Ontario Road Trip

Last August, me and Emma went on a sweet cross-canadian road trip from the West Coast to the Ottawa Valley. With Vanie, a 1998 Toyoto TownAce van stuffed with climbing and paddling gear, we cruised through winding mountain roads, flat prairie plains, and beautiful ontario shield landscapes.

Highlights:

  • I tried whitewater paddling for the first time. Experienced a new level of fear….

  • Got to climb some awesome sport and trad routes in Nelson, Thunder Bay (sandbag capital of the world) and in the Ottawa area.

  • Explored Algonquin Park. Found zero moose :-(

  • We saw some freaking butterflies hatch over breakfast!!!

About that last comment; Emma’s dad had placed monarch butterfly chrysalis all over his house, and every day over breakfast we got to see a few of them hatch, dry out, and fly away!!!!

Sad Cutblocks

If you adventure on Vancouver Island, you’re going to have to interact with logging at some point.  Every trailhead for any backcountry adventure starts and ends with a logging road, main line or spur.  In the last 150 years, 75% of our island has been logged.  Even worst, over 90% of our big tree ecosystems (valley bottom, productive forests), have disappeared due to logging.  These iconic trees, the massive mega giant cedars and douglas firs, need tens of thousands of years of forest development for the right conditions to grow, then 1000 to 1500 years to reach their size.  These trees are disappearing and wether or not you’re for or against our current logging practices, it’s pretty sad to see these giants being cut up for lumber.

Earlier this year, I came across one of the saddest scenes I had ever seen.  Emma and I were driving towards Port Alberni from Tofino, and after about 40mins of driving, we found a cutblock on the side of the road littered with some of the biggest trees I had ever seen in my life.  Over a dozen massive cedars had been fallen for what appeared to be a highway expansion project.  It broke our hearts to see this destruction for more pavement…

Welcome to the new website!

New year (kinda), time for a new website (sorta)!

Welcome to the new and improved OlivierClements.com! After a good run with my old provider, Weebly.com, I gave in to those “This American Life” ads and got myself a Squarespace site. Looks spiffy eh?

Couple of new features; you’re going to find some new tracks I’ve never posted before in the music section, lots of new pictures in the photography pages, a brand new overview of my guiding work, and a cool new blog that will get so many more posts (probably hopefully).

If you wanted to check out some of my older posts, you can easily do so at https://olivierclements.weebly.com/.

Enjoy!