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In 1882, the Canadian Pacific Railway Company committed to building Canada’s first trans-continental railway across unknown ground in the Selkirk Mountains of southern British Columbia. It was a gamble that almost scuttled the project and the promise of the young country. During the next three years, a small army of surveyors, engineers, and labourers cleared the grade and built track across Rogers Pass—the only break in the Selkirk Mountains—a place that defined wilderness. Trestles, tunnels, snowsheds, bridges, and miles of looping track—the Canadian Pacific Railway has since employed them all to reduce the dangers and to make railway operations in Rogers Pass safer and more reliable. Gravity, Steam, and Steel recounts the triumphs and tragedies of building and operating a railway in a place where 40 feet of snow falls each year, and where trains routinely run on grades that many other railways would consider impossibly steep.
"I am drawn to the empty quarter, to open country, to the place on the map where there are dragons and giants, and the vast open spaces of mountains, canyons, rivers, prairies, and oceans. However, as the subtitle of this book declares, I am merely an ordinary adventurer in search of extraordinary places." In this series of fascinating and beautifully written essays about his deep desire for meaningful connection with the natural world , his steadfast commitment to protecting the wilderness, and his life on this vast and precious planet, Legault invites us to explore the intricate relationships that develop between people and place when we immerse ourselves in wild nature. Whether comfortably ensconced in a favourite easy chair or bedded down by a raging river under a canopy of stars, readers will slip between sheer canyon walls, walk a wind-torn ridge high in the mountains, meet Blondie the grizzly bear, and perhaps discover their feral selves and the possibilities for a better future that this awakening might bring.
After a bout with cancer Brent Lea was forced to reassess his priorities in life. One of his long-held visions was to spend an extended period of time in the Canadian Rockies, backpacking up valleys and over passes. To this end he took a three month leave of absence from his job, and accompanied by the ghost of Bill Peyto, lived out his dream. The ultimate in wilderness travel in western Canada. He immersed himself in the mountains, covering over 450 km in four national and two provincial parks, crossing 17 alpine passes and hiking past more than 65 backcountry lakes. Brent Lea's beautifully written account will appeal to anyone who has hiked in the mountains. Read about the time when Off to...
Eternal Lake O'Hara celebrates the Lake O'Hara region of the Canadian Rockies in original poetry and poetic extracts from archival sources. An area that has inspired artists, poets and others for over a century comes alive in historical photographs and accessible poetry.
Desperate and on the run, Tillie Thornton finds herself in an uneasy partnership with Graeme McLeod, a daring adventurer who comes out of nowhere to thwart the plot of Tillie’s would-be kidnappers. Now these two must join forces against their common enemies, as well as the challenges of nature, as they embark on a quest that could bring them the answers they seek—or cost them everything. Formerly published as The Treasure of Timbuktu.
Winner of the 2005 Ottawa Book Award for Non-fiction , the 2005 University of British Columbia Award for Best Canadian Biography, and the Canadian Railroad Historical Association Award for Best Railway Book of the Year. William Van Horne was one of North America’s most accomplished men. Born in Illinois in 1843, he became a prominent railway figure in the United States before coming to Canada in 1881 to become general manager of the fledgling Canadian Pacific Railway. Van Horne pushed through construction of the CPR’s transcontinental line and went on to become company president. He also became one of Canada’s foremost financiers and art collectors, capping his career by opening Cuba’s interior with a railway.
The epic expeditions of a Great Canadian explorer.
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