MyWestworld

The Bushwhackers’ Model T

Posted on 01. Sep, 2009 by BCAA.

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Peering down at where the Model T tumbled all those years ago, I try to imagine the men’s exhaustion and panic that day. “We had nearly reached the top when, on one of the shifts, the car jumped its restraining blocks and went careening down the hill. [Then] – just as it was broadside – [it] landed in a clump of tag alder. Its weight and speed caused the trees to bend and, for a moment, we thought the car had stopped. Then, like a springboard, the trees recoiled and flipped the car up and over. It rolled sideways to the bottom.” The steering wheel, spoked wheels and windshield were smashed. No wonder the Model T was little more than a battered skeleton by trail’s end.

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The Pacific Northwest: Golf’s New Minimalism

Posted on 18. Aug, 2009 by BCAA.

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The wind is howling and there’s a chill in the air. What a great day for golf. The course is splattered with what appear to be blown-out sand dunes and there are hardly any ponds. Fantastic! The putting surfaces are a greyish green and so firm a perfectly struck six-iron bounces off the back into some sort of hay. God, could it get any better?

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Vancouver Island: Surfing the Wild Side

Posted on 28. Jul, 2009 by BCAA.

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I’m too far inside, so I paddle hard for the outside. This is easily the biggest set we’ve seen. My pulse quickens, my heart drops. I’m in the worst possible place. I redouble my efforts, taking long, deep strokes in a race to the edge of the reef. If I make it before the wave I’ll be home free. If not I’ll be pinned to the rocks.

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The N.W.T.: Rafting the Nahanni

Posted on 22. Jul, 2009 by BCAA.

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Our easy raft float downriver wouldn’t compare to Grandpop’s adventures navigating rapids in a loaded canoe, surviving sub-zero temperatures and living off the occasional kill of wild game. One of Canada’s foremost adventure writers, Raymond Murray Patterson was a legendary figure in our family. He also inspired a generation of Canadian adventurers, many of whom to this day attempt to replicate his journeys into the wild.