Yes, the new season is almost upon us and I’m ready to actually follow through on the “we should hike and / or camp more this summer” we say every year.I don’t see it happening every weekend, but I need to get out and see more stuff like this on a regular basis:

I’ve got myself some fancy collapsible trekking poles which should help distribute the load off my older than they should be knees and ankles. Also, for the first time in a number of years I’ve actually bought myself some real honest to goodness hiking boots.

I tried on a half doezen styles at MEC and I’m a sucker for their “we will take anything back” policy, so I didn’t go to a number of different stores to try before I bought. These were wide enough for my feet and, while a little stiff out of the box, I got the sense these would offer a ton of support to my ankles once they were broken in. More expensive ones were either too narrow or didn’t feel the same on my feet (read this as lighter but also felt cheap in the quality department).

I’ll do some trial wearing around the house for a few days but from all I’ve read in the comments section I don’t think I made a bad choice.

Also, to supplement my two K-country hiking books I purchased two more called “Where locals Hike” that covers some of what they consider to be the better K- country hikes (and has many color photos to lure you out to the mountains) and “Don’t waste your time in the Canadian Rockies” that covers most of the major national parks within reasonable driving distance from Calgary, and rates the hikes based on the opinion of the authors, steering you away from boring slogs and towards hikes with a better payoff for your efforts.

sooo… who wants to go hiking?