Hello Reader,

Happy long weekend and welcome to September! You don't need me to say autumn is coming up - I'm sure your social media feeds are already getting bombarded by influencers' photos of larch trees and pumpkin lattes (at least mine sure is).

But September 1st is not autumn and we still have a few more weeks of the non-winter camping season, so hopefully you can make the most out of it before it's gone!

And without further ado, here is the August Round Up!

Mikaela Updates

It's been one month of (f)unemployment and it's only now just sinking in that I actually left my job. If I'm being honest, I do miss it - well, aspects of it. Mostly the people - my coworkers, managers and clients are all wonderful and I miss working with them.

But being on an adventure definitely helps. If you've been following me on Instagram, you'd have seen that I've been in Europe with friends and family for the last 2+ weeks.

Madeira, Portugal

Madeira, also known as the Hawaii of Europe, has completely exceeded all my expectations. There's great hiking, ocean swimming, beautiful little towns, and incredible food - and it's all within a 1-hour drive of the island's center. As a Canadian used to driving 1 hour and being... still in Toronto... the proximity of so many different landscapes astounds me. Here are some of my favourite parts.

Scotland, United Kingdom

I typically share photos / videos on social media a few days after I take them (not very "insta" of me, I know). So the internet still thinks I'm in Portugal. But here's a little sneak peak of where I'm at now: Scotland!

According to my brother's Ancestory.com results and my grandpa's meticulously researched family tree, my family and I come from Scotland (the southern part of the Highlands, if I've got my geography right). We're spending almost two weeks here exploring this beautiful country and a wee bit of our heritage.

So far we've visited Glasgow and Edinburgh. Glasgow was nice, but man oh man, I love Edinburgh. This city is so old. I keep stopping to photograph what looks to be the most incredible building I've ever seen, only to learn it's a completely unimportant building no one cares about and the next block has the important ones.

Announcements

Giveaway Coming Up!

I have a giveaway planned to start September 15th, so keep an eye on your inbox for that. The prize is pretty great, if I do say so myself!

Featured Routes Preview!!

This is the new feature I've been most excited about in a really long time. I've been adding the routes from trip reports as "Featured Routes" to the Route Builder, so you can now:

1. Filter featured routes by access point, duration, distance and difficulty
2. See a preview of where the route goes
3. See a pop up overview of the route, with an option to go to the trip report or select the route to start customizing it for your own trip

There are still only ~60 featured routes, but imagine how cool this will be when there are hundreds. It'll make it so easy to find new routes and quickly determine if you're interested in them or not.

If you have a feature request, send me an email. Seriously! I get at least one email each week asking for a new feature or improvement and I implement pretty much all of them. That's how we got the "Add Marker" feature, for example.

More Destinations on the Route Planner

If you've been using the Route Planner this month, you may have seen some new destinations pop up. The main one I've added is "Canadian Rockies" - basically, all of the provincial and national parks along the BC / Alberta border. It's still a work in progress, but Banff is looking really good.

Admittedly, these additional destinations get done when I need a break from Wabakimi and Quetico. Those two places are the highest on my to-do list, but they take so long and require so much focused attention that I take breaks to do smaller destinations.

If there's a destination you want covered before next season, let me know.

New Blog Post: Nahanni River - Guided vs Unguided (Logistics and Financial Breakdown)

My latest Nahanni River blog post is a comparison of doing the river guided vs unguided. My dad and I spent a lot of time planning this trip, but very quickly realized a self-guided trip was outside our comfort zone for numerous reasons. Thus, we did the trip guided by Black Feather.

In the blog post, I walk through all of the considerations I make when deciding whether to work with an outfitter, like:

• Logistics
• Number of people in my group
• Wilderness medicine and whitewater experience in my group
• Cost

In the blog post, I've also done a cost comparison of planning a northern river canoe trip, which may be a helpful section to read through if you're planning a trip anywhere in the north. I hope you like the post!

Latest Trip Reports

Here are the new trip reports that were published this month!

• ​Restoule Provincial Park: Stormy Lake to French River Loop​
• ​Banff National Park: Sunshine Village to Egypt Lake, Pharaoh Peak and the Sphinx​
• ​Snake River: Duo Lake to Taco Bar (Peel River)​
• ​White River National Forest: Conundrum Hot Springs​
• ​North Coast Trail Cape Sutil – San Josef Bay​
• ​Great Divide Trail: Section C – Boulton Creek / Peter Lougheed Provincial Park to Field​

I've got a TON of my trip reports in the queue to be published, but I've been a little slower in getting them reviewed, fact-checked and scheduled while in Europe. We're at 196 though, so by the end of the month we will have crossed the 200 mark!

I usually always ask for Trip Report submissions in this email, but today I'm not going to as I think it would be in your best interest to wait 15 days... hmmm... what could that mean? 🤷🏻‍♀️

Okay, that is all for now. As always, thank you so much for your continued support. I hope to use this time off to create resources you find helpful and add a little sunshine to the outdoor community.

Happy adventuring,

Mikaela