Welcome to CottageLink Magazine, the literary companion to Canada’s best online cottage listings service. We’re kicking off the second year of our cybermag, so for those of you venturing into our little corner of the Internet for the first time, check out what you missed among last year’s five issues in our Back Issues archive.
For regular readers - and we thank you for your kind e-mails over the winter months - we promise more entertaining exploration of issues of interest to cottage renters and owners alike for another year.
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Speaking of exploration, we’ve just returned from an interesting weekend at the Talisman Mountain Resort ("Spectacular By Nature!") located in a breathtakingly beautiful valley southwest of Collingwood, Ont. The broad u-shaped valley, under a blanket of snow, is bounded on the east by the Niagara Escarpment, highlighted by a cliff known locally "Old Baldy", and with challenging ski slopes to the west. And a river runs through it.
Aside from a few bumps and bruises (we’re still looking for our technique on the slopes), we also came away with the joy of discovery. We had absolutely no idea such a place had existed so close to home. Like most people, I guess, we tend to stick with the tried and true.
But once in awhile, it can be fun - and enlightening - to follow the map to places you’ve never been before. This year we’re going to venture a little further afield for adventure and we’ll be reporting in these pages.
If you have any comments or suggestions on articles you’d like to see in CottageLink Magazine, just drop me a line at cggarnett@telus.net. Remember - this is your magazine!
Glenn Garnett/Editor, CottageLink Magazine
The tragedy at Walkerton, Ont. last year, in which seven died and hundreds more became ill, dramatically strikes home the fact that we can’t take clean drinking water for granted in Canada, a bitter irony for a country that boasts the world’s largest supply of fresh water. But for years savvy cottagers have known about the powers of ultraviolet radiation in killing active microorganisms in water drawn from wells or nearby lakes - we talked to a Canadian company that’s a leading producer of this technology in story 1.
We asked freelance writer Linda A. Fox to take a look a complex problem facing many cottage owners - who gets the keys when they’re gone? What can you do to lessen the blow of the taxman? Fox - a long-time business and travel journalist - tackles these issues in her first of many contributions to our magazine in story 2.
Regular readers will recognize Scot Magnish’s byline, and he’s back for another year of automotive reports for cottagers. In this issue, Scot checks out ATV’s, those funky dirt-lovin’ off-road machines you’ve seen in fields and on trails. Sure looks like fun - but choosing the right one for your purposes, and operating it safely, takes a little work. Scot gets you started - see story 3.
Finally, it’s hard to get people worked up over the plight of eastern Canada’s last remaining venomous snake. Few care that the Massasauga Rattlesnake, which once roamed throughout southern Ontario, can only be found in the northernmost part of the Bruce Peninsula and by the eastern shores of Georgian Bay and that their numbers continue to dwindle. But the shy and retiring snake is worth preserving…even if they’re slithering and icky and hiding in your sleeping bag. We have a report in story 4.
In our May/June edition, we’ll be taking a look at an issue of paramount concern to cottagers in Ontario’s north country - forest fires. While we’re out in the woods, Scot will talk to the experts about chainsaws and their proper care and maintenance. And Linda will be talking to those who know about an equally dangerous aspect of cottaging - packing.
All that and more in your next CottageLink Magazine. See you May 1!
Cover photo: Late winter on the Beaver River near Kimberly, Ontario.
