I really want to go to Canada. This is a shame now of all times, because of Covid (this has caused Canada and many other countries to close their borders). While last summer for me would have been opportune, I can always hope for this upcoming year. But what exactly do I want to do up north?

For one, I am an avid mountain biker. I’ve been on two wheels almost my entire life, learning to ride a bike at 4 and learning to ride a  dirt bike at 5. It’s always been a passion of mine because there’s no real limit to the sport and it’s always a great exercise. You can find something close to that limit, however, northwest in British Columbia, at a resort named Whistler Mountain. In the winter, it is most commonly a ski and snowboard resort, but in the warm weather they turn it into a mountain biking paradise. At 7,000 feet of elevation, you and your bike get taken to the top (whichever peak you prefer) and get to bike down, so its all fun and no work. As far as difficulty, Whistler provides. Even if you only recall riding a bike from your early youth, you can even rent a bike and putz around on the green trails and have a fun time doing it. For more experienced riders like myself, they have both challenging single track (a narrow and technical riding style) or wide open, flowing dirt jump trails. My goal is to one day ride A-Line top to bottom – 1.5 miles of heart pumping slopestyle, 50 jumps in total. That is of course, spending a couple days riding the rest of the park.

While mountain biking for me is certainly enough to warrant a 20 hour car ride, there’s plenty of other things I would enjoy while I was up there. Fishing, for instance, is another one of my passions, as you can find fishermen (and fish) almost everywhere.  On a previous trip I took a couple of years with some good buddies, we canoed up in the boundary waters between the US and Canada. I of course brought a fishing pole, as these are some of the most untouched waters on the planet. I had an amazing time canoeing, camping, hanging out, and catching some butterball bass. Right now, however, in the winter season, is when salmon come to spawn in rivers all over the place. While some species (coho being the most popular) can be caught in Lake Michigan around the Chicago area, many more types come to spawn in Canada and in many more numbers. I don’t have a specific idea of where I would go, but if you can find a river that feeds into a large lake, you can likely find some 20 pound giants to take home.

Among other things, Canada also offers amazing scenery with mountains, something I would likely take advantage of and go on some long hikes. Being mountainous in places, this often leads to curvy roads – roads which (i have heard) are extremely fun to ride on motorcycles which would be a whole other trip on its own, but I don’t think Canada is going anywhere soon, so I can wait. Even if eagerly.