Feel Good Guru

I’m throwin’ down some wild rice and wild mushrooms on a flame, dancing, clapping, lapping the warm Malibuian currents lofting three California condors, majestic, soaring, uniting the sacred, healing, finding our lost souls up here at Great Spirits Ranch, where every curve of mother earth contains divinity and water and free-flowing fruit fermenting in agave; where the air has an aura, a shimmer, vibrations of a billion butterflies bubbling drunk on life in a hilly magical place; or is it my vision or is it you or is it you and me and the nurturing nature of great spirits in synergy, all those who have come before and set themselves free from the great rock once adorned with wings… (more…)

Wildlife, natural hot springs and a signpost forest await the Alaska Highway adventurer

The retired gentleman filling up his monster RV with expensive low-grade gas at the tiny station in Toad River tipped his hat against the rain and looked me over from underneath the brim. “You having fun?” he asked skeptically.

When I replied that yes, in fact I was having a blast, he scoffed in disbelief, shook his head and walked away. I snickered into my hot chocolate and took another sip. (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…)

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…)

My dear friends Nicola and Andy built their dream home off the grid near Rice Lake about 2 hours out of Toronto. They now hold meditation workshops and teach people how to walk lightly on the planet. Their body work studio has floor-to-ceiling windows so while you practise your qigong, you can see the passing deer and occasional wolves playing in the rolling hills.

The cuisine is out of this world, and you can even spend a weekend learning how to create fabulous organic foods. Both Nicola and Andy are authors – all their books are (more…)