How Are We Planning and Preparing to Hike the Great Trail?

Maps, Guidebooks, Training Hikes, and the First Steps Towards Walking Across Canada

Planning to Hike the Trans Canada Trail

Now that we have made the decision to attempt to hike across Canada on the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, one of the questions we are increasingly asked is how we are going about preparing for such an enormous undertaking. After all, the national pathway currently stretches more than 24,000 kilometres from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to the Arctic Ocean, connecting hundreds of local trails, roadways, and waterways along the way.
 
The short answer is that we are taking things one step at a time, beginning with a considerable amount of research!

 
Given that we are still working full time, much of our free time is presently spent sitting in front of computers, studying online maps and trying to develop a better understanding of the route we hope to follow. We are using the Great Trail's official mapping resources, Google Maps, and satellite imagery to trace the pathway across the country, often examining it town by town and province by province. Along the way, we are identifying potential places to purchase groceries, refill our water bottles, camp, or stop for a rest day.
 
This is proving to be a rather interesting exercise, particularly since the Great Trail is not a single continuous hiking footpath. In some regions it follows well-established recreational trails or former railway corridors, while elsewhere it includes long stretches of roadways, waterways (where no land path exists), and connections between local trail systems. Even determining exactly where we intend to get to each day requires considerable thought.

 
We are also collecting and reviewing the available guidebooks, including the provincial Trans Canada Trail guides published by Canadian Geographic in the early 2000s. So far we have found volumes covering Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island, New Brunswick, and Manitoba, as well as separate guides to the trail in Quebec, British Columbia (2 separate volumes for this province), and the Northwest Territories.  Although these books provide useful background on the communities, landscapes, and pathways along the route, many are now more than a decade old. Since the Great Trail was only officially connected in 2017, there have been considerable changes to the network since many of these guides were published. We therefore expect to rely heavily on current mapping resources, local trail organizations, and information shared by other hikers as we develop our plans.
 
Another substantial task involves downloading the available GPS information and beginning to assemble GPX tracks for the route we hope to follow.  This is more complex than it should be, as rather than there being a single set of GPX tracks for the Great Trail – they can only be downloaded in small sections and then have to be pieced together.  With these eventually downloaded and put together, we would eventually like to have a set of digital maps that will help us to navigate between communities, identify possible alternative routes, and plan the different stages of our journey.

 
We are also beginning to consider just how long walking across Canada might take. One lady who just began the Great Trail has estimated that it will take her 500 days to hike, cycle and paddle from coast to coast.  So that is a baseline from another person.  Our initial calculations are fairly straightforward. If we assume that we can comfortably cover somewhere between 25 and 35 kilometres per day, we can begin estimating the number of walking days involved. Of course, dividing 24,000 kilometres by our expected daily distance is only a starting point, particularly since the national trail includes branches, alternative routes, and extensive waterways that we cannot simply walk across!
 
We will also need to account for rest days, difficult terrain, seasonal weather, resupplying, and the time we hope to spend exploring communities along the way. Because of this, we suspect that developing even a preliminary itinerary will occupy a considerable portion of the coming year.
 
Fortunately, our preparations will not all involve sitting in front of computers – the very thing we hoped to avoid.   We intend to continue our regular hikes along Ontario's Bruce Trail, while also exploring local sections of the Great Trail and cycling some of the regional pathways connected to the national network. These outings should provide opportunities to improve our fitness, become more familiar with different trail surfaces, and begin testing the clothing and equipment we are considering carrying across Canada.

 
We are also hoping to spend some time in British Columbia throughout this year as we typically do.  In particular this summer, while visiting my parents in Sechelt on the Sunshine Coast, if circumstances permit, we may even take the opportunity to explore a section of the Great Trail by canoe or kayak!
 
Over the coming months, we will continue sharing updates about our research, route planning, training hikes, equipment choices, and the many other things involved in preparing for a journey of this magnitude. You may also notice occasional posts about hiking or cycling sections of the Great Trail, or exploring local pathways that form part of the larger national network.  Although our cross-country expedition will not begin until 2019, we are already discovering that planning to walk across Canada is quite an adventure in itself.
 
See you on the Trail!

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