If you haven't yet checked out Midnight Ridazz, you gotta. It's a themed group bike ride that leaves from the Pioneer Chicken in Echo Park every second Friday of the month at 10pm. As many as 600 people show up, and we cruise on our bikes downtown, holding up traffic. Some people drink and ride (not I), and we end up at a bar or a party. (www.bicyclekitchen.com for details).

So last Ridazz the theme was "Kill the Messenger." My witty friend Sarah and I decided to ignore the obvious refere... read more

Finally got some photos back from the astonishing trip up north. Check out this hot orca action!

Johnstone Strait is popping with life--Dall's porpoises, Chinook salmon, starfish, anemones, urchins, seals, sea lions, and a bald eagle on what seems like every third tree. Most of the islands are uninhabited. A few contain old totem pole ruins from when First Nations villages thrived there--they're gray, and eaten by the weather, and utterly haunting.

Some of my favourite things: paddling ... read more

On Sunday morning, at 5 a.m. I shall leave my parents' home in Vancouver, British Columbia, on an unusual and exciting quest: armed with some dry bags and a kayak, I will explore the Johnstone Strait in search of orcas.

To the uninitiated, the Orcinus Orca, the largest species in the dolphin family, is one of the resident whales on BC's coast. The beautiful (in my opinion) creatures, mostly black with big, white bellies, move in pods. Curiously, different populations eat different foods: t... read more