WRITING

A SOLO TRAVELER DRIVES THE ICEFIELDS PARKWAY IN ALBERTA

I stop to pick up maps and a park pass at Jasper’s information center. “How many in your party?” asks the woman behind the desk. The question throws me, until I realize a tour bus is offloading right behind me. “Just me,” I say, “it’s not much of a party.” She smiles and says, “I also like hiking alone; it’s so empowering.” When I’ve stumbled through the darkness with a dying headlamp, hoping not to run into a brown bear, “empowering” was not the term that came to mind. I decide it’s better that I don’t say this out loud.

…

Mountaineering in the Canadian Rockies

There’s a photo of my family hiking when I was 2. My parents are beaming, and I’m strapped into a baby carrier on my dad’s back, looking even more miserable than our cat would in similar circumstances. After being released from that carrier, my stubborn 2-year-old self swore off camping and hiking for life, a decision that took me 20 years to reverse. Finally, after a summer hiking in New Zealand’s Southern Alps, I realized — as many of us do eventually — that my parents had been right all along.

And so began my love affair with mountains and Type Two Fun.

A MOTHER-DAUGHTER ROAD TRIP ON THE PACIFIC MARINE CIRCLE ROUTE

I arrived home less than a week ago, and already the restless feeling that causes me to check flights to far-flung places has returned. It’s February in Victoria, Canada, and while an explosion of cherry blossoms makes it clear that the city is ready for spring to start, snow clings to shadowy corners, and the thermometer hovers persistently around the freezing mark.

The frigid winters make me question why my mother — a world traveler who piloted a small plane across the country and home-schooled a 9-year-old as we sailed around the world for four years — decided to put down roots in Victoria.