I’ll admit, I’m not usually a fan of the travel section of newspapers. I usually skip them over pretty quickly. However, Eye Magazine’s short and well-written travel section seems to have won me over: the articles are short and to the point, and surprisingly topical compared to other travel sections that only write about Europe adventures and South American tours.

Last week’s Eye had a little Plan B box that outlined “Five Mini-Expeditions You Can Do” in North America. They included:

• Kayaking BC’s Queen Charlotte Islands.
• Cycling the Baja peninsula, Mexico.
• Hiking the entire Bruce Trail, Ontario.
• Platform camping, Florida Everglades.
• Late-winter camping, anywhere.

I’ve done three of the five, and I must admit that I’m quite excited to get going on the other two. You don’t have to be a hard-core outdoorsman (or even rich) to do any of them either, all of the expeditions on that list are accessible and affordable.

If you’re not much of a kayaker, the Queen Charlotte Islands are fun, but try starting with a short paddle around Saltspring Island instead. Saltspring Island has a lot of places where you can rent a kayak, stay on-shore overnight, and even have some fine dining, not to mention some great organic farms where you can buy some fresh groceries for cooking.

As for the Bruce Trail, it’s quite long, so if you’re not ready to devote your summer to exploring over 850km of trail, there’s quite a few selections of the trail that are wonderful to discover. I strongly suggest checking out the Bruce Caves for some great spelunking, or Rattlesnake Point for some awesome rock climbing. If you’re into the scenic stuff, the northern tip around Tobermory is a fun part of the trail to check out.

If you’re looking into some late-winter camping (though I will admit that snow camping is much more fun — especially if you get to build and sleep in a quinzhee), you really can’t go wrong with some camping in the Rockies. All the winter ice and snow melting into the lakes makes for a muddy, but remarkably beautiful setting, and Jasper National Park is not only a perfect place to camp by the Athabasca, but the town’s not too far away in case of emergency food runs. If you want to stay closer to home, you really can’t go wrong with Algonquin Park.

I can’t comment on the Baja Peninsula or the Everglades, but do know that they’ve been put on my list of things to do in the next five years. First, I need to learn how to ride a bike.