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Off The Beaten Path – with Chris & ConnieHiking-Adventure-History-Exploration Journal of the BIGDoer.com Society, Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Presented by Chris “BIGDoer” Doering & Connie Biggart. Your hosts... Come with us and discover! Team BIGDoer.com's mandate: to document historic sites and things before they're gone; to experience life in a crazy way, to play in the great outdoors, to observe, learn and share the experience with others. We are the curious. We hope you are too. BIGDoer.com operates as a non-profit. This site makes no money. Our stuff's seen far and wide, all over the internet, in print and on TV... BIGDoer? Pronounced big-door; a compound (or portmanteau) word arrived from the names Connie BIGgart and Chris DOERing. Now you know! This website is an ongoing work in progress. There are regular updates in the form of new articles, and revisions and corrections to old ones (yes, we mess-up). Of course, we always welcome input from our readers. Images and content are copyright Chris Doering & Connie Biggart and BIGDoer.com, unless otherwise noted. Sharing our work is encouraged, as long as credit is given. Unsure where to begin? Try this page... BIGDoer.com sitemap . Reach Us! -suggest a place to visit, invite us to your historic site, show us something old, hire us or host us, suggest a website to visit, inform us, tell us it’s your birthday, tell us you like what we’re doing… BIGDoer.com on Facebook (new window) – for the latest news!

Boler!

Steep hill Boler

by Chris Doering · Published August 20, 2012 · Updated November 15, 2013

Another nice looking Boler, seen in August 2012 in Nelson BC. This is one very steep hill – the photo does not do the grade justice. Yikes, it must be hell in winter. Not only known for extreme roads like this one, Nelson must be the centre of the Boler universe and on one visit we spotted twelve of them (a dozen eggs!). That’s an amazing number given how modest sized the town is.

Boler: A small cute-as-a-bug fibreglass travel trailer made in Canada in the 1970s and 80s. Very collectible and a we make a fun game spotting them on road trips.

Reference: Bolerama.org (now offline).

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© 2012-2024 Chris Doering, Johanna (Connie) Biggart & the BIGDoer.com Society. 🍁🎀

Another Nelson BC Boler, this one on a very steep hill.

Posted

Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola: Alexandra Bridge Fraser Canyon BC
Bob Fortin: CPR Illecillewaet Bridge Revelstoke BC
Rory Brown: Downtown Calgary & CPR Tracks 1977-2014
Dale: The Forgotten Cemetery of Morrissey BC
Sharon Wingenbach: MacDonald Bridge Calgary ~70 Years Apart
Gary Small: Polish Hall Coleman Alberta (1927)
Twold7: Calgary Inglewood Haskins/Victory Block
Gary Small: CPR Bow River Bridge (Abandoned)
Ken Newel: Grain Elevators of Turin Alberta
Gary Small: Silver Creek Coal Mine Skunk Hollow
Bonita Hudson: Coleman Miners’ Hospital 100 Years Apart
Gary Small: Dunshalt Alberta 1974 and 2013
Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola: The Giants of Cathedral Grove (BC)
Gary Small: Highway History (BC): the Garbage Gobbler

Posting soon!

Byron Robb - Sharon Wingenbach - Zeke - Rob Pohl & Arturo Pianzola - Don Wilson - Johanna (Connie) Biggart - Dale

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com4 hours ago

We used to do something called the "pointless challenge" 🤪 and miss those days. It was so much silly fun and often frustrating as heck. In these we'd invite people to send in random photos of obscure locations, but not give any information, and then we'd track where it was and shoot something similar.

Most of these came from old family collections, as was the case here. Anyone up to resurrecting the series?

In hindsight, why didn't we pose someone in our shot?

Pointless: “Devoid of meaning (or) senseless” Merriam-Webster.

If you like what we do and want to support this ongoing project (12 years now), go here: https://www.BIGDoer.com/help-the-society/ Thanks to Connie for making this post possible.

Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: ca1970 and 2014. Posted by Connie.

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com9 hours ago

Captured on a cold, cold day many years ago. We've been passing this old house for decades and it's little changed in that time. At some point we expect to drive by and it'll be gone.

Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com10 hours ago

When retired old railway cars usually get cut up for scrap. Sometimes, however, they find their way into the hands of the general public or whomever. Flat cars make good bridges, and boxcars can be transformed into storage buildings and the like. Case in point here. We see them used like this often enough and in this case, it's part of a corral.

Incidentally, this boxcar dates from 1950 and this was found by tracing the old road number, which is still visible.

Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com16 hours ago

This central Alberta racetrack was never a commercial operation but instead just a fun place for car enthusiasts in the area to get together. Early '70s or thereabouts and it only lasted a few years. Even thought it's been abandoned for that long, there is no doubt what was here.

You know we like the the obscure stuff and this one fits the bill perfectly. Found by accident while backroad cruising and the history comes thanks to local car guy Mike.

Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com17 hours ago

On top of little Myrtle Mountain in the Kimberley (BC) Nature Park.

There's some good wilderness fun to be had here and nice views as you can see, but the real reason we came is mining history. The whole area near the ski hill was extensively worked over a century ago and we were looking for evidence of this. We didn't find much in the area searched, but it's a big chunk of property and we hope to return to cover more ground again soon. Of all the subjects we cover, mining related is a favourite.

Still, it was a good hike and that can't be bad. Look to the comments for more info 👇.

Exploring nature and history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: 2022. Posted by Connie.

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Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie - BIGDoer.com1 day ago

It's a strange curiosity in south Kananaskis, there on a hillside and we have no idea who created it. We asked around and no one's completely sure about its history. In the past it showed the Canada 100 logo from 1967 but in 2017 someone changed it to reflect the country's 150th.

That's our friend Emily from DanOCan.com having a look.

Exploring history with Off the Beaten Path with Chris & Connie.
Photo: 2017. Posted by Connie.

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Steep hill Boler

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