Experience The Mountain Parks Blog

Yo bear!

The Government of Alberta, Parks Division, concocted some short videos explaining how to avoid bear encounters and what to do in case of a bear encounter. Remember, Alberta and British Columbia are "bear countries" after all.
Check them out! You might learn something.

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Reinventure Can Change Your Life

What started out as a realization has become a new book for one of our contributors, Carol Patterson, President of Kalahari Management, a Calgary-based ecotourism company.
 
“When you visit Canada’s parks with your eyes, your minds and your hearts open, you realize that you aren’t the same person you were when you left home,” Carol said. “I realized some time ago that travel had changed me. The scenery, the adventures, the people I met, the places I stayed all changed me for the better.”

This idea of being changed by travel stuck with her, and last year she decided to develop the idea. She began writing and collecting travel stories for what became "Reinventure: How Travel Adventure Can Change Your Life", published in November of 2008 by Trafford Publishing of Victoria, B.C.

“Reinventure is not your average book of travel stories,” Carol said. “You won’t find lists of sights to see or restaurants to visit. It’s a collection of stories on how travel has transformed people and the communities they live in. Some are earth-shattering epiphanies, while others are just small adjustments; but the common factor is that if you travel with an open mind and an open heart, change is inevitable.”

"Reinventure:  How Travel Adventure Can Change Your Life" contains 41 stories recounting Carol’s adventures and the adventures of others, with stories varying from a ghostly visitor, to an ancient hotel, to Carol finding herself on the edge of Kootenay National Park confronted by a furious deer intent on protecting her young. The stories vary from poignant to hilarious; but, in introducing each one, Carol often returns to the book’s theme of positive change through travel adventures.

“That change is not limited to people,” Carol said. “It can apply to places as well. Becoming a travel destination can have a profound effect on an area, a change that can be positive or negative, depending on how it is handled.”

Carol has taken the concept of Reinventure explored in the book and developed it into a website –  www.reinventuretravel.com.

On the website, visitors can learn more about the concept, find ways to create your own Reinventure, take a quiz on whether or not you’re ready for a Reinventure, and contribute your own Reinventure stories.

Carol Patterson heads Kalahari Management, an ecotourism consulting firm in Calgary, Alberta. As a business consultant and conference speaker, she travels for work. When she’s not working, she travels for fun.  To learn more about Karen, check out our contributors page.

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