Bill Bradley, 69, owns a 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness. While the pandemic has kept him at home more than he would like, he has big plans for his vehicle, and he has already taken an impressive number of trips right here in his home province.
With close family he is keen to see in both Halifax, Nova Scotia and Smithers, British Columbia, Bradley looks forward to driving across Canada in his new car next year, in the summer of 2023.
He ordered the car last March and because of supply chain problems he figured it would be at least a year until he received it; to his surprise, it came at the end of June. He lost no time in embarking upon some local adventures.
“We went on some small trips in northeastern Ontario,” he says. “We went to Marten River Provincial Park and visited Temagami’s Finlayson Point Provincial Park.” He and his wife took some short trips to Killarney and Little Current and went and saw the wind farm on McLean’s Mountain—something he had heard about when he worked in the newsroom at Northern Life. They also drove to Ottawa in December so his wife could receive her dual Philippine-Canadian citizenship.
“You have to realize the pandemic shut down a lot of peoples’ trips. That’s what the people at Subaru told me, that everyone’s got low mileage on their Subarus because of the pandemic,” he says. “People are going to the provincial parks and they’re going camping, because that’s all they could do.”
This summer Bradley has already booked trips into Lake Superior Provincial Park. He has been there before, on the shoreline and at the beach, but this time they’re going inland, to do “a backcountry thing.” He is also booked into Murray Lake in Killarney Provincial Park.
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Doing his research
Before buying the Outback, Bradley had been driving a little Chevy Sonic. “It’s such a small, short car and I have long canoe,” he laughs. “I have a 6’3” Mad River canoe and it just doesn’t work. The wind catches it and blows it and it’s kind of dangerous driving it on the highway. But the Subaru Outback, it’s like a station wagon, it’s got a long roof. I drove it to Temagami and to Marten River and I didn’t have to adjust the straps once, whereas with the Chevy, I would have to stop every 15 or 20 minutes.”
The Chevy was also very small so when they travelled, the car was jam-packed, and his wife had to hold stuff in her lap. With the Outback, by contrast, there is lots of room for their things.
To say that Bradley did his research is an understatement. He currently works at a Petro Canada outlet in Sudbury and whenever a Subaru would roll up, he would go out and talk to the driver. Over the course of five years, he talked to at least 50 people.
“Plus, I bought Consumer Reports every year for 5-6 years and checked out the ratings on the Forester, the Crosstrek and the Outback—and they’re all consistently high,” he says.
“A vehicle is very expensive these days, especially a new one. After your house and maybe your cottage, the next thing is your vehicle, so you need to do due diligence. You need to research independent publications, talk to people, interview them. Most people said they would buy another one.”
Subaru families
It was during this time that Bradley learned about the existence of Subaru families, where different generations or branches of a family own the same make of car.
His is now one of them. His sister’s daughter and husband in Halifax drive a Subaru Outback and his nephew Mark in BC also has one. In Bradley’s estimation, Subarus are geared towards a more educated, adventure-loving family demographic. That certainly aptly describes his family, which includes marine biologists, a wildlife biologist and Bradley himself, a former environmental journalist. He’s a fan of Subaru’s environmental record and notes that they are working on waste reduction at their auto plants.
A true adventurer
Bradley is the real deal, an avid canoer who turned 21 on the shores of Hudson Bay in the far north of Ontario after a 350-mile canoe trip on the Winisk River. He has spent two months in a 15’ canoe travelling alone along the shoreline of Lake Superior and another two months canoeing in the Biscotasing area north of Sudbury. For 16 years he lived off the grid year-round at his former camp (cottage) with no hydro or even a ploughed road in the wintertime.
He likes that his new car can safely carry his canoe, that he can go to the lumber store and stock up and transport lots of stuff in it. When he does get to cross the country in his Subaru, he’s looking forward to exploring the backroads.
Says Bradley, “My wife and I could even sleep in it, if we had to.”
Find out more about the 2022 Subaru Outback Wilderness at Palladino Subaru.