Feel Good Guru

I put the question out to my friends on facebook and twitter what their idea of the ultimate adventure is. The responses I received were as unique as the individuals.

One guy wants to go extreme skiing after a fresh snowfall in the Alps, someone else fantasized about riding a zip line through a forest canopy in Costa Rica. One woman answered “whatever scares me.” Someone else said “It helps to have a tank of gas.” And two women insisted that their lives, every single day, are an adventure! (more…)

Meet me in Big Sur on the ledge of the earth on the edge of the razor on the verge of crazy in the pillow clouds where time means nothing and Sea Foam Green is a swirling reality not a Ralph Lauren paint color.

Meet me in Big Sur where ragged rocks threaten like menacing bladed soldiers and protect like a sharp barnacled cliff wall billions of tides strong; where California condors soar over ancient redwood spears on the spicy eucalyptus wind that comes cold and furious like a sea-chilled gale, then suddenly bows soft on your face with a scented kiss of sunwarmth peeled from a thermal layer ridden by a solitary (more…)

Yes, it’s happened to me as it’s happened to many who’ve dared stray from their urban comforts to venture this far north. I’ve been struck by the Spell of the Yukon. It doesn’t hurt, but it does nag at you once you’re back in the car-honking, people-elbowing, lung-congesting city. And each year, when the days grow long and I think of the midnight sun, low on the endless Yukon horizon, casting purple-hued shadows across the silent land…well, I get itchy feet. You know the feeling.

Three seasons in a row, I’ve ridden solo up the Alaska Highway on my trusty Buell, (more…)

George Van Tassel built this in the 50′s and 60′s as a chamber of “rejuvenation and time travel,” describing it as “a machine, a high-voltage electrostatic generator that would supply a broad range of frequencies to recharge the cell structure.”

Now, at this local landmark near Joshua Tree, you can relax in the Integratron with a “Sound Bath” administered by one of three sisters who bought the building fulfilling a dream to live in the desert. Joanne Karl, a former nurse and cardiac researcher from the Hamptons, says “there’s more space between the molecules out here.” (more…)

If you’re vegetarian and you’re looking for a Caribbean vacation, look no further than The Lodge in Grenada. My partner, Ron and I had the incredible privilege of being Mary and Mark’s very first honored Canadian guests back in the winter of 2004 shortly after they had opened for business, and ever since, we’ve been looking for an excuse to return. For the short time we were there, I thought I’d died and gone to vegan heaven.

The Lodge in Grenada is the only exclusively vegetarian accommodation in the Caribbean. It’s also one of the most magnificent places I’ve ever been in my life. (more…)

You can’t get much further off the grid than the Dawson City River Hostel.

Dieter Reinmuth, an avid outdoorsman, photographer, guide book author and world traveller who settled in the Yukon 20 years ago to make his living panning for gold, built this funky off-the-grid retreat as an ode to fellow explorers who arrive from all over the globe seeking adventure and a genuine Klondike experience.

This place of rustic luxury is one of my favourite secret getaways in the far north. The bath house, pictured above, is a not-to-be-missed ritual. I make a point of (more…)

Some places are blissfully far enough away to keep the masses away, although from May to September hundreds of people per day pass through Liard Hotsprings, 495 miles up the Alaska Highway.

For some, this is a stopover, a resting spot en route to Alaska or the Yukon from southern BC and elsewhere. For me, it’s a destination unto itself worthy of a road trip from L.A. or Toronto. I could (and have) soaked for days in the 45-degree mineral waters of Alpha pool getting warm to the bone after a long cold ride up the remote Alaska Highway. (more…)