Calgary’s Nose Hill Park is a vast urban green space, one of the biggest in the country as it turns out, and this hike sort of a best of tour. There’s natural grasslands, aspen groves, sweeping views and many hidden things to discover. The old wrecked car, a glacial erratic,...
Today we’re looking at remains of a silver, lead, zinc and gold mine on a rocky shelf almost at water level. While worked for decades, overall production in terms of volume were quite modest, but the ore nice and rich. This is Molly Hughes by the lake and we’re happy...
Dunshalt Alberta might appear on maps but there’s really nothing there. None the less it’s the focus of this piece. At one time two competing railways crossed paths here but that’s history now. We’re not that far from the big city of Calgary, but it feels like the middle of...
We can’t begin to tell you how chilly it was this blustery and bleak Sunday morning. Biting, icy, frigid, finger numbing, snotsicle forming, Winnipeg cold. Yes, that bad. But there’s a Boler to photograph and we’re obsessed so brave the low temperatures for a snap or two. Can’t feel any...
Trash receptacles like this were once a common sight along British Columbia’s provincial highways, at rest stops and parks. This army of cartoonish monsters were part of a campaign aimed at children to keep the province beautiful and litter free. That was long ago and they’re gone now, but this...
The random pick subject today is…Magnesium Chloride. What the? Where do we start? First, these photos were never really meant to be shared, but taken just for us, then by chance were picked for this silly series. We literally close our eyes, select an image (or three) from our collection...
This sectionman’s home stood in the literal middle of nowhere and depending on your take that might be either a downside or perk of the job. If you were to ask us, we’d lean more towards the latter. It’s really out there in the sense that the nearest anything, civilization...
The route described here, the Baldy Pass to Lusk Pass Loop, is an enjoyable outing in the forest and offers up some nice views. This area has been harvested of trees over the years and as such there’s many open places where one can look out to beautiful wooded hills...
Presenting JB Fletcher’s, Ainsworth British Columbia, and it’s seen roughly forty five years apart. This former general store was photographed by Beautiful British Columbia Magazine back in 1978 and a comparison shot captured by us a year or so ago. It’s a timeless scene! The store had only been closed...
We’re in Bellevue Alberta, southern part of the province and right in the front ranges of the Rockies. Here’s the business district and in the background the incredible scar on Turtle Mountain. Welcome to the Crowsnest Pass region (our home away from home) and it’s most noteworthy feature, the Frank...
It’s time for a little fun on the Lethbridge Pathways system! On the route shared today, you’ll be under the cottonwoods, down by the the Oldman River and always in the shadow of the Canadian Pacific Railway’s towering Viaduct (aka the High Level Bridge). There’s wooded groves, open green spaces,...
Boler! / Exploring History / Hikes And Summits / Old Things / Other Fun
by Chris Doering · Published January 1, 2024 · Last modified February 24, 2025
Coming Soon (part two): more amazing places the Team has visited and will be posting about in the coming year. As always, it’s a varied menu of subjects, to keep things interesting, and here’s the list. There’s mining remains, lost cemeteries, roadside memories, something “super”, mountain adventures, things the railway...
Boler! / Exploring History / Hikes And Summits / Other Fun / Then And Now
by Chris Doering · Published January 1, 2024 · Last modified January 27, 2025
Coming Soon (1st installment): presenting places we’ve explored the last little while and the posts that will come from these incredible adventures. We’re talking a wild assortment and we’re sure you’ll enjoy every single one as much as we did documenting them. We simply love what we do, and beyond...
Jellyfish of Comox Harbour: wasting away the day wandering the marina and in search of interesting things to photograph. There’s personal craft, fishing boats and these are the reason for our visit, but one can’t help be mesmerized by the large number of odd translucent creatures floating about. They’re a...
Here’s a Then & Now with a BIGDoer family connection and it was only twenty seven years in the making. Presenting our kid and his kid (our grandkid) both at ten years old in the cab of the same excursion steam locomotive. The original was captured in Donalda and the...
The bridge is old, narrow and spans the mighty Columbia River. There’s lights at each end for one-way alternating traffic and for decades, long ago, it was the only way get to the other side. Autos or foot traffic. A long crossing of many hundred metres, it was an ambitious...
Welcome to another (hopefully) fun and informative BIGDoer.com Then & Now! In this instalment we’re looking at downtown Fort Macleod Alberta and comparing two shots taken roughly seventy five years apart. This community is timeless and incredibly appears little changed over time. Take a look for yourself! The Then photo...
Catching a Boler in motion out in the wild does not happen often and requires luck on your side. They’re elusive foes at the best of times and when it plays out it’s by random chance. The stars have to align. Today was just such a day and here’s one...
This easy and enjoyable hike happens not terribly far from Calgary in the West Bragg Creek trail network. Via a loop and making use of several interconnecting trails it takes in the goal of lowly Boundary Ridge. It’s a bump that barely rises above the surrounding countryside, but is still...
Sometimes we’ll just watch trains and if any show up that’s great and if there’s none that’s fine too. We’ll pick a spot somewhere within sight of the tracks, camera in hand, drop a blanket, bring a book, and perhaps a little snack. Then we wait. Sometime the efforts are...
The Boler Bar High River Alberta: they have the coffee and we got the sticker. It’s a good day! We have a special fondness for Bolers, but you already knew that, and repurposing one into a mobile coffee kiosk seems like a stroke of genius. The two were meant to...
The subject in today’s Then & Now is the quaint-looking Chinook Motel, Sentinel Alberta, in the scenic and historic Crowsnest Pass. With Crowsnest Mountain a backdrop, we’ll first look at it in the 1960s, thanks to an old postcard image sent in by a reader, and then again some fifty...
In spite of their close proximity to many places we frequent, we’ve seldom explored the Porcupine Hills in Southern Alberta. They’re always within sight when driving major highways in the area yet to us remain mostly a mystery. There’s scattered history in those hills, that we know, and many hiking...
Tranquille BC Sanatorium near Kamloops: opened in 1907 to treat tuberculosis, closed as a mental health facility about 75 years later, mostly empty ever since and said to be haunted. It’s on private land and in talking with an employee(?) of the agricultural firm working on the property, the entire...
The Fort Motel in Fort MacLeod Alberta does it old school and offers road weary travellers vintage motor court style accommodations. You might view it as dated or tired, but to to us it’s a charming throwback and wonderfully kitschy. What ever your opinion, it’s a style of motel that’s...
Let’s explore the grain elevator row in Arrowwood Alberta across time. First we’ll look at it many decades back, and with all but one of these iconic buildings now gone, we’ll present a more recent view. The change has been dramatic and a touch sad too. Once they’re history a...
Depending on the write up you might see it called Sunrise Hill, Rainy Summit Overlook or maybe both will be used (like here). It’s an outlier of long Powderface Ridge and can be reached in one of two ways. The first is via a side-path off the popular and aptly...
St Francis in the Woods is found out in BC’s Kootenay region and dates back well over a hundred years. Secreted away down a seldom used back road, this quaint little church seems far removed from the modern world and while no longer used in a spiritual capacity, it still...
The Crowsnest Pass of Southwestern Alberta draws us in like a magnet and we’re regular visitors. If you’ve followed our exploits for a bit, however, then you already knew we had a romance going on. Today our subject is the CPR Crowsnest Railyard at Summit Lake, at the west end...
We’re in Three Hills Alberta doing a research project and have a few hours to spare after finishing early. What to do…what shall we do…? How about a little walk about and let’s get to know the community a little better. Sounds like a plan but given it was a...
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