Whitney's Wanderings The best journeys are the ones that change your life

Where do you find your next adventure? A guidebook, a travel website, or even the latest Buzzfeed quiz? A bored glance at a rack of postcards in a dollar store in my hometown of Halifax, Nova Scotia led me to one of my best adventures, to a place I’d never even heard of: the Balancing Rock in Tiverton, Nova Scotia. A tall column of basalt balancing precariously on the edge of a precipice, this was something even my mom, a native Nova Scotian, had never heard of.

That summer was one of daytrips and weekends spent exploring my own backyard, discovering the jewels in my own province, all within a few hours drive of my house; this one was the most interesting. First there was the challenge of finding the Balancing Rock: the postcard said only Tiverton, NS, a place I had never been before, nor could be found on any large scale map. The rock itself, as a point of interest, was not even listed in our provincial guidebook, though it is now.

We set our early one morning, my mom and I, intent to find this geological oddity that our tourism industry was unaware of. After driving for a few hours and taking a tiny ferry from the Digby Neck to the little spit of land called Long Island (population: miniscule), we arrived at a small gravel parking lot at the trailhead to the Balancing Rock. Walking along a boardwalk flanked by prematurely autumn-colored leaves and descending 235 steps to the rocky outcrop brought us to a viewing platform that almost naturally jutted out from the cliffside.

The ocean was sparkling with the reflected sun and the air was warm: the perfect weather for a trek through the woods to the water. At first, the view of the ocean arrested our attention, then we looked to our right and saw the Balancing Rock. It was hanging on the edge of the short cliff like the touch of a feather could send it toppling into the gentle waves, but it also looked solid, like nothing could unmoor it. For those of us who valued our lives, there was a spacious viewing platform; for those who did not fear death, a jump over the railing and hopping over slippery rocks would bring a closer view.

That warm, sunny day with mom was one of our many trips to discover our own backyard, but it was also an adventure to a place neither of us had ever heard of before, and it started with a postcard in a dollar store. Adventures can come from anywhere, who knows where I’ll find my next one.