For Those Who Come Next: Itinerary for Walking the Trans Canada Trail in Ontario

“I kept putting one foot in front of the other.”

Emma “Grandma” Gatewood
 

How long does it take to hike across Ontario on the Trans Canada Trail?

 
There are moments within a long journey where it becomes necessary to step slightly outside of the day-to-day routine of walking and reflect on what the path has actually required.   Our goal, as we walk from coast to coast to coast on the Trans Canada Trail, has always been to share each day of the journey and, in the process, help those who might have an interest in attempting something similar. To this end, this entry is about sharing our itinerary for hiking across Ontario.

 
In the process, we hope to answer questions that anyone might have about the province that we have recently concluded, such as:
 
What is it like to hike across Ontario on the Trans Canada Trail?
If you want to hike across Ontario, how long might it take?
If you want to hike across Ontario, what might the daily stages look like?
 

Understanding  the TCT in Ontario

 
Ontario was the sixth province of our #Hike4Birds on the Trans Canada Trail, though it did not arrive in the orderly way we had once imagined. In the original plan, we expected to continue across Quebec and into Ontario as part of a single east-to-west progression. Instead, COVID and the wider lockdowns in Quebec altered the approach we took to our journey and forced us to jump ahead and return to the province at a later date. In that sense, Ontario was defined from the very beginning by interruption and adaptation. It was not simply the next province in an orderly sequence. It was the province we entered because the larger plan had already begun to fracture.

 
By the time we crossed into Ontario, we had already learned that the Trans Canada Trail was not one continuous footpath across the country. We had walked coastal pathways and long rail trail across Newfoundland, the fragmented trail networks and road connectors in Nova Scotia, the refined pathways of the Confederation Trail in Prince Edward Island, the wilderness challenge and water-route complications of New Brunswick, and a small part of the developed cycling routes of Quebec. Ontario built on all of those lessons and then expanded them dramatically.
 
Ontario does not unfold as a single trail. It presents instead as a sequence of connected corridors that includes a combination of rail trails, waterfront routes, stretches of roadway, city pathways, cycling routes, northern highways, and rugged footpaths around Lake Superior.  Together, Ontario’s stretch of the national pathway was one of the most varied and complex provincial crossings we had yet encountered on the Trans Canada Trail.


En route, we began to use hiking carts and sun umbrellas originally purchased to prepare us for the trek across the prairies, owing to the unexpected daily temperatures.  In addition, en route, we gave increasing numbers of presentations to nature groups and Zoom talks to classrooms that had moved online.  Furthermore, the long stretch of the TCT in the Greater Toronto Area meant that rather than camping throughout the centre of the province, we often found ourselves in costly accommodations.  All of this changed the way we moved, what we packed and the way we understood the TCT as we walked.  As it seemed increasingly the fact, on the Trans Canada Trail, the itinerary was shaped not only by kilometres and terrain, but by the wider commitments and circumstances that surrounded the walk.
 

Hiking the TCT in Ontario

 
The Trans Canada Trail in Ontario is not defined by one type of landscape or one kind of trail. It is, instead, a vast and varied province. It contains some of the most accessible and enjoyable sections of the national pathway, especially through eastern Ontario, but it also contains some of the most difficult and mentally exhausting stretches we encountered, particularly once the route moved through the Greater Toronto Area and across the northern Great Lakes.

 
Broadly speaking, Ontario can be understood in several overlapping sections.
 
Eastern Ontario from Ottawa through a network of cycling routes, community trails, forests, and established corridors. At times, this section felt like a return to something manageable. The TCT led us off-road through beautiful wooded areas and gave us the sense of forward progress. Here, trails sections such as the Capital Pathways, the Cataraqui Trail, the K&P Trail and corridors toward Peterborough reminded us how manageable and beautiful the TCT could feel when off-road routes connected between communities.

 
By the time we reached the city of Ajax and the Greater Toronto Area, the national pathway had changed. Here, the challenge was not wilderness, remoteness, or lack of infrastructure, but navigating a larger urban centre consisting of city pathways, parks, and green spaces while often feeling under suspicion. As we had begun to learn in Quebec, metropolitan crossings are not necessarily easier because services are close by. They bring a different kind of pressure: more people, more scrutiny, more uncertainty about where one is welcome, and more mental effort required to move through spaces designed for recreation, commuting, or short local outings rather than long-distance national walking.  The greatest gifts here included the Pan Am Trail and the Waterfront Trail.

 
Central Ontario, from Hamilton onward lead us northward once again – continuing to lead us initially through the complexities of suburban communities while also intermittently taking us on stretches of exposed rural roads.   Here, the Trans Canada Trail intersected with places that were already familiar to us: Norfolk, Brantford, Paris, and other areas where we had once trained before setting out across the country. We also reconnected with the Bruce Trail, a route that had shaped our earlier hiking life in Canada.

 
Yet this was also where the heat became dangerous. In Kitchener, I had to leave the trail for several days owing to heat stroke. It was frightening, and it reflected not only the early spring heat wave that had caught us by surprise, but the increasingly exposed roadways we were now following. Ontario’s southern and central sections may look easier on paper than rugged coastal footpaths or remote northern routes, but exposed roads, rising temperatures, hard surfaces, traffic, and urban stress can quickly become their own kind of endurance test.

 
Beyond Barrie, a series of wonderful rail trails and cycling routes led us firmly away from the province’s largest city and back toward forests, eventually taking us up toward Midland before weaving into the Muskoka region. Here the province and the trail changed again. Cottage country, resorts, backroads, and “ghost roads” shaped our approach to the north. The line across the map continued, but the feel of the walk was different. We were no longer in the dense urban corridor, but neither were we yet in the open remoteness of our time in Atlantic Canada.


By the time we reached North Bay, we had travelled farther in a single province than in any other province in the country – and yet still had so far to go.  From that point onward, the TCT increasingly became a cycling route on local roads and regional highways. For us, on foot and with carts, that made for a terrifying experience at times. We followed the route as it navigated back southward before turning northward, then westward toward Sudbury, always on roadways that did not feel designed for pedestrians undertaking a national trek.


The City of Sudbury gave us a brief reprieve. The city brought us off the roads for a time and onto another Canadian Camino, the Sudbury Camino, which offered a reminder that meaningful walking routes could still appear even within a wider landscape of roads and highways. But that relief was temporary.

 
From Sudbury to Sault Ste. Marie, the route returned us to roads, with only a few smaller sections in local communities. This meant carrying more supplies than we had carried since Newfoundland, and it slowed our progress. It also led to a fair number of nights wild camping along regional roads, including one night beneath a giant statue of a Loonie. Yet even here, amid stress and exhaustion, we were grateful for the kindness and welcome we received in communities such as Whitefish, Nairn Centre, Espanola, Spanish, and Iron Bridge.


Sault Ste. Marie marked another turning point in our trek across the province.   Here, we mailed our trekking carts home. The route to the west was – even on a map - too discontinuous, along rugged terrain, and shaped by realities we could not easily overcome. The Lake Superior water route and the Path of the Paddle were not options we felt capable of taking on, nor did we have the equipment to do so. The alternative land route was broken across a number of sections and discontinuous towns across Northern Ontario. Logistics and cost intervened, and with no continuous land trail from Sault Ste. Marie to the Manitoba border, we had to piece together what we could.

 
We spent time in Lake Superior Provincial Park. We could not attempt the Pukaskwa Coastal Trail owing to the reservation and transportation costs. We made our own way to Marathon. We received generous assistance from volunteers connected to the Casque Isles Trail, a stunning and rugged stretch of trail that remains one of the physically memorable northern sections of the province. From there, we continued onward to sections in Nipigon and Red Rock, Sleeping Giant and the TCT in Thunder Bay, and Kenora’s small portion of the national pathway before finally making our way to the Manitoba border along the busy highway - the only route available to us beyond the paddling route.

 
The result was that much of the Trans Canada Trail west of North Bay, for us, was largely spent on roadways – much of which is the signed route of the national pathway. While we had encountered road connectors before, they had often been short: 2 km, 10 km, 25 km. In Ontario, road walking could stretch for hundreds of kilometres. That difference matters. It changes the mental exhaustion we experienced, it changes the realities and safety of the trek.  Finally, it changed how we camped, how much food we carried, and how much energy we spent not simply walking, but managing fear.
 
Along those roads, we had one difficult encounter with flying debris from a passing truck. We also found it unnerving to walk beside ditches that were, in places, literally filled with beer cans and empty whiskey bottles. For hikers, these kinds of details are not incidental. It tells you something about the road, the traffic, and the risks involved in being where you are each day.

 
Ontario, therefore, became one of the clearest examples of what the Trans Canada Trail is, and what it is not. It is not always a path through the woods. It is not always a rail trail. It is not always signed or intuitive. It is a national network made up of excellent trails, urban greenways, cycling corridors, rural roads, and highways, with logistical gaps and sections that require improvisation.
 
Ontario contained some of the best walking of the national pathway. It also contained some of the most stressful sections we have yet experienced.
 

Guide to Hiking the TCT in Ontario

 
This information is not a guide in the traditional sense. It is not prescriptive, nor is it intended to suggest that this is how the route must be walked. It is instead a record of how we crossed Ontario  - drawn from our journals, our daily shared blog entries, and the lived experience of our trek. 
 
We offer this information as a means to plan and ground your own trek – to have the same type of insights based on experience that we would have loved when we set out on the Great Trail. 

 
 However, at the time of writing this (2020) the existing guidebooks for the Trans Canada Trail are incomplete, and most are more than a decade old.  In some cases, the TCT has moved its route or expanded the trail system significantly.  Moreover, the fact remains that some provinces (Ontario, Saskatchewan and Alberta) don’t even have a guidebook, which means for those who come next, there is a huge absence of information about the national pathway.
 
This record exists for those who are considering a Trans Canada journey, whether on foot or by bike.  It is not meant as a template, and certainly not a promise that this is how your journey will turn out.  The information here – and in our daily blogs – is a glimpse of what one passage across the province from east to west looked like, for two particular people, in one particular year.

It must always be remembered that routes change, conditions vary, and circumstances are never the same twice – day to day, year to year, and hiker to hiker.

 
With that said, sometimes knowing where someone once walked, struggled and succeeded can make things easier at the end of a hard day on the trail.  Knowing that you are standing and walking where others once also did to can make a world of difference in moments of doubt.  We certainly took faith in knowing that Dana Meise, Sara Jackson, Dianne Whelan and Mel Vogel had come before us.
 

Stages and Itinerary for Hiking Across Ontario

 
Remembering that our trek on the Trans Canada Trail across Ontario took place in 2020, at the outset of our second year on the national pathway.   


Taken together, Ontario took 93 days to hike, completed over a span of 120 days in the province.  The larger number reflects days off trail, rest days, resupply days, and days we spent giving public presentations about our #Hike4Birds citizen science outreach.
 
That time was not defined by distance alone, but by a combination of factors, including weather, terrain, and of course, the realities of the world  – all of which slowed our progress. 
 

Itinerary for the Trans Canada Trail in Ontario

 
May 22, 2020 – Ottawa to Bell's Corners
May 23, 2020 – Bells Corners to Carleton Place
May 24, 2020 – Carleton Place to Almonte
May 25, 2020 – Carleton Place to Smith Falls
May 26, 2020 – Nature Presentation
May 27, 2020 – Via Rail to London (Heat Wave / Gear Change) – Off Trail
May 28, 2020 – Day Off Trail
May 29, 2020 – Day Off Trail
May 30, 2020 – Via Rail to Smith Falls (Summer Gear now) – Off Trail
May 31, 2020 – Smith Falls onto Cataraqui 35.3 km
June 1, 2020 – to Cataraqui 63 km marker
June 2, 2020 – Cataraqui 63 km to K&P
June 3, 2020 – K&P km 37 – K&P km 60
June 4, 2020 – K&P km 60 into Sharbot Lake
June 5, 2020 – Sharbot Lake Cottage – Day off
June 6, 2020 – 30 km beyond Sharbot Lake
June 7, 2020 – Sharbot Lake into Tweed
June 8, 2020 – Tweed to beyond Springbrook
June 9, 2020 – Springbrook into Campbellford
June 10, 2020 – Campbellford – Day off
June 11, 2020 – Campbellford to Settlers Rd
June 12, 2020 – Settlers Rd into Peterborough
June 13, 2020 – TCT around Peterborough – hiking and nature presentation
June 14, 2020 – Peterborough to Lindsay
June 15, 2020 – Lindsay to Blackwater Creek
June 16, 2020 – Blackwater Creek to Walker Woods
June 17, 2020 – Walker Woods into Ajax
June 18, 2020 – Ajax – Day off
June 19, 2020 – Ajax to Eglinton Go Station
June 20, 2020 – Eglinton Go Station to Toronto Downtown
June 21, 2020 – Toronto Downtown to Long Branch Go Station
June 22, 2020 – Long Branch Go Station to Oakville
June 23, 2020 – Oakville to Burlington Go Station
June 24, 2020 – Burlington Go Station to Hamilton
June 25, 2020 – Hamilton - Day off
June 26, 2020 – Waiting for replacement for damaged gear – Off Trail
June 27, 2020 – Waiting for replacement for damaged gear – Off Trail
June 28, 2020 – Waiting for replacement for damaged gear – Off Trail
June 29, 2020 – Hamilton Rail Trail to km 22
June 30, 2020 – Hamilton Rail Trail Km 22 into and across Brantford
July 1, 2020 – Brantford to Glen Morris
July 2, 2020 – Glen Morris to Kitchener – Heat Stroke and Collapse on Trail
July 3, 2020 – Day off - Sonya in Hospital – Heat Stroke
July 4, 2020 – Kitchener to Hawksville
July 5, 2020 – Hawksville into Elora
July 6, 2020 – Elora to Cataract Trail km 27
July 7, 2020 – Cataract Trail km 27 into Inglewood
July 8, 2020 – Inglewood into Beeton
July 9, 2020 – Beeton to Barrie
July 10, 2020 – Day off in Barrie
July 11, 2020 – across Barrie
July 12, 2020 – Barrie to Tiny Trail km 2
July 13, 2020 – Tiny Trail km 2 into Midland
July 14, 2020 – Midland to Uhthoff Trail 18 km
July 15, 2020 – Uhthoff Trail 18 km  into Orillia
July 16, 2020 – along Rama Trail, backtrack to Orillia
July 17, 2020 – Ramara to Doe Lake
July 18, 2020 – Doe Lake to Bracebridge
July 19, 2020 – around Bracebridge
July 20, 2020 – Bracebridge to Huntsville
July 21, 2020 – Across Huntsville
July 22, 2020 – Huntsville to Compass Lk
July 23, 2020 – Compass Lake to Dufferin Bridge
July 24, 2020 – Dufferin Bridge to Magnetawan
July 25, 2020 – Magnetawan to Jerusalem Rd
July 26, 2020 – Jerusalem Rd into Nipissing
July 27, 2020 – Nipissing into Nipissing Junction
July 28, 2020 – Day off
July 29, 2020 – Day off
July 30, 2020 – Nipissing Junction to North Bay
July 31, 2020 – North Bay to Sturgeon Falls
August 1, 2020 – Sturgeon Falls – Day off
August 2, 2020 – Sturgeon Falls to Lavigne
August 3, 2020 – Lavigne to Monetville
August 4, 2020 – Monetville to West Arm
August 5, 2020 – West Arm to Hagar
August 6, 2020 – Hagar to Norvic Motel
August 7, 2020 – Norvic Motel to Sudbury
August 8, 2020 – around Sudbury
August 9, 2020 – Day off
August 10, 2020 – Sudbury to Whitefish
August 11, 2020 – Whitefish to beyond Nairn Centre
August 12, 2020 – Nairn Centre to Espanola
August 13, 2020 – Espanola to Massey
August 14, 2020 – Massey to Spanish
August 15, 2020 – Spanish to Serpent River
August 16, 2020 – Serpent River Campground – Day off
August 17, 2020 – Serpent River to Blind River
August 18, 2020 – Blind River to Iron Bridge
August 19, 2020 – Iron Bridge – Day off
August 20, 2020 – Iron Bridge to Thessalon
August 21, 2020 – Thessalon to Bruce Mines
August 22, 2020 – Bruce Mines to Echo Bay
August 23, 2020 – Echo Bay to Sault Ste Marie
August 24, 2020 – TCT around Sault Ste Marie
August 25, 2020 – Day Off
August 26, 2020 – Day Off
August 27, 2020 – Rainstorm and Departing Sault Ste Marie
August 28, 2020 – Lake Superior Trail
August 29, 2020 – Lake Superior Trail / evening bus to Marathon
August 30, 2020 – Marathon Trek
August 31, 2020 – Marathon Trail continues
September 1, 2020 – Marathon to Terrace Bay
September 2, 2020 – Casque Isle Trail Day 1
September 3, 2020 – Casque Isle Trail Day 2
September 4, 2020 – Schreiber town
September 5, 2020 – Casque Isles Trail Day 3
September 6, 2020 – Casque Isles Trail Day 4 to Nipigon
September 7, 2020 – Nipigon to Red Rock
September 8, 2020 – Red Rock to Thunder Bay - local volunteer helps us
September 9, 2020 – York Simcoe Nature Club Presentation Online
September 10, 2020 – Day Off
September 11, 2020 – Sleeping Giant Provincial Park
September 12, 2020 – Sleeping Giant Trail Day 1
September 13, 2020 – Sleeping Giant Trail Day 2
September 14, 2020 – Sleeping Giant to Pass Lake - local volunteer helps us
September 15, 2020 – Thunder Bay
September 16, 2020 – Thunder Bay to Kenora - bus between communities / no trail
September 17, 2020 – 36 km beyond Kenora
September 18, 2020 – into Manitoba and Falcon Lake West
 

Position Within the Larger Journey

 
Ontario marked a major turning point in how we understood the Trans Canada Trail.
 
Up to that point, the journey had been shaped by provinces that each had a distinct landscape and style to the TCT.  Newfoundland taught us the difference between rugged coastal footpaths and long rail corridors. Nova Scotia introduced us to fragmentation and road connectors.   Prince Edward Island showed us what the national pathway could feel like when a province offered continuity. New Brunswick revealed the physical challenge of wilderness trails and the difficulty of navigating around a long official water route where there were no parallel land routes. And the beginning of Quebec that we had completed complicated the idea of a single continuous crossing by forcing us to confront interruptions to our plans and goals.

 
Ontario challenged us by gathering all of those lessons together and presenting them in a single province.
 
It was here that the idea of “walking across Canada” became less about following one line and more about navigating a series of interconnected systems. Ontario required us to move through urban pathways, cycling infrastructure, rail trails, rural roads, northern highways, community routes, rugged footpaths, and gaps where the land trail did not exist in any meaningful, continuous way for us.
 
It also forced us to adapt our gear and our expectations. We began pulling carts and using UV umbrellas because the heat made our previous approach unsustainable. We spent more time indoors than expected because of the long stretches in the Greater Toronto Area, in addition to the fact that requests for regular online presentations became part of the routine across Ontario.

 
For those looking to understand Ontario more fully within the Trans Canada Trail, this entry connects directly with our broader series:

 
Each offers a different perspective on the experience of exploring the TCT.
 

For Those Who Come Next

 
In total, it took us 93 days to walk more than 2500 kilometres along the Trans Canada Trail across Ontario, which is not the entirety of the national pathway in the province (which totals more than 4500 km), but which for us allowed us to visit the capital city and connect the route we were following between provinces.

 
It should also be noted that in the past and while training, we have hiked a number of additional trails of the TCT in Ontario, including: the Niagara Parkway, the pathways of the City of Windsor, and the Lynn Valley Trail in Norfolk County.
 
These sections in Ontario of the TCT represent the largest provincial collection of pathways on the Great Trail.
 
If you are considering walking across Ontario, know that it is possible to do so within a defined period of time. The route exists, the connections are there, and the province can be crossed in a continuous line from North to South before turning back North and resuming westward progress again.   This makes it a wonderful but long hike across a varied and beautiful region. 


If you are reading this because you are considering hiking across Ontario on the TCT, whether for a weekend or weeks or months at a time, we hope this listing helps in some small way.
 
Not because it tells you what to do, but because it shows what was possible under a specific set of circumstances, at a particular moment in time.
 
Your journey will not look exactly like this. It shouldn’t. Weather, wildlife, wildfires, construction, health, timing, and luck all shape how the TCT, each province and Canada as a whole reveal themselves. Some days will go farther than planned. Others will end early. Some will feel almost effortless; others will ask more than you expected to give.  Some will end in the joy of that day’s achievements, others will end in doubt and tears. 


What matters, in the end, is not matching someone else’s itinerary, but learning how to move through this landscape with the willingness to be adaptable, leaving no trace and with care.  If this record helps you plan, adjust, or simply imagine your own path, then it has done what it was meant to do.
 
We wish you safe walking, open eyes, and the grace to take each day as it comes.
 

See you on the trail!

Location: Kenora, ON P0V, Canada
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