In our post-pandemic world, it’s hard to find any Calgary lunch stop offering a worthy meal for less than $10. But here goes, starting with To Me Vietnamese Submarine, a little drive-through kiosk on Calgary’s busy Macleod Trail. In three years, prices have shot up from $6 to $9, but it’s still a bargain for a honking big, scrumptious chicken sate sub, delivered in two minutes and polished off almost as fast in the parking lot.
My new backpacking guidebook, hot off the Amazon press
After six-plus years, several thousand kilometres on foot and countless hours chained to a computer keyboard, I’ve finally finished my latest (last?) guidebook, Best Backpacks in the Canadian Rockies.
Random camping, Stone Mountain Provincial Park, northern B.C.
The book provides all the information you need to plan for and undertake more than 50 gorgeous backpacking trips, mostly in the Canadian Rockies. They range from world-famous classics—like Jasper National Park’s Skyline Trail and Kootenay’s Rockwall—to those no one’s heard of, like southern Alberta’s Cabin Ridge or Banff’s Sawback Range Loop. They range from one-night trips, especially for families and novices, to week-long treks featuring long stretches of trailless travel. They range, geographically, from the Montana border to northern British Columbia, where the Rockies’ peters out.
Window Mountain Lake, High Rock Trail, southern Rockies
So why this book? After completing the summitting of all the 50-plus 11,000-foot peaks in the Canadian Rockies (and writing a history and guidebook of those 11,000ers), I found myself doing more and more backpacking and far less mountaineering. The good news is the backpacks took me through equally spectacular terrain, without the toil and exposure to loose rock and receding glaciers of going up big peaks.
Opal Range Traverse, Kananaskis Country
The other reasons for embracing backpacking are tied to two trends. One is the widespread availability of lightweight gear (tents, sleeping bags, packs… you name it), that sheds some 10 pounds off the load you’re carrying and puts a spring in your step, even on a week-long journey.
The other trend (partly tied to this lightweight revolution), is the booming popularity of long-distance treks like the American Appalachian and Pacific Crest Trails and the Alberta-B.C. Great Divide Trail, which take months to organize and complete. Which got me thinking: Why not divert some of that long-distance focus to the multitude of gorgeous, much shorter trips in our mountain backyards? Especially the many trips that don’t require booking six months in advance; just show up and go.
Monkman Trail, northern B.C.
I’m probably most proud of the routes in this book that are off the beaten path— in places like the southern Rockies, including Alberta’s magnificent Kananaskis Country, and northern B.C.’s Monkman and Stone Mountain Provincial Parks.
Incredible line of hoodoos, Wokkpash Circuit, northern B.C.
Will a more detailed description of such places make them more crowded? Perhaps. But I like to think we need as many enthusiastic backpackers as we can to advocate for preserving these special landscapes.
And I believe some marvelous destinations will never attract much attention. Like an off-piste trip this summer, one valley removed from a popular highway, where we saw one other group in two days.
Panther Lake, Sawback Range Loop, Banff National Park
Best Backpacks in the Canadian Rockies is self-published and is available online through Amazon.ca (paperback) and Kindle, Apple Books and Kobo (all ebooks).
Places that lack the brand-name recognition of much bigger players. Places that might have a few tables/seats or none at all, where delivery or pickup may be your only options. But places that put a premium on quality and freshness, where the “best-before” date is definitely not six vacuum-packed months down the road.
I obviously have a few busy months of sampling ahead of me. But in the meantime, I keep going back to Devil’s Head Coffee, which ticks all my boxes.
First and foremost is the excellent quality of the coffee, featuring a dozen single-origin and custom-blended beans from farms and co-ops around the world. Those beans are small-batch roasted several days a week.
Roasted on the 21st, delivered on the 25th
And Devil’s Head does what every coffee roaster should do but usually doesn’t: print the roast date right on the bags. That way you know the coffee is fresh—a critical consideration given coffee is at its tasting peak for only about a week.
I’ve been to the roastery only once (they have a little coffee bar), which is way down in industrial southeast Calgary. No matter. They deliver to every part of the city at least once a week, and it’s free if your order is $35 or more.
If I time it right, the coffee beans arrive a couple of days after I order them. And yesterday set a record; I ordered in the morning and had a parcel on my doorstep that afternoon. Beat that Amazon!
Like everything, prices have gone up a bit and now stand at about $22 or $23. But that’s for a full pound, not the three quarters or less you often see. So I figure it’s good value, especially considering the free delivery.
A couple of other things I like. If you’re shopping in person, you can bring your own bean containers and receive a discount… and reduce waste. And as a former mountaineer, I appreciate the owners’ (Chris and Tanis) climbing background in the company’s name (a recognizable peak in the Ghost Valley) and the bean offerings.
Devil’s Head Coffee Bay 5, 5700 Barlow Trail SE, Calgary Monday to Thursday 9 am-5 pm, Friday 9 am-4 pm. Closed weekends. 403-561-8274
This black-as-night imperial coffee stout is my fave beer of 2022
You just can’t beat serendipity.
So, we’re in Canmore’s Angry Bear Growlers, sampling a healthy number of the 60-odd, mostly regional, beers on tap and having a grand time with our pourer, Euan.
Euan poured us multiple samples at Angry Bear Growlers in Canmore
In walks a sales rep from nearby Canmore Brewing Company to replace a spent cask. He happens to mention a new beer the brewery and Lacombe’s Blindman Brewing have concocted. It’s an imperial coffee stout—three magical words to my ears—so it takes no convincing for us to toddle a few blocks over to the brewery to pick up a four pack.
Blindman Brewing in Lacombe, Alberta is a partner in this mad concoction
It’s called Brewers’ Breakfast and, should you heed the morning admonition, this oat-laced stout has got enough wallop to propel you out the door or back to bed, your choice.
Not surprisingly, it’s labelled a “strong beer”, weighing in at 8.5% alcohol. In the brewers’ words, it contains a “truckload of roasty, toasty and chocolatey malts from Red Shed Malting (Red Deer County) and an overzealous dose of freshly roasted Mocha Java coffee from Eclipse Coffee Roasters” (Canmore).
I might call it a thick sweater to coat and roll around your tongue on a frosty winter’s day, when the long nights are as black as this brew. Indeed, late in December, I think I’ve found my beer of the year for 2022.
If you fancy a brew with full-on intensity, you might want to pick some Brewers’ Breakfast up while this seasonal ale is in stock.
Angry Bear is happy to seal anything on tap in cans for takeway
Canmore Brewing Company 1460 Railway Avenue, Canmore, Alberta Taproom opens at 1 pm daily except closed Tuesday 403-678-2337
Angry Bear Growlers 105, 304 Old Canmore Road, Canmore Opens at 3 pm daily except closed Monday 403-675-9910 Note: Besides growler sales, Angry Bear will seal any beer on tap in 16-ounce cans.
If you’re looking for a great, locally produced and locally focused Christmas gift, may I humbly suggest my Day Trips From Calgary book, just out in its fourth edition.
Why? It unveils nearly 100 things you can see and do on day trips within a two-hour drive of Calgary. They range from visits to world-class museums (like Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump) to nearby picnics (Big Hill Springs Provincial Park). From native-grass walks (the Whaleback) to scenic drives through prairies, foothills, mountains and badlands.
The Whaleback in southwest Alberta
Did I mention these are day trips, where you can just hop in the car and discover all the great landscapes of southern and central Alberta… and be home in time for dinner?
In other words, no horrors of airports, flying or wondering about the maskless coughing of a seatmate? Or, if you’re driving stateside, about lines at customs and dollars that cost nearly $1.40 Canadian.
Blackfoot Crossing Historical Park in eastern Alberta
Did I also mention it’s expensive to travel internationally these days, whether it’s flights, hotels or car rentals (yikes!). On a day trip from Calgary, your primary cost is gasoline, which has recently come down to under $1.30 per litre.
So why do you need my book? Well, it’s been in print since 1995 and sold more than 60,000 copies, so at least some folks think it’s worth keeping in their glovebox. It’s got a ton of trip ideas and enough detail to provide a rather complete natural and human history of Alberta, from the Crowsnest Pass north to Wetaskiwin, from Dinosaur Provincial Park to Lake Louise.
Historic Flat Iron building in Lacombe
Plus, in this edition, there’s a fairly comprehensive list of good, affordable eats and drinks in cities, towns, hamlets and roving food trucks (You knew there had to be a tie-in to Marathon Mouth). The photos are mostly new and better; thank you iPhone Pro.
Fabulous Homestead Bakeshop in Fort Macleod
It all adds up to nearly 400 door-stopping pages, for a steal-of-a-deal price of about $25.
Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park
Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park in central Alberta
Marathon Mouth 