We’ll let you in on a little secret…in our minds some of our earlier stuff…well…it doesn’t fill us with the warm and fuzzies. Mainly it’s the images we don’t like and not so much in regards to composition, but specifically how we processed them when we started shooting RAW (in...
We did this hike once before a few years back. Well, part of it anyway. On this visit to High Noon Hills, however, out in the Sheep River Area of Kananaskis, we take in both of them instead of just one. These two little bumps are located right at the...
Sometimes just going out for a walk will reward the dedicated and vigilant Boler Spotter with some new discoveries. Case in point here, two little trailers, one a thirteen foot Boler and the other a plain old Trillium seen while the Team, on foot, headed to a Calgary Street Festival...
Welcome to day two of things seen and places visited from the 2018 edition Alberta Ghost Town Convention (called the Mini-GTC, it’s anything but). It’s been going on a half dozen years now and has been attended by Team BIGDoer from the beginning, along with a wonderful group of friends,...
If you find yourself in the historic ghost town of Sandon BC, in the “Silvery Slocan”, and are looking to stretch the legs a bit, we’ve got an excellent adventure to recommend. Starting right in town, the Payne Bluff Hike takes in the old “Kaslo & Slocan Railway” roadbed, an...
Out near Wetaskiwin Alberta there’s a wonderful attraction you and the family can visit, home to a collection of vintage train equipment…and who doesn’t like that stuff? Drop in, say hi, explore the grounds, go for a ride around the loop and make it part of a grand day. On...
Here it’s a most interesting take on what’s a most remarkable place. We’re in Fort Steele Heritage Town, out in the East Kootenays of British Columbia, a popular “living history*” museum operating since the 1960s. We’ve been given an assignment to document the park for a photo-tour type article, but...
Smithbilt Hats has been doing it since the late 1910s. Most of what they make are cowboy hats, fitting given this is cattle, farming and ranching country. If you’ve seen a “white hatter” during stampede and or at the airport greeting new arrivals to the city, that topper came from...
The entire Kootenays of British Columbia are home to disproportionately high number of Bolers. You can’t swing a dead cat, to quote that overused adage, without hitting one of these trailers. Just driving about and you’re sure to spot an example or two…or sometimes even more (six in about an...
by Chris Doering · Published May 10, 2019 · Last modified February 11, 2020
It’s our final day on the legendary El Camino Trail in Spain, and we’re both elated and more than a touch blue. These crazy conflicting emotions when you realize something epic is soon to end. There’s just some ten thousand more steps to go and it’ll all be behind us....
Deep in the precipitous mountains of the West Kootenays of British Columbia, there’s a most historic place. Built on mining riches it was a boom town like no other, once home to some ten thousand folks that today has a population which can be counted on a hand or two....
It’s located in the quiet Sibbald section of Kananaskis, a loop trail in the foothills, moderate in length with zero challenges and a real pleasure to hike. It keeps to trees mostly, but there’s still lots of scenery and occasional far reaching views of mountains beckoning to the south and...
We do them out of fun and for that alone these “then and now” posts are sadly the first ones to be put on hold should other projects come up. It frustrates us, but we have little choice. The last was published in 2018 (yikes!) but here we (cautiously) announce...
To some it’s known, variously, as the Castle, Tower or Turret House, account its distinctive style of architecture. To others it’s the Robertson or Koopman House, after some folks who once called it home. But most famously it’s known far and wide as the Superman House due to its appearance...
Not like we need another obsession here at BIGDoer.com, but it’s happened. Great…just great. And it’s well known history buff Johnnie Bachusky we blame. If not for him bringing up the subject of water towers recently while chatting, the seed would have never been planted. Sure, we noticed these structures...
One weekend every July for the last few years, a group of close friends gets together and explores the countryside in search of historic and abandoned places. It’s always an epic adventure, taking in abandoned farms, charming villages, near ghost towns and vintage vehicles long put out to pasture. But...
It’s of the era and has a style and vibe that would make a Brady (famously from that quirky ’70s TV show) proud. There’s thick shag carpeting, mirrors and pillars, pastel shades and rich wood panelling. There’s avocado coloured appliances, rock and brick work, marble, brass and all things satin,...
As we often do when we’re on the road we’ll stop and explore small towns along the way. One never knows what they’ll find, some disused building to photograph perhaps, a cool old car sitting out on some empty lot, or maybe something else worthy of attention. Heck, we’re easily...
It’s the Doublemint Twins, a 1979 Boler (13 foot model) and the rig towing it, and all painted up the same minty green, a 1962 Chevrolet Pickup. These two roam the land appearing at campgrounds and car shows. Here we found them at an event in their homebase town of...
Almost a year ago the Team got to be part of a most amazing event, the Edmonton Pinball & Arcade Show, aka YEGPIN. An entire day was spent roaming the venue and recording all the action for an article published recently. In that piece (link below), it was about the...
The colder months usually means it’s urban hikes for us, especially with Connie on the mend. We don’t want to push it and so doing our thing “in town” makes it’s easy to bail and catch a ride back to the car should there be a problem. Even so we...
And we’re back! Here’s the much anticipated second instalment where we take in a most amazing collection of old machinery. There’s cars, trucks, tractors…you name it…stretching off as far as the eye can see, all of them old and with tons of character, a showcase of that moody decrepit vibe...
by Chris Doering · Published April 3, 2019 · Last modified February 11, 2020
It’s strange how time on the El Camino de Santiago can both stand still and rush by. One moment, everything’s in slow motion, a step or movement taking an eternity and with others it’s as though living in a hyper-lapse and the world a blur. Such is our experience, walking...
Sometimes things move at a glacial pace here (damn, it’s complicated) but finally here’s the second instalment in the “Frostbite Hotrods” series. It’s been a long time coming and for this we offer our apologies all around. Better late than never, they say! Right? In this series, we spend a...
We cover a lot of subjects on this here website. It might be an outdoor adventure one day, something with a history connection the next and on yet another we might show you one of our strange obsessions (Boler!), but every once in while we dabble in the lifestyle/human interest...
Before we begin…this article was scheduled to be published some two or three months ago, but Connie’s health issues forced a delay. Life has this way of throwing one a curve ball it seems. She’s mending now and doing darn good and so we’re back in full force but hopelessly...
Time has run out for these homes. Forgotten and empty the land on which they sit is slated for redevelopment and soon they’ll be reduced to a pile of splinters. The “gentrification monster” (thanks Micheal), insatiable in appetite, rears its head here in the Calgary community of Bowness. Nothing stands...
We’re always wandering about, be it here in our own city or anywhere we happen to be. It’s just what we do. And one little perk of doing this is that inevitably, and I mean it’s almost guaranteed, we’ll stumble across a Boler. Or maybe two. They’re out there, and...
Just south of Downtown Calgary, across the tracks, are a grouping of neighbourhoods collectively titled the “Beltline District”. It’s mixed use residential and commercial, things old and things new, many stately homes, modern condo towers, heritage buildings, schools, churches and countless places to shop and eat. And it’s here we’ve...
To begin…this here article was shot waaaay back in late 2017 and was supposed to be published that following spring. So a year ago. As it happens the poop sometimes flies and a battle with a publisher, never full resolved but behind us now, and some life getting in the...
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