Time for some vintage metal! There’s a number of brutish beasts here, work trucks, the stuff we like, all of it big, one over the top BIG, and all of it old. Show us something rugged and non nonsense and we’re in happy land. All but one of the trucks...
At every opportunity we take the back roads. That’s where the good stuff is. Even if in familiar territory, there always seems to be a surprise waiting for us around some corner when using this approach. It could be something new we missed before or a place known to us...
This one goes back a year or so, a rocky period for Team BIGDoer. At that time Connie was in the midst of her Cancer battle that would eventually have her losing an entire breast. With that we we’re limited in what we could do outside. But even with pain...
Sometimes we just like to do it for the fun and nothing else. For us. Case in point, this post where we pay a visit to an ordinary motel room that’ll be the focus of our attention today. What the heck? No, it’s not one we’ve booked for the night,...
In our fast paced world, sometimes we drop a couple gears and slow it down. In posts like this it’s not so much about what we see and photograph, nor the story behind them, but rather the simple and pure joy of getting out and roaming aimlessly. And if we...
This here post is dedicated to a friend, gone almost a year now, whose obsession in what we’ll be looking at here bordered on the crazy. In a most beautiful way. This fellow, name of Jim Pearson, had a thing for grain elevators…and it was on a grand scale. You...
For years now we’ve been going into local (to us) locations seen in the earlier Superman movies and showing what they look like today. We’ve long since visited most of the easily accessible sites and have been slowly chipping away at those which are harder to get to or appear...
Before anything, a huge thanks goes out the person who helped us with this here post. It’s to thee Coinoath Sarsfeld, low light photographer extraordinaire and super humble fellow, that we raise a toast. After dark of course under a magical night sky and alone at some abandoned farm on...
It was for many decades a Calgary Institution. Not just a place to get a prescription filled, no, it was much more. Picture it, an almost full on department store where one could purchase nearly anything their heart desired without having to drive all over town. A bottle of Tylenol,...
Capturing a Boler (Trillium, et al) on the move whilst driving is perhaps the most difficult challenge for those out hunting little fibreglass trailers. They’ll often come upon you quickly, almost always on the opposing lane, and rarely is the camera at the ready. So with that, capturing a “Highway...
Not all that long ago coal was king in the Crowsnest Pass. There we’re dozens of mines up and down the valley, with production peaking in the late 1940s. It was almost exclusively on these which the local economy relied but now tourism brings in the dough. It’s all quiet...
The clock’s ticking and our time in Spain running out, but still there’s much to do and see with zero reason to sit still. As we’ve been heard to say all too often, “we’re only on this planet for only so long and man, we’re getting our money’s worth…we’ll catch...
When it gets cold we find things to do inside. Below minus twenty and you might find us mall walking for example. Got to keep fit somehow during an arctic blast even if it means channelling our inner senior citizen. One freezing day March of 2019, we found ourselves exploring...
We have a conflicting love/hate relationship with these then and now articles. Sure, they’re an absolute delight to do, when all the pieces fall together that is, but at times they’re a bringer of great frustration. For every one that works, there’s many that don’t. We strive not to just...
The Greater Bragg Creek Trails Association (the GBCTA) manages a huge network of biking, hiking, equestrian, snowshoe and cross-country ski trails in the Foothills of Kananaskis west of Calgary. They go every which way and they keep building new ones! There’s a great mix here and whether you’re into something...
Stumbling across an abandoned railway line in Saskatchewan is not hard to do. There used to be a literal spaghetti bowl of tracks going every which way in the province, with nearly every town regardless of size, having train service. There was a branch to anywhere and everywhere! Almost all...
We’re torn. What are we to do with this post? Here’s some fine photos, taken during a scouting mission, showing a really cool subject, an old log cabin still used from time to time, with a stunning mountain backdrop. That is Grade-A certified BIGDoer.com Gold. And so we went in...
Some times we just randomly wander older neighbourhoods in search of who knows what. It seems these communities always offer up something interesting to take in for us, and what ever it may be, we’re happy. There might some old building or church that captures our imagination, unique or vintage...
Today it’s a railway theme (hooray!) and the subject but a single piece in the extensive collection belonging to Aspen Crossing, a tour train operator. All eyes on this “little” industrial locomotive that one half of your humble Team had a run in with decades ago. It’s sits on a...
Among the mighty peaks in the West Kootenays of British Columbia, there was for a time a most unusual railway operation. On account of challenging topography, the Canadian Pacific Railway (under the Nakusp and Slocan Charter) built a line isolated from the rest of its network with trains coming and...
Here’s a cute little train station marking the location of a former railway junction, a spot where three separate lines once met. Only one of these stretches of track is still in use and is the route taken by Alberta Prairie Railway’s Tour Trains operating between Stettler Alberta and Big...
Sometimes a hike short and sweet is just what the doctor ordered. If the need to take it easy is in the cards for you, as it was for us, try little Ford Knoll in the Elbow River region of Kananaskis. It’s a minor bump in an area more known...
There’s been more than a few movies and television shows filmed in and around High River Alberta. In fact, lately, it’s been pretty busy there in regards to both. Currently in production and perhaps most well known of these is the long running CBC series Heartland, with the historic downtown...
Hated the place but it was popular with some school mates. Here it’s a pizza joint going back to your author’s formative teen years, when dinosaurs ruled the earth*. And in outward appearance at least it hasn’t changed one bit…until recently that is when it went out of business. It’s...
Introducing a recent addition to the Aspen Crossing collection. These guys, operators of a popular excursion train that’s just a short drive away from Calgary, already own many pieces of vintage railway rolling stock. It’s a little slice of train heaven and they have so much they’re running out of...
by Chris Doering · Published September 21, 2019 · Last modified September 30, 2019
Hidden among the precipitous peaks of the Silvery Slocan in the rugged East Kootenays of British Columbia, way up Carpenter Creek, there’s a most amazing ghost town. Shoehorned into a narrow, confined valley, and sometimes obscured by dense undergrowth, it’s photogenic place with the name of Cody. Down a winding...
Here’s a really quick look at The Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Church (a mouthful) perched atop an escarpment in the neighbourhood of Renfrew. There’s great views from the property overlooking Bridgeland below and in back, there’s the spectacular skyline of Downtown Calgary. Built in the latter...
Just a couple days removed from that amazing El Camino Trek and we’re still basking in the afterglow. It was frenzied week on the trail, hiking and eating and downing more than a little wine, taking in the sights and connecting with the many friends made along the way. The...
For reasons that can’t be fully explained, the city of Nelson BC is home to a disproportionate number of Bolers and other little fibreglass trailers from varied manufactures. Case in point here, three of the former and one of the latter, and a rare one at that, found while driving...
One of our favourite ghost towns is a storied place called Sandon British Columbia. There, nestled in the craggy mountains of the West Kootenays and shoe-horned into a narrow valley, it’s many reminders of what was. Mining was the catalyst, all that silver, lead and zinc (other metals too) that...
Kenopsia: "the eerie atmosphere of a place that's usually bustling with people but now vacant or abandoned."
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