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Carol Patterson

INSPIRING EVERYDAY EXPLORERS Through wildlife tales and trails

Carol Patterson

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Seeing Without Sharing at Petroglyphs Provincial Park

September 8, 2015 by CarolPatterson 1 Comment

Petroglyphs Provincial ParkPhilosopher George Berkeley asked, “If a tree falls in the forest, and no one hears it, does it make a sound?” What if you went to a tourist attraction that allowed no photos? Could you still enjoy it without a selfie or photographic proof for your Facebook feed? I faced that dilemma at Petroglyphs Provincial Park, 55 kilometers northeast of Peterborough.
Six to 11 centuries ago – an era when the Vikings were first arriving in North America – aboriginal people were carving images for ceremonial or spiritual reasons into white marble rock of the Canadian Shield. These 900 rock carvings are now known as Kinomaage waapkong or ‘the rocks that teach’ and the largest known single concentration of Aboriginal rock art in Canada.

They lay undiscovered until 1954 when three prospectors stumbled onto the carvings of people, snakes, turtles & other creatures, and told a newspaper. By 1967 there were the same number of annual visitors as today – approximately 12,000 – but no protection. Some tourists wanted to share the glory and carved their initials into the stones; experts feared even the best behaved visitors would wear away carvings with their footsteps.

In 1976 a provincial park was created and in 1984 a glass-sided building erected over the petroglyphs. Now a visitor enters via the Learning Place (Visitor Center) before walking three hundred meters to the ‘glyphs’ while putting their cameras away.

First Nations “believe drawings are a spiritual being and taking a picture diminishes its spirituality,” explained Park Superintendent, Andy Nicholson. Park Warden, P.J. Fife is Mississauga Ojibway and has worked at the park for eight summers.

Curve Lake First Nations is closest to Petroglyphs Provincial Park and shares management of the site. “These carvings aren’t just a place to see, it’s a spiritual place, sort of like a church,” said Fife, in a rapid-fire explanation, pointing to an interpretive sign in English, French and Ojibway. “Ojibway is not traditionally a written language but that’s changed in the last fifty years.”

So could I change? My first instinct at seeing a special place was to whip out my smartphone for an Instagram photo. The Algonquin speakers who carved here had an oral tradition, sharing knowledge through storytelling. I belong to a somewhat narcissistic culture, sharing fleeting impressions through selfies and Facebook posts. Without a picture how could I convey this special place? Would anyone know I’d been here?

“You should take your pictures in here,” suggested Ojibway Russell Dokis as he greeted me at the Learning Centre, pointing to his head. “If we see people enter the building with a large camera,” Nicolson explains,” we can ask them not to take pictures. There can be some tension there.” Added Fife, “We stress the spiritual aspect and get people to reflect on that. There are some First Nation’s people who don’t think we should have the site as a tourist attraction, so people are lucky to see them.”

I had to agree. Pointing to a carving with a small person linked to a bigger person by a snake, Fife suggested it could depict a young man becoming an old man. “The large triangle over the larger man’s head could be a hat or it could depict the knowledge gained.”

Perhaps I too was gaining knowledge. Stripped of my social media lifeline, I was relying on my senses to capture this experience, but I was pretty sure that even without a camera, I would not forget my time here.

TWEETABLES

Seeing @PetroglyphsPP Without Sharing via @Reinventure . Click To Tweet.

Could you enjoy a tourist attraction that allowed no photos? Click To Tweet.

Is Seeing Believing If You Can’t Take Photos? Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Ontario Tagged With: adventure travel, ontario, Petroglyphs Provincial Park, reinventure, think like an explorer, travel ontario

Do I need an assistant?

July 16, 2015 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

I get that question a lot when I announce I’m off to another exotic or warm-weather destination. Sure these media trips sound wonderful when discussed over the water cooler or space age coffee maker. But the reality is a lot less glamorous. Visiting Puerto Vallarta for a media conference is fun.
Getting there is not. A 6:30 am flight means arriving at the airport at 4am, which means leaving for the airport at 3:30, which means getting up at… starting to feel tired yet?

After too few hours horizontal I get to half undress for the lovely people at security. Selected for a random intensive search I remove the Kleenex from my pocket and assume ‘the position’. The monitor shows a big danger area over my chest. The agent suggests I turn my necklace around. I pass and start my search for breakfast. A gazillion calorie fat-fest of eggs, cheese and bacon on a croissant or a sugar-laden donut – healthy nutrition is nowhere to be seen at 4:30am.

I luck out on my first flight and get a full row of seats to myself. This is like getting triple cherries on the slots at Vegas and I snatch two hours of sleep. How I managed to score a 20 hour milk-run to Puerto Vallarta boggles my mind but I dutifully head to the gate for my next leg – a flight to Mexico City. I try not to groan as a mob of happy people load onto a direct flight to Puerto Vallarta at the next gate. They will be on the beach before I get into the air for my last leg into PV.

After hurrying over to the gate for a passport check it appears something is amiss. Or perhaps missing.  The ground attendants look forlornly at the space our plane would occupy if it had arrived.  It hasn’t.  The monitor optimistically suggests we will leave in 30 minutes.

Finally, our plane arrives. We wait. The plane requires the attention of maintenance personnel. Ominously we are told to wait another 30 minutes for an update. At 10:20 the flight monitor says we leave at 10. At 10:25 the speakers cackle to life – there has been a gate change and we are to head there immediately. Sounds like our plane is DOA but a replacement has been found.

Cleaners are ‘freshening up’ the plane for a quick turnaround. Quick turns to slow, then meandering, as the gate agent tries to execute corporate policy. Zone 1 will board before zone 2, Gold cardholders before the great unwashed, and only two carry-ons per person. Unfortunately her audience doesn’t speak English or read boarding passes well.

Our brave agent – who I guess graduated top of her class at US Airways University – is surrounded by Mexicans intent on getting home. For someone who said moments earlier we were going to board quickly, it seems farcical for the agent to make a passenger stuff a purse in her suitcase because she has a lunch bag, and bring the line-up to a halt.

Someone tells the agent the woman with 2.5 bags is a ‘church lady’.  God has little pull here but US Airways finally bows in defeat as no one is boarding now. All zones, cardholders and humans are allowed to board in a hurry so we can…wait. It takes another hour for the luggage to be moved from our old plane to the new.

Mexicans are very patient people. No one complains about the arctic-like temperature or the lack of refreshments as we sit on the tarmac. A woman beside me balances a bag the size of a Rottweiler on her lap. The guy in front of her reclines early and stays there. A nun in full habit taps away on her laptop on my other side. A sign God hadn’t deserted me totally?

So yes, I would love an assistant. If you could travel in my place and I could be beamed aboard a destination like Scottie did for Spock on Star Trek, I’d be in bliss. Send in your resumes!

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: assistant, puerto vallarta, reinventure, think like an explorer, travel, travel plans

Praise for Shitty Writing

July 15, 2015 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

If you haven’t already heard me screaming from the rooftops, I won first place in Best environmental/responsible tourism writing at the Travel Media Association of Canada’s annual awards last month. It was for the story ‘Bird Poop Boom’ in the Red Deer Advocate in December 2013 on Peru’s Ballestas Islands. People exploited cormorant guano for financial gain and I guess I did too, winning $750 for my tale on how people have used these birds for commercial gain. The Alberta TMAC chapter cleaned up with three other wins – Debbie Olson, also from the Red Deer Advocate, won 2nd place in people photography, Lisa Kadane won 1st in Best Service Feature. Talented blogger and writer, Jody Robbins picked an Outstanding Achievement award in the same category. Alberta writers ‘brought it’ to this prestigious competition!

Filed Under: Reflections Tagged With: alberta, alberta writers, peru, red deer, reinventure, travel media association of canada

NATJA’s Puerto Vallarta Conference a Success

June 11, 2015 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Puerto VallartaAt the North American Travel Journalist Association’s (NATJA) recent conference in Puerto Vallarta, hotels, restaurants and tour operators rolled out the red carpet. The birdlife and Mexican hospitality has left me hankering to return. People at the conference took to social media to spread the word about this wonderful destination. During the conference, the hastag#NATJAPV15 generated over 24 million impressions and reached nearly 2 million followers!

Filed Under: Mexico Tagged With: birdlife, mexico, NATJA, north american travel journalist association, puerto vallarta, reinventure

When Winter Goes Missing

April 14, 2015 by CarolPatterson Leave a Comment

Castle Mountain ResortWhen I think of winter, I think of cold temps and snow, lots of it. But this year winter didn’t show up in western Canada. Castle Mountain Resort in southern Alberta closed its ski hill in mid February because the white stuff disappeared. In Banff, parka-clad tourists strolled Banff Avenue as locals scurried by in shorts, the clear sidewalks and brown hillsides more in keeping with late April than mid-winter.
I had headed to the mountains to try fat biking, a cross between mountain biking and skiing. “We are not renting out fat bikes due to the lack of snow,” chirped Jenn at Soul Ski & Bike, “but you can rent a mountain bike.” With dreams of winter adventures fading fast, White Mountain Adventures came through with a promise of snow in the midst of one of the warmest winters on record. It wasn’t fat biking, but several days each week White Mountain Adventures take snowshoers to the alpine meadows above Sunshine Village. At 2,240 meters, “there’s lots of snow up there,” guide Magda Idasz promised, when she picked me up for a half-day tour.

At the Sunshine parking lot, Idasz handed out snowshoes, the light metal, synthetic fabric, and meter-long length suitable for navigating deep powder. After assuring our group of ten that we would not be in avalanche terrain even though we were headed to the backcountry, Idasz had us carry our snowshoes onto the gondola and then Standish chairlift.

To avoid being struck in the bum, dismounting a chairlift on foot means hitting the ground running. That was my last burst of speed for three hours. If you can walk, you can snowshoe, but waddling with the wide stance needed to avoid stepping on your own platter-size feet, gave me lots of time to enjoy the scenery. It felt like we were on top of the world as we walked across the Continental Divide and into British Columbia. “All the water on this side of the mountains, flows to the Pacific,” Idasz said,” and all the water from the mountains on that side flows to the Atlantic Ocean.”

Unfortunately, there is not as much water this year to flow to either ocean. Idasz unfolded a probe and punched it through the snow at her feet. It disappeared an impressive 150 centimeters. However, Idasz said, “normally we would have another 50 to 100 centimeters at this time of year.”

As we had left Sunshine ski resort, Kim Titchener, a local bear expert, had told us to watch for bears as some were stirring with the warm weather. Now, I looked at the shallower snow pack we crossed en route to Rock Isle Lake and wondered if we might encounter a confused grizzly. I asked Idasz what signs people had seen that indicated bears were waking up, thinking perhaps of empty dens. “They are actually seeing bears,” she said, ” a black bear was spotted near Bow Pass in the park.” With our puffy winter clothing, we could have been mistaken for giant corndogs by a hungry bruin, but Idasz was carrying bear spray and the only tracks we saw belonged to snowshoe hares and pine martins.

My hopes for blue-sky photos faded as skies darkened and snowflakes began to drop from the sky however it gave me hope that winter would continue to provide snowy adventures, even if we have to travel higher to find them.

TWEETABLES

One of the warmest winters on record is leaving Canada wondering. Click to Tweet.

Are snowy winter adventures disappearing for good in Canada? Click to Tweet.

How far do you have to go to find snow in the mountains of Alberta? Click to Tweet.

Filed Under: Alberta Tagged With: alberta, banff, british columbia, canada, castle mountain resort, reinventure, think like an explorer, white mountain adventures, winter

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