Four Journeys on the Great Trail – Winter Reflections and Winter Decisions

What Our First Winter Outings Are Teaching Us About Planning to Walk Across Canada

 
Over the past several weeks, we have taken advantage of opportunities to explore four very different sections of the Great Trail, formerly known as the Trans Canada Trail, as we continue preparing for our proposed hike across Canada. From the snow-covered mountains of British Columbia to the frozen riverfronts, rail trails, and forests of southern Ontario, these outings have provided a wonderful introduction to some of the recreational possibilities offered by Canada's national trail network.  They have also given us quite a lot to think about, particularly when it comes to one of the larger questions surrounding our plans: Can we realistically expect to continue walking across Canada throughout the winter?

 
Our first outing took us into the mountains above West Vancouver, where my father and I spent a day snowshoeing between Glenmore and Cypress Provincial Park. The deep snow, beautiful evergreen forests, and mountain scenery provided an enjoyable opportunity to explore part of the Great Trail in British Columbia. However, the effort of travelling through the snow also left me with painfully cold fingers and toes, despite working hard enough to become uncomfortably warm beneath my winter clothing.
 
Not long afterward, while attending a conference, Sean and I found ourselves exploring the Great Trail along the Detroit River in Windsor, Ontario. This outing was very different, taking us through urban parks, along the exposed riverfront, and eventually through city streets towards Highway 401. Although the birdwatching was enjoyable – as the region is part of the Byways to Flyways program - the combination of bitterly cold winds and icy pathways made walking considerably more demanding than we anticipated.

 
Our third outing on the Great Trail was from Brantford to Paris on the Gordon Glaves Trail and SC Johnson Trail. This was one of our longest training hikes so far, covering more than twenty kilometres through a mixture of riverside pathways and former railway corridors. We were particularly impressed by the local trail infrastructure, historical signage, and community support evident along the route. Nevertheless, the cold wind encouraged us to maintain a steady pace throughout much of the day.
 
Most recently, we joined friends for an afternoon of cross-country skiing along the Hamilton–Brantford Rail Trail into the Dundas Valley Conservation Area. The snow-covered woodland corridor was beautiful, and we enjoyed watching winter birds and wildlife along the way. However, cutting our own ski tracks along a heavily used recreational pathway proved to be surprisingly strenuous. By the time we returned to Hamilton, we were exhausted, our legs ached, and the inner layers of our clothing were completely soaked with perspiration.

 
Individually, these outings have been enjoyable adventures. Together, however, they are raising some very practical questions about the feasibility of spending several consecutive winters on the Great Trail.
 

Staying Warm Is Not as Simple as It Sounds

                                                                                                          
Perhaps the most immediate concern is something we have encountered on every outing: the difficulty of regulating our body temperatures while exercising outdoors in winter.  When we begin walking, snowshoeing, or skiing, the cold encouraged us to bundle up in warm clothing. Yet once we started moving, particularly when climbing hills or travelling through deep snow, we quickly became overheated. Removing layers helps temporarily, but stopping to take photographs, watch birds, or enjoy a snack left us feeling chilled almost immediately.

 
The larger difficulty is what happens to our clothing over the course of the day and what it would mean for a longer hike.  Despite the cold temperatures, we frequently finish our outings with damp or completely soaked inner layers. During a short excursion, this is uncomfortable but manageable. We can return to the car, change into dry clothes, and find somewhere warm to enjoy a coffee.  On the Great Trail, however, we expect to be carrying our tent, sleeping bags, food, water, and other equipment on our backs. At the end of a winter day, there will likely or only rarely be a heated building for us, and we may have little opportunity to dry our clothing before setting out again the following morning.  Changing into dry clothes is one solution, but what happens to the damp clothing we have removed? In freezing temperatures, it may simply freeze overnight, leaving us with the unpleasant prospect of putting cold, stiff, and still-wet clothing back on the following day.  Repeating this process for several days, let alone weeks, is – to be blunt - not particularly appealing.
 
We also have to consider how carrying fully loaded backpacks might influence the amount of effort required to travel through snow. So far, our winter outings have been undertaken with relatively little equipment, and even then we have occasionally struggled to remain comfortable.  Adding another thirty or forty pounds to our backs is hardly likely to make things easier.
 

The Realities of a Canadian Winter

 
Having spent years living in different parts of Canada, we are certainly familiar with cold weather. We have experienced winter conditions in Ontario and British Columbia, and our regular travels aboard VIA Rail's Canadian and Ocean trains have provided opportunities to visit communities across the country during some particularly cold periods.  There is, however, a considerable difference between experiencing winter while travelling by train and attempting to live outdoors through it.  We have vivid memories of stepping onto railway platforms during winter stops in places such as Winnipeg, Manitoba, and Melville, Saskatchewan, where temperatures can fall towards -40°C. Even a short period outside in those conditions is enough to make us very grateful for the warmth of the train waiting nearby.

 
Imagining ourselves attempting to walk twenty-five or thirty kilometres, set up a tent, prepare dinner, and spend the night outdoors in such temperatures is considerably less reassuring.  We know that experienced winter travellers undertake remarkable journeys across northern Canada, and that there are people with the equipment, knowledge, and skills necessary to manage extreme cold. Indeed, many sections of the Great Trail are actively used for snowshoeing, cross-country skiing, snowmobiling, and other winter recreational activities – as we have experienced recently.
 
But there is an important distinction between being able to enjoy a section of the national trail during winter and attempting to use the winter months to make continuous progress across the country.
We are beginning to suspect that the latter may be beyond what we are presently prepared to undertake. 
 

Camping, Equipment, and Seasonal Services

 
The more we consider the practicalities of winter travel, the longer our list of questions becomes.

Camping is an obvious concern. The lightweight tent, sleeping bags, and other equipment we are considering for spring, summer, and autumn hiking may not be adequate for the temperatures and snow conditions encountered during a Canadian winter. We would likely need more substantial sleeping bags, additional insulating layers, different footwear, and possibly a tent better suited to winter conditions.  Preparing meals and obtaining drinking water could also become considerably more complicated. Some camping stove fuels perform poorly in extreme cold, and temperatures below freezing introduce additional difficulties when it comes to storing water, filtering it, and keeping essential equipment functioning.

We have already discovered that cold temperatures can drain the batteries in our cell phones and cameras surprisingly quickly. Since we expect to rely on electronic maps and GPS information during our journey, this is another matter requiring attention.

There is also the question of what services will actually be available along the route. During our recent skiing trip into Dundas Valley, we arrived at the Trail Centre expecting to find a place to purchase a snack and perhaps warm up for a few minutes. Unfortunately, the facility was closed. We could not determine whether it was closed for the day or for the winter season, but the distinction hardly mattered at that particular moment. It was unavailable when we arrived.

For an afternoon outing, this was little more than a disappointment. On a longer journey, however, finding that a grocery store, campground, restaurant, or other facility is closed could have much greater consequences.  As we research the Great Trail across Canada, we are discovering that many communities and recreational areas are strongly influenced by the seasons. Campgrounds, tourist facilities, and some businesses may operate only during the warmer months, particularly in smaller or more remote communities.

Winter travel would therefore require additional planning, and potentially longer distances between reliable opportunities to purchase food, obtain fuel, or find somewhere warm to rest.  All of this is making an already complicated undertaking seem considerably more challenging.

What Do We Do With All the Winter Equipment?

Another difficulty is the sheer amount of equipment we would need to carry or somehow transport between different regions.  We are currently trying to identify the clothing, footwear, camping equipment, and other supplies required for our proposed hike across Canada. Even limiting ourselves to three-season equipment involves considerable expense and a great deal of thought about what we can reasonably carry.  

Adding an entirely separate set of winter equipment would substantially increase both the cost and the complexity of our preparations.  Winter sleeping bags are generally heavier and bulkier than their three-season equivalents. Cold-weather clothing, insulated footwear, snowshoes, skis, and other equipment would all need to be purchased, transported, and stored.  After all, we cannot possibly carry everything required for every season throughout the entire journey.  This raises an obvious question: how would we switch between our summer and winter equipment while walking across Canada?

For example, suppose we find ourselves somewhere in northern Ontario or Manitoba when winter begins to arrive. How would we obtain our heavier sleeping bags, winter clothing, and other seasonal equipment from storage? Would we need to arrange for someone to ship them ahead? If so, how would we know exactly where we would be when the parcel arrived?  And what would we do with our lighter equipment in the meantime?  Even if we managed to arrange a suitable exchange in the autumn, we would have to reverse the process when spring eventually returned.  

To be honest, at the moment, this seems like a logistical nightmare in the making.  We are already spending an enormous amount of time researching maps, identifying potential resupply points, calculating walking distances, and trying to develop an itinerary for the Great Trail. Adding seasonal equipment exchanges across the country would introduce yet another set of complications.

And, of course, all of these arrangements would cost money.

The Financial and Physical Realities

Although we are preparing to sell our house and make substantial changes to our lives to undertake this expedition, that does not mean we have unlimited financial resources.  Quite the opposite.  We are trying to develop a plan that will allow us to spend several years walking across Canada while living as economically as possible. Purchasing an extensive range of specialized winter equipment, paying to transport it across the country, and potentially covering additional accommodation and transportation costs would place considerable strain on our budget.

There is also the question of whether we really want to spend several consecutive years walking without taking an extended break.  Our previous long-distance hikes along the Bruce Trail, Camino Francés, and Via Podiensis have given us an appreciation for what it feels like to travel on foot for weeks at a time. We know that walking can be physically demanding, even under favourable conditions.
However, our proposed journey across Canada is on an entirely different scale.

Rather than spending several weeks following an established route, we are contemplating an expedition that may require years to complete. We expect to encounter difficult terrain, long road sections, changing weather, and occasions when resupply points are separated by considerable distances.
We are beginning to wonder whether attempting to continue throughout every winter would be the most sensible way to approach such a journey.

Perhaps there is something to be said for stepping away from the trail periodically, allowing our bodies to recover, reviewing our equipment, and preparing for the next stage.  Taking a break after six or eight months of sustained walking could provide an opportunity to rest, recover from injuries, visit family, and reconsider our plans before setting out again.  It might also provide an opportunity to undertake some contract work and replenish the funds needed to continue.  At first glance, this seems like a much more manageable approach than attempting to remain on the trail continuously through every season.

Rethinking Our Plans for the Great Trail

So, after four enjoyable winter outings on the Great Trail, we are beginning to reconsider one of the assumptions underlying our original itinerary.

When we first began estimating how long it might take to walk across Canada, it was tempting to divide the total distance by the number of kilometres we hoped to cover each day. If we could average twenty-five to thirty-five kilometres per day, surely we could calculate approximately how many days would be required to complete the journey.  Of course, those calculations become considerably more complicated when we begin accounting for rest days, difficult terrain, weather, resupply, and the practical realities of living outdoors.

Now we are also seriously considering the possibility that we will need to stop walking altogether for several months each year.  This will undoubtedly extend the overall length of our expedition, but perhaps that is simply a reality we need to incorporate into our plans from the beginning.  Rather than trying to continue walking through the coldest months, we are increasingly inclined to organize our journey around the more favourable hiking seasons. Ideally, this would involve setting out in early spring, continuing through the summer and autumn, and stepping away from the trail as winter approaches.  We could then spend the colder months recovering, working, reviewing our equipment, and preparing for the next stage of the expedition.

Whether this approach will prove practical remains to be seen, and we still have an enormous amount of research to undertake. However, at the moment it seems like a more realistic option for two people attempting to walk across Canada on a limited budget.

None of this diminishes our enthusiasm for the Great Trail's winter recreational opportunities. Our outings in West Vancouver, Windsor, Brantford, and Dundas Valley have demonstrated just how varied and enjoyable the national trail network can be during the colder months.  We have snowshoed through beautiful mountain forests, watched birds along a frozen international riverfront, walked long stretches of former railway corridors, and skied through the woodlands of southern Ontario. Each experience has provided opportunities to explore new places, enjoy the outdoors, and discover more about the different trails that make up the national pathway.  And we would happily undertake similar outings again.

But enjoying a day on the Great Trail in winter and attempting to walk across Canada during the winter are two very different propositions.  For now, we think our best approach is to focus on hiking from early spring through late autumn, making as much progress as we reasonably can before stepping away from the trail for the coldest part of the year.  It may mean that our proposed expedition takes longer than we initially imagined, but we would rather devote our time and resources to exploring the country than spend our winters struggling to remain warm, dry, and adequately supplied.

After all, we are setting out to discover Canada, not to establish an endurance record.   And if these first four outings have demonstrated anything, it is that we still have plenty to consider before taking our first steps across the country next year in 2019!

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