Active Outside

My 1500th geocache

Apr. 27'11

triple-tasking on the run

Apr. 24'11

Four kinds of geocaches

Jan. 30'11

Polar Bear Dip 2011

Jan. 01'11

Climbing from my comfort zone

Dec.29'10

Boring Beautiful Caching

my 1500th find

posted Apr. 27'11

My 1500th cache had no view, no real challenge, nothing interesting about it all. Except it was part of a fantastic 20km hike through the woods of north western Germany.

We found 31 caches that day on a six-hour tramp around a hill called Froensberg, to the south of Iserlohn, on the western edge of Sauerland.

Fotos from Froensberg >>

triple tasking on the run

Running over a coal dump with coffee at The Slab

posted Apr. 24'11

when i think of my best all time runs, it is always the exploration runs: over the rocks and sand of clam harbour, through the fog of port-aux-basque, up and down and up and down the steps of signal hill in st. john's, along the seine in paris, into the dunes in holland.

and now, over the schurenbachhalde or coal dump in the north of essen, germany

Fotos from Schurenbachhalde >>

Four kinds of geocaches, all kinds of fun

Sun mud trees trail, run jump climb and sign

posted Jan. 30'11

Friday I found four different kinds of geocaches.

Okay not a very sexy start to this post. How about: "I spent six hours running around the woods of Germany, soaking up the sunshine, climbing trees and getting good and muddy"?

Top ten castles in Europe

from the point of view of a Canadian living in Germany

posted Jan. 25'11

Castles are everywheres in Europe.

Im starting to lose count of all the castles Ive seen here in Europe, so I've decided to crank out a list of my top ten favourite European Castles.

Castle List Intro>>

#10: Gebrochen Gutenstein

Rainy days are dreaming/ planning days

Canal skating in Holland and Horn Sledding in the Alps

posted Jan. 07'11

Foto via the Hornschlittenverein Partenkirchen (hornschlitten.de)

Unexpectedly have the day off; a wet slippery icy day off. So I skipped running on the ice in the dark this morning in favour of running on the ice this afternoon in the grey light of winter.

This morning I was catching up on some Twitter favourites and I stumbled upon some really inspiring outdoor fun in winter videos.

One is a beautiful two-minute tour of ice skating on the canals in Holland. Mesmerizing! And the others are about Horn Sledding in the Alps. This is hay wagon sledding at its wildest.

Check out some inspiring outdoor- winter video >>

Resolutions schmesolutions

saying good-bye to the disposable coffee cup and to resolutions

posted Jan. 04'11

To resolve or not to resolve? That's the question. Im usually big on the New Year's pledges. Big on making the promises. Small on following through.

I only stayed serious about one of my original traditional resolutions last year: I wanted to avoid using disposable coffee cups.

And this year?

Polar Bear Dip 2011

#16 on my list of 101 goals

posted Jan. 01'11

I believe in a Polar Bear dip. It's important to me; a way of starting the year off right.

On the run down Id been visuallizing the dip over and over again. Strip and jump. Strip and jump. I was terrified if I gave myself a second to think about it, if I hesitated, I would never do it.

Climbing out of my comfort zone

geocaching as cross training

posted Dec. 31, 2010

I climbed a bit outside my comfort zone today trying for a geocache.

This cache was only on top of a 4m concrete wall - normally too much for me. Yes Im a wimp when it comes to any exposure - that's climbing talk for when youre ass is hanging out over the void. 4m is the void in my book.

Or it was until today.

Fotos >>

Running in Old Snow

the ultimate cross-trainer

posted Dec. 30, 2010

For many people bad weather and conditions (especially snow and ice) are a reason not to run. For me, bad conditions are an added bonus.

Things do get trickier when the white stuff turns grey, gets trampled, melts a bit and refreezes into uneven, unpredictable ice.

There is no way to work on speed on this stuff, and its plain dangerous to get too tired. So I work on other things; like staying loose and well-balanced, like awareness of my stride, my joints, my centre of balance.

Q: Why? A: You got a better idea?

Hendri Coetzee, a South African kayaker, left a damn good answer behind

posted Dec. 29, 2010

Some questions have no answers. Why are we here? What are we supposed to be doing with our time on the big blue 'Quilt? Sometimes I kinda glimpse the answer and then it slips away tantalizingly...

Why am I writing this? Cause Ive been reading a few of the last blog posts of Hendri Coetzee. The South African kayaker and explorer died in early December this year when a crocodile pulled him from his kayak on the Lukuga River in Congo.

On his blog I found some poignant and inspiring answers to the question "why?".

White Christmas is great in fairy tales and movies

But not in downtown Essen

posted Dec. 28, 2010

Essen has been blessed this year with a gorgeous snowy December capped off with the much-longed for White Christmas.

I'm loving it: the blanket of white everywhere, the soft surface for running on, the quiet on the streets and in the woods. Snow to me is something different, something beautiful and something fun.

But few people here are seeing it as a blessing. The roads have been tricky since the middle of December and downright dangerous since Christmas Eve, when we got 25 cm.

Snow fotos (Germany, Dec. 2010)>>

Dont put pressure on the run

Just do it

posted Dec. 16, 2010

I dont run from or because of or for my problems. I run despite them.

I dont put pressure on my run. I dont ask it to work miracles.

I just go and do it.

10 fotos from run in First Snow Storm>>

7 fotos from Second Snow Storm>>

Once upon a time on Cape Split

an easy walk to the middle of the bay

posted Dec. 6, 2010

Cape Split is one of the coolest hikes in Nova Scotia, but it will soon be a little less cool.

A couple hours of easy strolling brings you to a incredible location, seemingly in the middle of the ocean; Cape Split is a narrow peninsula sticking 7km out into the Bay of Fundy at the mouth of the Minas Basin.

A morning run is something done

thoughts and fotos from a snowy morning in Überruhr

posted Dec. 4, 2010

One of the best things about a morning run is, right away first thing, you've done something: something for you, for your health, for your sanity, something towards your goals.

But above all, you've done something. This is not an another normal day, with nothing new, just getting up, coffee, work, commute, TV, sleep. This day you did something: you ran.

6 fotos from a snowy sunrise run >>

What I miss about Nova Scotia

Wave watching with Jony at Cape Split, Sept. 2009

posted Dec. 3, 2010

Nova Scotia, the Nova Scotia I know, is a simple place. Simple, rough, rugged and by times damn uncomfortable. But wild, untouched and so simple. Just simply gorgeous. Maybe magical if you knows where to look.

Jony, now that Jony, he knows where to look...

Watch the waves with Jony>>

Karnap to Kettwig

connecting the dots through Germany's Ruhr Pott

Nov. 25, 2010

Karnap to Kettwig; that was my goal. To bike the whole way across Essen, from the upper northeast corner to the lower southwestern tip.

(With a little side-trip to the highest hill in Oberhausen)

Just the fotos>>

thoughts about the trip>>

Close your eyes and go

squeezing on and off the subway in Germany

Nov. 19, 2010

the tram is full to busting. youre being squeezed on all sides by your fellow passengers. you cant wait to get off. the doors open to reveal a wall of people waiting to get on the tram.

and you'd love to let them on, if only they'd let you off.

but the people waiting leave no space for you to walk through. there is an expression in german:

Augen zu und durch. Close your eyes and go through.

Read about the old lady's solution>>

Goodbye Frau Krock

Nov. 15, 2010

We said good bye to a warm and lively lady on Friday.

Frau Krock, besides being an entertaining and welcoming character, had taught me a lot about the lives of ordinary Germans. Nothing startling or deep - just simple things like the rhythmn of her days, the little things she worried about, her impressions of the big world around us.

I loved dropping into the chaos of her home, where everything and everyone was whirring, and absolutely nothing stopped when a visitor walked in; I was always unceremonioulsy dragged into the dramas of the day.

The last time I saw Frau Krock, I was leaving with Heike and Frau Krock's daughter and son-in-law for a trip. We hadnt yet decided where we were going and I can think of no crazier place to try and decide than Frau Krock's living room..

Hoheward

experimenting with video: failing to capture the beauty of a regenerated coal dump

originally posted Oct. 24, 2010; updated Oct. 27, 2010

for my first attempt at a travel video, i took a walk to the top of a beautiful coal dump in the ruhr area of germany.

Im more comfortable writing and taking pictures - but its good every once in a while to try something new, to stretch your comfort zone a little. And besides, Denise pointed this contest out to me where you can win a job as a foreign correspondent for Transat Holidays; so this was my first attempt to put something together for that.

Anyway, Id be really interested to hear what yall think of this and what i can do better next time.

Hoheward

experimenting with video: failing to capture the beauty of a regenerated coal dump

originally posted Oct. 24, 2010; updated Oct. 27, 2010

for my first attempt at a travel video, i took a walk to the top of a beautiful coal dump in the ruhr area of germany.

Anyway, Id be really interested to hear what yall think of this and what i can do better next time.

The Dobson 120

Power caching through a swamp

Oct. 20, 2010

My biggest ~~day~~ weekend of geocaching was a huge drag - by the middle of the second day I was tried, wet, hungry, bored, lonely as hell and not really sure why I had done it to myself.

I was hiking alone along the Dawson Trail - 58km of swamp and marsh between Fundy National Park and Riverview New Brunswick. Along the way I picked up 120 caches, 71 of them in one day. It was pure hell.

The toughest damn paddleboat cache.

EVER. the nerdy and childish extremes of geocaching

Oct. 12, 2010

[SPOILER WARNING! DO NOT READ THIS BLOG IF YOU HAVE NOT YET FOUND STRANGE MATRIX in DUISBURGER WALD ]

On Sunday, working with a couple kids, I logged my first paddleboat cache. Strangely this was a big deal for me.

In the end on Sunday it looked like child's play, a little trip round a duckpond in an old beat up paddleboat enjoying the sunshine and fall colours. But I had actually been looking for this cache, Strange Matrix, since March, back when the ponds like this one were only just starting to melt...

Prospective Cache Paddling

a paddling adventure with simon & co

Aug. 2009 - posted Oct. 9, 2010

People here dont get it. If I showed this foto to people in Germany and said: "This is what I miss most about Canada (besides Jony)", theyd say we dress funny and totally miss the keith's in simon's hand.

An awesome weekend paddling through the islands off Nova Scotia's Atlantic coast.

Fotos and map >>

Paddling in Germany

hint: it involves beer and bratwurst

Oct. 3, 2010

After talking about it all summer, we finally got out on the water on in October. My first European canoe trip and my first drive-in canoe caches.

It felt great to be in a boat again, it felt like Canada. But there are a couple important differences when it comes to paddling in Germany...

And like every good adventure, this one is really only inspiration for the next trips...

The Cape Breton Hikes - July`09

hiking solo and hunting every cache "north of the park"

July 2009 - posted Oct. 3'10

I had a week off in early July 2009 and spent it hiking all over the northwestern tip of Cape Breton.

It all statred with a promise to help another geocacher - he had had a heart attack and couldnt maintain his cache anymore - and ended with me deciding to go after every geocache north of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park. There were at that time 31 caches.

Below are links to my blog entries and fotos from those hikes. Some of the blog entries are a longish but all of them were written with the intent of helping others get where i got to - some of the most gorgeous spots in Nova Scotia.

let me know if theyre useful or drop me an email [jriley atttttt dal dottttt ca] if youre going and have any questions. have fun out there!

POLLET'S COVE:
PART I: morning hike to the cove

PART II: crossing the Blair River and up to Blueberry Hill

PART III: Final push, finding the cache and going higher still

PART IV: Reflections on Blair River. Last morning in Pollets

All 87 fotos from Pollets 2009 and 90 fotos from Pollets 2008.

WILDERNESS AND WATERFALLS
A collection of fotos and my log entries for July 9, 2009: a day of manic hiking and geocaching in the wilds of northwestern Cape Breton.
All 67 fotos from July 9.
11 fotos of the early morning waterfalls.

HIKING TO MONEY POINT
Nova Scotia's northern lighthouse graveyard: the blog and 50 fotos or just 13 fotos of the lighthouse ruins

THE MEAT COVE HIKES
To Cape St. Lawrence and Lowland Cove plus Meat Cove mountain the blog
7 fotos of a Meat Cove sunrise
17 fotos from the hike to Lowland Cove and Cape St. Lawrence
22 fotos in and around Meat Cove

MOUNTAINS AND EASTERN COASTAL CACHES
A few short hikes at the end of the Cape Breton cache sweep the blog
Fotos of and from Sugarloaf, Nova Scotia's tallest mountain
Fotos of and from Tenerife, the other distinctive Aspy Fault mountain

Meat Cove - Cape St. Lawrence - Lowland Cove loop trail

more extreme geocaching in Cape Breton

July 10, 2009 - posted Sept. 29'10

Second Breakfast in Lowland Cove (a feast of Wild StrawBs)

The Meat Cove - Cape St. Lawrence - Lowland Cove loop is a great beginner hike with lots of rugged coastal scenery.

The three to six hour hike demands some planning and careful packing but the terrain is not overly challenging and the trails are easy to follow.

Part IV of my July 2009 quest to find every geocache north of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

Wilderness and Waterfalls

extreme geocaching in remote northern Cape Breton

July 9, 2009 - posted Sept. 24'10

A collection of fotos and my log entries for July 9, 2009: a day of manic hiking and geocaching in the wilds of northwestern Cape Breton.

At some point I had decided it would be a good idea to go after every geocache north of the Cape Breton Highlands National Park.

From Pleasant Bay, deep into the Aspy Valley, then to Bay St. Lawrence and Money Point to finally climbing a waterfall in Meat cove just before bedtime.

Hiking to Money Point

Cape Breton's most northerly Lighthouse Graveyard

July 9, 2009

Money Point is wildly gorgeous but eerie - a sort of lighthouse graveyard. Overgrown foundations, rusting machinery, crumbling walls and rotting structures litter a mile or so of grassy shore and wave-swept rock, between steep headland and endless ocean.

It's only a 6k hike but once out to the point, I felt like I was in another isolated world...

Pollets Cove

a solo hike in the hills of Cape Breton, Nova Scotia

July, 2009

PART I: morning hike to the cove

PART II: crossing the Blair River and up to Blueberry Hill

PART III: Final push, finding the cache and going higher still

PART IV: Reflections on Blair River. Last morning in Pollets

Flying Round the Ruhr

with Mike Stevens from Mülheim to Möhnesee

Sept. 9, 2010

Ive walked, ran, biked, driven, taken trains, buses, trams even been swimming and finally today i flew round the ruhrgebiet.

Before i went up, i thought it would be nice to see the ruhrgebiet from the air. now i know it is a fantastic experience - to see the land and the communities and how it is all stitched together - wow

Robert.2010

Reports from our motorhome trip round Germany and Alsace

June 2010

Robert.2010.5i
One last hair-raising scream and our European motorome adventure was over

Robert.2010.5i
Little Home on the Mosel the perfectly simple European vacation

Robert.2010.4v
Eguisheim: the France of fairy tales

Robert.2010.4iv
One Day in the Vosges: Five Castles and Endless Fun

Robert.2010.4iii
Arrive aux Trois Chateaux

Robert.2010.4ii
Hiking to Three Castles

Robert.2010.4i
Eguisheim - a castle crossroads

Robert.2010.3
Haut-Koenigsbourg - a fantastic French castle

Robert.2010.2
Marksburg - The boys first castle

Robert.2010.1
Our first day in Dozy Dausenau - Hiking and biking in a German Backwater

Photos from our trip: Rob.2010 >>
AFC Photos: Castles.2010 >>

My Daily Photo Diary updates: May 22-31...

Dear Robert (Ruhr.2010)

A series of letters to my cousin before he and his family visit the Ruhrgebiet (Germany)

May 2010

Dear Rob #22 - Lake Baldeneysee

Dear Rob #21 - Biking to the Castle Ruins (Burgaltendorf)

Dear Rob #20 - Waiting in line

Dear Rob #19 - Biking to the Steam Engine Museum (Dahlhausen)

Dear Rob #18 - Überruhr - the Intro

Dear Rob #17 - Travelling by Öffies Public Transit in Essen

Dear Rob #16 - Stinging Nettles

Dear Rob #15 - Figuring out The Zollverein

Dear Rob #14 - What not to do at the Zollverein

Dear Rob #13 - Traffic jams

Dear Rob #12 - May Day celebrations

Dear Rob #11 - Fun on a coal dump

Dear Rob #10 - Landschaftspark Duisburg Nord

Dear Rob #9 - Industrial Ruins in the Ruhrgebiet

Dear Rob #8 - Things I like about living in Europe

Dear Rob #7 - Smoking

Dear Rob #6 - Not getting Lost

Dear Rob #5 - Driving on the Autobahn

Dear Rob #4 - Parking; way harder than Driving in Germany

Dear Rob #3 - Tips for Driving in Germany

Dear Rob #2 - Ruhrgebiet East and West

Dear Rob #1 - Ruhrgebiet North and South

Dear Robert #2

East and West in the Ruhrgebiet

April 22, 2010

The second in a series of (hopefully) 31 letters preparing my cousin for his trip to visit me in Germany's (former) industrial heartland. Today: Youd probably guess its the Ruhr river that connects the Ruhrgebiet. Youd be wrong.

Read the letter >>

Dear Robert #1

North and South in the Ruhrgebiet

April 21, 2010

The first in a series of (hopefully) 31 letters preparing my cousin for his trip to visit me in Germany's (former) industrial heartland. Today: broad strokes north and south.

Read the letter >>

My Peanut Butter is coming

Emergency Health Food

April 7, 2010

When all else has failed me, the cupboards bare, my wallet empty, it has always been Peanut Butter that's carried me through. Now Im in a foreign land with a patronising attitude towards my staple food. Do I really need this fix?

7 am Starbucks wake up call

What could be tricky about teaching English in Germany?

March 26, 2010

So youre at Starbucks with a big heavy mug of coffee casually rereading the article you printed for todays class. The article you "prepared" for todays class.

Truth is youre just reading for the first time now. 20 minutes before class. What could possibly go wrong here?

Find out what went wrong here >>

Amt Adventure

German bureaucrats are really quite likeable peeps

March 16, 2010

okay heres how it works. first you go in the burgeramt and tell one lady what you want. she gives you a number. and youre supposed to sit in the waiting room and watch this screen - but buddy across the street has hacked into the screens somehow and shows the line up too. but he sells coffee and the burgeramt doesnt. where would you wait?

finally my number came up - and in i went - an incredibly cluttered little hole in the wall with three desks - one woman sitting at the middle desk smiling at me in a less than reassuring manner - and another attractive woman running back and forth between the desks, picking up random phones

Teaching the F Bomb

A few F'in resources FOUL LANGUAGE **

One of the dumb BEEEEP who pays me, he ast if we could do some BEEEEp on Beeeeeping swearing - and I couldnt see no sense in BEEEPin round - so i went straight for the motherBEEEEping F Bomb. Ka BEEEPing Boom Baby!

This heres a little sample of some re***Sources yous might find useful should you choose to follow in my brave BEEEPing footsteps - and teach the F Bomb. Ka Double BEEEPing Boom Baby!

In defence of curling and other fun

With a few indelicate comments about ski jumping

February 28, 2010

If the Vancouver Olympics have accomplished anything, they have shone a bright and rosy light on the quirky and heretofore shy, retiring and unheralded world of curling.

Here in Germany, whenever the subject turned to Olympics, without fail people made derisive comments about curling - they were all taking for granted that everyone found the game ridiculous.

The great snow storm dilemma

How to get the most from a snowday

January 30, 2010

I can never decide on the best way to enjoy a big snow storm. How do I get the most out of this once in a lifetime meteorological phenomenon? Where other people see a hassle and annoyance, a nuisance and discomfort, i see endless possibilties for bliss...

'Quilt Patches

White Christmas in Essen

Snow Chaos

Dec. 28'10

Close your eyes and go

German subway fun

Nov. 19'10

Goodbye Frau Krock

Nov. 15'10

When I go on vacation... (video)

Nov. 8'10

The One-Minute Tour of Zollverein (video)

Nov. 8'10

Bikes vs cars: wah wah wah

Nov. 2'10

Nordstern: post-industrial nature

Nov. 1'10

Getting a German library card

Oct. 28'10

Getting through the subway like a superhero

Oct. 16'10

Taxing smokers instead of smokestacks

Oct. 3'10

What does 'ceive' mean? (Word nerd)

Sept.9'11

Flying round the Ruhr

Sept.9'10

Guilt free at Mickey Dee: thanks to the Nürnburger

Sept.3'10

Notes from The Haag and its fantastic beaches

Aug. 29'10

My cousins visit made the paper Rob.2010

Aug. 28'10

Early Morning on the Mosel (foto)

Aug. 12'10

Bodybag, chilly: words that dont mean what we think they do...

Aug. 9'10

Hobo Grammar: living in the present continuous

Jul. 29'10

Shane McGowan on Music and Not Getting Paid (quote)

Jul. 22'10

My Daily Foto Diary
on flickr >> just the fotos<<

Voter fatigue is for wimps

Things I'll miss about Germany #3:
Grillen (Barbecuing old skool)

Voting from Germany

more Quilt patches

Voter fatigue is for real wimps

Get out and vote!

posted Apr. 15'11

I've never really understood voter fatigue. I could understand, say, snow shovelling fatigue or even lawn-mowing fatigue.

Honestly, how hard is it to swing by the local community centre or hockey rink and make an x on a piece of paper?

Things I'm going to miss about Germany #3:

Grillen (Barbecuing old skool)

posted Apr. 14'11

Barbecuing is alive and well in Germany. Real old-fashioned charcoal briquet barbecuing. "Call the whole gang, we're having a party" kind of barbecuing.

Germans are often criticized for being slow to change but in this case they should be applauded: barbecuing here is a real event.

Voting from Germany:

Quick and painless.

posted Apr. 13'11

I like voting - it's always an adventure. This year a little more than usual. I had to vote from Germany.

I was afraid it would be complicated and take a bit of time to get registered, receive my ballot and get it back to Canada.

But even if you're like me and tend to procrastinate, it is still super easy.

Things I'll Miss about Germany

updated Apr. 14'11

#1: warm rolls
#2: people watching
#3: Grillen (Barbecuing old skool)

Things I'm looking forward to in Canada

posted Apr. 13'11

#1: lumberjack breakfast from truckstop
#2 and #3: less bombs

things im looking forward to in canada

#1. lumberjack breakfast from the truck stop

posted Mar. 29'11

i cant wait for my first real canadian breakfast.

I cant remember the last time i slid into a vinyl booth with a formica table and ordered a Lumberjack Breakfast. A couple fried eggs, a pile of bacon, hash browns, four slices of toast and jam and coffee coffee coffee.

Things I'll Miss about Germany

#1 Warm Rolls from the Gas Station

posted Mar. 27'11

germans are always complaining about our soft white north american bread.

however (what i am about to write could have me deported) their favourite bread is also white and fluffy. im talking about brötchen.

you can buy rolls everywhere. in every german suburb, there must be four bars, two flower shops, a driving lesson headquarters and 12 places to buy brötchen.

we get ours at the gas station.

European adventures

My fav EUROPEAN CASTLES

what I'll miss in Germany

what I love about Canada

The Crazies

the story behind the stories

March 7, 2010

my son and his uncles were up drinking and playing guitar recently and recorded a new version of an old song of mine. The Crazies is based on a series of encounters i had with some... uh... yeah... crazy people.

the recording starts with the boys wondering about when the song was written. so i set to work and wrote down the story of the song as i remember it...

"Oh yeah, the Olympics."

German Olympic coverage not helping my homesickness

February 27, 2010

day after day after day the germans are showing ski jumping. what is there to say? amazing and boring as hell at the same time. and when it's not ski jumping, it's biathalon.

Karneval in Dusseldorf - lots of colourful fotos

What's more fun than dressing up like a clown, getting drunk and catching candy?

February 16, 2010

Finally I have some idea what the German Karneval is all about. Ive been hearing about it for years and had some vague ideas about the whys and wherefores. But not til yesterday, when I finally got dressed up in a ridiculous clown costume, buzzed up on Alt bier, and wound up by crowds of drunk screaming Germans, did I really get it.