Woodland Woman

Trip Plans and Why You Need Them

Two men are hiking with their backs to the camera across frozen ground. The sky is blue and the landscape is red-brown with snow.

What are Trip Plans?

Trip plans let someone know the location, length, and nature of your trip in the wilderness. Should something happen to you, this information is vital for search and rescue. This is why Adventure Smart and the Search and Rescue Volunteer Association of Canada recommend that you always leave a trip plan with someone you trust. 

What’s in Them?

Departure and Return Times: Your trip plan should include your departure and return times. When you get back from your trip, one of the first things you should do is contact the person you left your trip plan with. This lets them know that you are okay and no further action is required on their part. Make sure you give them an estimate of when they will hear from you. This might differ from your return time if, for instance, you are out of service range.

Where You are Going: Your plan should include the location(s) of your trip. If you are visiting multiple locations include a breakdown of your movement for the duration of your stay. For example, if you are staying at multiple campsites list them all and what days you expect to be at each one.

What You are Doing: List what activity you are doing in the wilderness. Are you foraging, camping, canoeing, rock climbing, fishing, or doing something else? Each activity comes with its own risks and equipment needs. This information is valuable if you need help.

Equipment and Supplies: It’s a good idea to include a list of your supplies. This includes essential and activity-specific equipment. Adventure Smart recommends that you always carry these essentials: a flashlight, fire starter, whistle/mirror for signalling, food, water, extra clothing, map, compass, first aid kit, emergency shelter, pocket knife, and sun protection.

Miscellaneous Information: It can be useful to list your medications, allergies, emergency contacts, and any other important information. 

Help Making a Trip Plan

If you want help designing a trip plan, Adventure Smart has released a great app. The Adventure Smart Trip Plan app allows you to easily create, save, print, and share trip plans.

Do You Use Trip Plans?

I’d love to hear any comments or suggestions you may have for creating trip plans. In the meantime, get outside and stay safe! 🙂

Ottawa’s Beaver and Chipmunk Trails

Woman stands on a boardwalk looking out over a marsh

Lately, I’ve been exploring the smaller trails in Ottawa’s Greenbelt. Beaver and Chipmunk trails are two of my favourites. Combined this trail section is known as Trail 28 and it’s a great place to spot birds and other wildlife. 

Together Beaver and Chipmunk trails are 2.6 kilometres long. They will take you around a half-hour to complete. Making them perfect for short walks with children. The terrain is level and I’ve seen many families push strollers through this area with little difficulty.

You can access the trails from parking lot 8 on Moody Drive. At the trailhead you’ll find two outhouses, waste receptacles, a map of the area, and further trail information. Dogs are not allowed on these trails.

The trail itself is wide and composed of crushed gravel, compacted dirt, and boardwalk areas. The route is well marked at each intersection. 

When to Visit

I’ve visited Beaver and Chipmunk trails in all weather and seasons. I think the trails are most beautiful in the summer months when the trees have leafed out, the reeds have grown tall, and the summer wildflowers are in full bloom.

That being said, the trails are open year round. In the wintertime, they are beautiful after snowfall. Because they experience frequent foot traffic the snow is usually packed down enough to make them accessible. But, when the snow is at its deepest, it’s best to equip skis or snowshoes.

An advantage of visiting in the winter is seeing the non-migratory bird species that often flock together. The National Capital Commission, with the help of community members, puts up several bird feeders in the wintertime. This attracts lots of chickadees, nuthatches, cardinals, and woodpeckers. You can bring your own birdseed and feed the birds by hand.

Summer wildflowers in Ottawa's Greenbelt

What to Bring and Precautions

If you are visiting the trails in the spring and summer months it is likely that you will encounter mosquitos, black flies, deer flies, and horse flies. Some sections of the trails will be worse than others. It’s best to wear lightweight pants, a long-sleeved shirt, and a hat to protect you from bug bites. I also wear bug spray for extra protection.

If you are visiting the trail after heavy rainfall, wear a pair of boots to keep your feet dry. 

There are ticks in this area. If you stick to the trail the likelihood of encountering them is slim. Make sure to check yourself and family members whenever you hike in the Ottawa area.

Deciduous forest in Ottawa's Greenbelt

Wildlife

I said my favourite part of the trail is the wildlife. In my experience, the best times to see wildlife are in the early morning hours and around sunset. 

The Ottawa Greenbelt is home to 251 regionally rare bird species. If you’re lucky, you’ll catch a glimpse of some of these rarer birds. If not, you’re guaranteed to see nuthatches and chickadees. They will often come to you because they’re accustomed to people feeding them. 

It’s also common to see woodpeckers, cardinals, bluejays, red-winged blackbirds, herons, cedar waxwings, wild turkeys, and ducks. You can spot herons and ducks at the lookout on Beaver trail.

There are plenty of white-tailed deer around as well. In the summer months, they bed down in the wildflower field on Chipmunk trail. The does bed down in groups. It’s unlikely that you’ll see them unless you are silent and visiting early in the morning, but you’ll see plenty evidence of their presence. 

It’s also possible to see beavers. To see them, you’ll have to make a quick detour off Trail 28 at section G. There you will find another boardwalk with a lookout. I recommend you make this brief detour before heading back to the trail. It’s beautiful and another great place to see birds.

Other animals you are likely to see on the trails are rabbits, snakes, chipmunks, squirrels, and turtles.

Wildflowers

Beaver and Chipmunk trails pass through a deciduous forest. In the summertime the trees and underbrush make the forest bright green. In the fall, the trees get their spectacular autumn colours.

My favourite part of these trails are the summer wildflowers. These include St. John’s wort, yarrow, wild carrot, milkweed, vetch, purple loosestrife, prunella, daisy, clover, rose, thistle, white sweet clover, and many others. You’ll also see several species of pollinators including bees and butterflies.

Purple loosestrife grows in wetland areas at Beaver and Chipmunk Trails

Conclusion

Beaver and Chipmunk trails are great for families with small children who want a short trek outside. They are also great if you are looking to see some of Ottawa’s wildlife.

Have you visited these trails? I’d love to hear about your experience and what animals or wildflowers you’ve spotted!

Unsustainable Forestry Practices

I want to share a thoughtful quote from David Haskell’s book The Forest Unseen: A Year’s Watch in Nature. The quote illustrates our changing relationship with forests. It begins by looking at nineteenth century forestry practices and how these have changed as the demand for lumber has grown.

A river flows through an old growth forest in British Columbia

Quote from David Haskell’s The Forest Unseen

In the nineteenth century we stripped more trees from the land than the ice age accomplished in one hundred thousand years. We hacked forest down with axes and handsaws, hauling it away on mules and railcars…

Cheap oil and expensive technology have now brought us to the second phase of our relationship with the forest. No longer do we cut by hand and haul with animals or steam; gasoline engines do it all, accelerating our extraction…The forest used to burst back, prepared for the ax by millions of years of wind and fire…

Now ‘chemical suppression’ is the tool of choice…machines clear the forest, cutting then bulldozing the remaining ‘debris.’ Then the helicopters move in and rain herbicides in the remnants, forestalling a resurgence of green…All this effort is directed at preparing the land to receive a new forest, a monoculture of fast-growing trees…the resulting tree plantations look something like forests. But the diversity of birds, wildflowers, and trees is gone…

The problem with our modern forest economy lies in the unbalanced way that we extract wood from the land. Our laws and economic rules place short-term extractive gain over all other values. It does not have to be this way.

Forestry and Old-Growth Forests in Canada

This quote stuck with me because I’ve been doing research on the loss of our old-growth forests in Canada. Unsustainable forestry practices, like those mentioned above, are threatening so much biodiversity in this country.

Canada hosts 25 percent of the world’s remaining old-growth forests but unsustainable forestry is threatening what little is left. It’s now possible to imagine a world where no old-growth exist or exist only in small pockets of protected land.

When I think of old-growth forests, I imagine Vancouver Island’s towering Douglas-firs. Some of those trees are over 800 years old. I am disheartened to learn that 75 percent of those forests have been harvested and each year we lose an additional +10,000 hectares.

If no action is taken Vancouver Island could resemble our Maritime provinces where less than 1 percent of old-growth remains. But, as Haskell argues, it doesn’t have to be this way. Peter Wohlleben and other foresters have advocated for sustainable approaches to tree harvesting. More about this in a future post.

 

Outdoor Adventure Documentaries You’ll Love

In this post, I’m reviewing four of my favourite outdoor adventure documentaries; Losing Sight of Shore, Fish People, Maidentrip, and The Yukon Adventure. They’ve been a source of inspiration for me and if you are an avid outdoorsy-type then I think you’ll also enjoy them. 

Losing Sight of Shore

Losing Sight of Shore follows the epic adventure of a 4 woman team who become the first to row unsupported across the Pacific Ocean. The film is shot almost entirely by the crew in video diary entries. This format helps immerse you in the emotions that the crew are experiencing. You share in their initial excitement about the voyage, their fears and tribulations when navigating through storms, and their frustrations with various setbacks.

The film is also about female friendships and supporting one another through physical and mental exhaustion. These women learn to trust and depend on each other with their lives. There are several examples of this but one that stands out is a crew member waking up every 2-hours for her rowing shift in the dead of night while being incredibly sick. She doesn’t complain once and instead speaks to the importance of everyone pulling their weight. 

One of my favourite parts of the film is getting to see how the women prepare for the trip and their daily routines once they are aboard the boat.

  • Runtime 1h 32m
  • Directed by Sarah Moshman
  • Released April 2017
  • Available on Netflix

Fish People

As someone who grew up in a coastal community, I love Fish People for its portrayal of the diverse relationships that humans form with the sea. The documentary follows six people who recount how the ocean came to be an important part of their lives.

The  film opens with Kim Werner a free diving spearfisher from O’ahu, Hawaii. Kim learnt free diving from her father who spearfished to provide food for their family during economic hardship. She quickly surpasses her father’s skill level and seems fearless as she recounts her changing relationship with sharks. Kim, like her father, uses spearfishing to provide wholesome food for her family and community.

The film also tells the story of Lynne Cox an endurance swimmer who swam the English Chanel when she was only 16. Since that swim, Lynne has added several endurance swims to her repertoire including the Bering Straight, the Cape of Good Hope, and a swim in Antartica. Scientists have long been interested in Lynne’s ability to swim long distances in frigid waters in only a bathing suit.

I’ll let you discover the other stories for yourself. They are all unique and inspiring in their own ways. 

  • Runtime 48m
  • Directed by Keith Malloy
  • Released April 2017
  • Available on Netflix

Maidentrip

Maidentrip follows young Laura Dekker, 14, as she circumnavigates the world unassisted in her sailboat Guppy. An adventure that almost ended before it began because Holland authorities launched a custody battle against her father after they learnt of her intended trip. After winning a 10 month court battle, Laura begins her two year voyage spanning 27,000 nautical miles. She becomes the youngest person to sail the world alone.

Maidentrip is filmed predominantly by Laura herself in video diary entries. Incredibly, Laura is rarely phased by any of the obstacles thrown her way. While aspects of her personal life are often conflicted, her confidence in her ability to sail does not falter.

While the film is an excellent adventure film, it’s also a coming-of-age-story about a young girl leaving family, exploring new cultures, and pursuing a dream when few believe in you.

  • Runtime 1h 22m
  • Directed by Jillian Schlesinger
  • Released December 2013
  • Available on iTunes and YouTube

Movie posters for Maidentrip and The Yukon Assignment

The Yukon Assignment

The Yukon Assignment is about a father and son’s 500 mile canoe trip in the Yukon Territory. It’s not a film about record breaking or overcoming the odds but a humble account of backcountry travel. The film has great storytelling, amazing landscapes, wildlife encounters, and a challenging adventure.

One of the things I really enjoyed about this film is the relationship between father and son. Niall Lucas, an aging father, puts his trust in his son for planning and navigating this long trip. Meanwhile, Chris Lucas feels the pressure to create an unforgettable experience for his dad. Throughout the adventure they learn a lot about each other, about family, and Chris discusses his own excitement and fear about becoming a new dad. The banter between Chris and Niall makes you quickly grow to love the two protagonists.

Outdoor lovers will enjoy the bear encounters, struggles with mosquitoes, foraging for bilberries, battling hypothermia, challenging paddling routes, and other joys and challenges these two encounter.

  • Runtime 1h 43m
  • Directed by Chris Lucas
  • Released October 2018
  • Available on Vimeo and Prime Video

Conclusion

If you have watched any of these outdoor adventure documentaries I’d love to hear your thoughts! You can also check out my Instagram recommendations and book reviews.

 

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