likely to hear one than in Ontario’s Algonquin Park on one of the park’s weekly wolf howling nights. Every Thursday until Labour Day, wolves permitting, visitors follow a naturalist to the most promising area in the park where they call to wild wolves in the hopes of a reply.
Canoe the Bloodvein River
Tumbling from the wilderness of northwestern Ontario to Lake Winnipeg, the Bloodvein, a Canadian Heritage River, is one of the top wilderness whitewater trips in southern Canada. The last 200 kilometres—covered in 14 days of paddling on a trip run by Blackfeather—are remote and unspoiled, and contain the best whitewater. Pool-drop rapids and warm water make the river a canoeist’s dream. ($2,995)
Sleep in a lighthouse
You won’t actually be responsible for keeping the light on, but you’ll still feel like a lighthouse keeper when staying at P.E.I.’s West Point Lighthouse Inn. Looking out over Northumberland Strait, the island’s first lighthouse was manned from 1875 until it was automated in 1963. Since then the wooden lighthouse and outbuildings have been converted into a restaurant and nine B&B style rooms. The most popular room, the Tower, is in the old lighthouse. (From $110 )
Take a bike and boat tour
What happens when you combine a cycling trip with a boat cruise? You end up with the Du Roy Tour from Latitude 45 Nord. During this six-day tour from Montreal to Quebec City, you pedal about 70 kilometres a day along the St. Lawrence River, stopping at historic sites, parks and quaint villages along the way. When you reach the day’s destination, you climb aboard the awaiting 75-foot cruise boat for a gourmet meal, showers and a comfortable bed. ($1,995)
This is just a taste of what's out there. Check out all 100 destinations and activities on our 2009 Summer List in the August '09 issue of explore.
Originally published in explore magazine. Copyright © 2010 by explore. All rights reserved. Reproduction of any article, photograph, or artwork, for other than personal use, in whole or in part, without the written permission of the publisher is strictly forbidden.
