The winner of numerous writing honours, including a National Magazine Award, Nicola Ross is  the author of 12 books, including the bestselling Loops & Lattes series of hiking guides. Having  sold over 50,000 copies of these self-published guidebooks, Nicola is a fulltime writer and professional hiker. 

Her latest book, published by ECW Press in Toronto in 2024, is entitled 40 Days & 40 Hikes:  Loving the Bruce Trail One Loop at a Time. Part illustrated memoir, part hiking guide and part  good storytelling, it describes her journey along Ontario’s 900-kilometre Bruce Trail from  Queenston Heights on the Niagara Peninsula to Tobermory on the Bruce. 40 Days & 40 Hikes is  in its second printing. (See reviews.) 

Ross’s other adventures include crossing Costa Rica from coast to coast via the Camino de Costa  Rica, crossing Spain via the Camino de Santiago de Compostela, crossing Mexico’s Zapateca  lands in the Sierra Norte, crossing parts of Austria, Slovenia and Italy along the Alpe Adria Trail and following Newfoundland’s east coast on the East Coast Trail, among others. She has canoed  the fabled Mountain and Keele Rivers in the Northwest Territories and kayaked through Haida  Gwaii, the Sea of Cortez and Georgian Bay. Moreover, she’s cycled through Cuba, Italy, France,  Canada and Mexico, and has ridden a horse across Patagonia. 

Formerly a climate change consultant, Nicola is a biologist and columnist with In the Hills magazine. Her articles have been published in The Walrus, The Globe and Mail, Explore  magazine, Mountain Life, Avenue, Ontario Nature, Alternatives Journal, and more. She was a  regular environmental contributor to CBC Radio in Calgary, regularly appears on the CBC Radio  program Fresh Air and was the long-.me editor-in-chief of Alternatives Journal, Canada’s  national environmental magazine. She is a popular speaker at various events. 

Nicola’s adventures and the books and articles she writes about them reflect her love for nature and passion to be on the trail, atop a bicycle, paddling a kayak or seated on a horse. Similarly,  her talks combine these passions taking them beyond the adventure to the importance of what  she learns and sees. 

More recently, she chronicled her journey along Newfoundland’s East Coast Trail with a series of  annotated hand-drawn maps. It will be the first installment of her new e-zine, Hither & Yon, An  Illustrated Field Journal of Adventure Travel along Trails, Roads, Rivers and the High Seas. In  2025, she has set her sights on walking the 415-kilometre Andalusian Coast to Coast Trail and,  possibly, the 1000-kilometre Via de la Plata, both in Spain. 

Among an emerging group of female adventure travel writers, Nicola is bringing the 2025 Women’s Adventure Film Tour to Southern Ontario. The event, to be held in her home village, involves a showing of half a dozen films. She hopes to add a series of panel discussions and  interviews with female adventurers in future events. 

Nicola resides with her partner in a small stone mill (circa 1857) in Alton, Ontario and writes a  popular blog at nicolaross.ca.

More on the Women's Adventure Film Tour

Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices