It's Only the Himalayas
A laugh-out-loud travel memoir that reveals backpacking’s awkward side.
Sue, a disenchanted waitress, embarks upon a year-long quest around the world with her friend, Sara—who’s exasperatingly perfect. Expecting a whimsical jaunt of self-discovery, Sue instead encounters an absurd series of misadventures that render her embarrassed, terrified, …
The Carefree Garden
What happens when a lifelong gardener finally realizes that he must collaborate with Mother Nature rather than work against her in order to achieve his dream of creating the perfect garden? In this delightful and thoughtful narrative journey of horticultural discovery, Bill Terry asks how and even why we garden, and to what end?
These are personal …
Black Tide Rising
It’s been a year since retired cop Dan Connor formed an unlikely partnership with ex-criminal Walker, to find Claire, a missing marine biologist. And it's been a year since he fell for her. Now he finally has the chance to enjoy both his retirement and the relationship as he travels up the Pacific Northwest coast of British Columbia to meet her i …
John Rae's Arctic Correspondence, 1844-1855
Although Arctic explorer and Hudson Bay Company surveyor John Rae (1813–1893) travelled and recorded the final uncharted sections of the Northwest Passage, he is best known for his controversial discovery of the fate of the lost Franklin Expedition of 1845. Based on evidence given to him by local Inuit, Rae determined that Franklin’s crew had r …
The Cariboo Trail
Agnes C. Laut’s The Cariboo Trail is a fascinating history of the Canadian gold rush that began in 1858. When, in early 1849, a group of ragged miners arrived in the sleepy town of Victoria from California, no one would have believed that a little over ten years later a gold rush would hit the Fraser River.
Between 1859 and 1871, thousands of mine …
The Discovery of a Northwest Passage
For centuries, colonial powers searched for a sea passage that would link the Arctic and Pacific Oceans. The route, known as the Northwest Passage, would cut thousands of miles from sea travel and open up commercial trade to and from Asia. There were numerous expeditions to find the passage, though none successful. It was while searching for one of …
The Arctic Journals of John Rae
Scottish doctor and explorer John Rae is a controversial figure in the history of the Arctic. He began his career with the Hudson's Bay Company as a surgeon in Moose Factory, Ontario, where he learned to survey, live off the land, and travel great distances on snowshoes. These skills served him well when, in 1846, he was charged with completing the …
The Voyage of the 'Fox' in the Arctic Seas
In 1845, Sir John Franklin set off from England to locate and chart the elusive Northwest Passage. He and his crew of 129 men never returned.
Over the following decade, forty expeditions were launched in an effort to establish the fate of the missing men. But it wasn’t until 1854 that traces of their demise were discovered along the western shore …
Those Earlier Hills
Few men have been as set on isolated adventures and as passionate about the wild landscape of Canada as R.M. Patterson. He spent over 30 years in exploration, from northern rivers such as the Nahanni and the Liard, to the foothills of the Rockies, and he recorded his discoveries in vivid words and breathtaking photographs along the way. His memorab …
Old Bones
Resting on what was left of the bench was something else, lighter in shade than the background, round, about the size of a cabbage. There were two large holes close together, a smaller pair below, then two rows of wedge-shaped objects. The pattern suddenly coalesced: in atavistic and chilling familiarity . . .
In a remote British Columbia lake, an …