Logistical Troubles with The Great Trail

 The Unexpected Logistics of Planning to Walk Across Canada

 
As we continue researching our proposed walk across Canada on the Great Trail, we are beginning to realize that planning a journey of this scale involves considerably more than identifying a route, estimating the distances between communities, and working out what equipment we will need to carry.
 
Two of the questions we have recently found ourselves considering are surprisingly simple: how do we get to the trail and how do we get off the trail?  Not that we are planning to quit, but for someone heading out on a day hike or spending a weekend exploring a local pathway, this may not seem particularly complicated. Most trails have established access points, nearby roads, parking areas, or communities from which it is possible to arrange transportation. However, when the intention is to walk across Canada over several years, the question becomes significantly more involved.

 
We are planning to spend much of each spring, summer, and autumn walking, before returning to work and family during the winter months. This means that, wherever we happen to be when each hiking season comes to an end, we will need to find a practical way to leave the Great Trail, travel across the country, and eventually return to precisely the same location to continue our journey.  All of which sounds straightforward enough until you begin looking at the map.
 

The Spaces Between Communities

 
Although The Great Trail (former Trans Canada Trail) connects an extraordinary number of Canadian communities, there are substantial distances between some of them. Sections through Newfoundland's Topsails, New Brunswick’s Fundy Footpath, the Charlevoix region and Sentier des Caps in Québec, the Prairies (as a whole), and the passes and backcountry routes of the Rocky Mountains are already raising questions about how easily we could leave the route if needed or heaven forbid, if necessary.

 
The difficulty is not necessarily that these places are impossible to reach. Many have logging and access roads nearby, and some are connected to communities offering transportation services. With that said, we are beginning to appreciate that reaching a roadway or a settlement does not automatically mean there will be a practical means of travelling onward.  If we become injured, need to return home unexpectedly, encounter deteriorating weather, or simply reach the end of our available hiking season, we cannot assume that we will be able to walk into the nearest community and board a bus or train.
 
We also have to consider our equipment. Travelling with backpacks, camping supplies, photography gear, and everything else required for an extended journey that we are trying to share presents different challenges than travelling with a small suitcase. A transportation connection may exist, but whether it can accommodate us and our equipment is another question.

 
Consequently, our research is beginning to extend a great deal beyond the Great Trail itself. In addition to examining the route, terrain, distances, accommodations, and resupply opportunities, we are investigating the railway lines, regional buses, and other transportation connections that might allow us to leave and rejoin the trail between hiking seasons.  All of which is (perhaps naively) unexpected for us at this late date.
 

Rethinking Our Original Itinerary

 
Our initial ambition, as we have shared, is to complete the journey in approximately three years. We hope to begin at Cape Spear, Newfoundland, and reach the Greater Toronto Area or southwestern Ontario during our first season. The following year, we intend to continue west across Ontario and the Prairies, hopefully reaching Calgary or perhaps even Victoria, British Columbia.  Our third year would then allow us to finish any remaining sections of the west coast before turning north toward Whitehorse and, if time and conditions permit, Tuktoyaktuk on the Arctic Ocean.
 
Admittedly, these are ambitious distances, and we have little idea yet whether our proposed schedule is realistic.  There are, after all, at least 3 people (Dana Meise, Sarah Jackson and Dianne Whelan) who had similar assumptions and took much longer than anticipated.  Nevertheless, as we continue studying the route, we are beginning to recognize that our hoped-for stopping points are being influenced as much by transportation connections as by the Great Trail itself.

 
Southwestern Ontario offers access to VIA Rail and several major transportation centres. Farther west, Winnipeg, Melville, Saskatoon, Edmonton, Calgary, and the Greater Vancouver Area provide possibilities for connecting with passenger rail, regional buses, and other transportation services – many of which we are familiar with after years spent travelling between home and school on VIA Rail’s Canadian train.   The catch being that these are not necessarily the places where we will be tired or where the weather will begin to deteriorate. However, they are places where we might reasonably be able to or should, conclude one year and also be able to resume our journey the next year without having to arrange lengthy or expensive transportation from a remote location. 
 
It should also be noted that this situation has become even more challenging since October 31^st, 2018, when Greyhound ended service in western Canada – effectively cutting off transit between communities in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta and British Columbia.  Even if other options arise, it will undoubtedly take time for them to be established and begin service. This creates, for us, a significant gap in what possibilities are open to us as we plan to head out in early 2019.  
 
In this way, our itinerary, we are beginning to understand, cannot simply be a calculation of distance divided by walking speed. It also needs to account for the time available each year and the transportation infrastructure surrounding the route.
 

Familiar Ways of Travelling

 
There is something rather unromantic and ironic about this discovery.  Over the years, we have spent a considerable amount of time travelling across Canada aboard VIA Rail's Ocean and Canadian, as well as on Greyhound buses. Between visiting family, attending school, and travelling for work, these services have long been familiar parts of our lives.  Now, as we prepare to explore Canada on foot, it appears that many of those same transportation connections may become essential to making the journey possible.

 
The challenge is that railway lines and the now limited bus routes do not necessarily follow the Great Trail. In some regions they come relatively close, providing several possible places to begin or conclude a section. Elsewhere, they diverge considerably, leaving lengthy stretches where the available options may be limited.    We are therefore trying to identify these gaps and transit hubs before setting out, rather than discovering them when we are exhausted, running out of time, or facing the approach of winter.  Of course, there is only so much we can anticipate. We have yet to trek long distances of the Great Trail, and it seems increasingly likely that our carefully constructed itinerary will undergo plenty of revisions once we begin.
 
For now, however, we are learning that preparing to walk across Canada means understanding more than the pathway itself. It also means understanding the country surrounding it, how its communities are connected, and how we might travel to and from those communities when our hiking seasons begin and end.  It is another layer of research we hadn't fully appreciated when we first imagined setting out from Cape Spear, but an important one if we hope to turn this ambitious idea into a practical journey.
 
See you on the trail!