Come Walk With Us on the Trans Canada Trail (TCT)

For the past couple of months since leaving the trail we have admittedly been lax in posting regular blogs.  While that is largely a reflection of the fact that our day to day lives off The Great Trail are rather mundane, it was also the result of the fact that we have spent much of our time giving presentations to nature groups, hiking clubs and schools as well as striving to publish a number of articles on our trek.  Unfortunately despite our efforts we have met with a slew of rejections for sponsorship, publications on birding Canada, our hike, and the various trail sections that we have covered.   While a number of reasons have been given, the simple fact is that time is moving on and so we have decided to refocus our efforts back into planning 2021, giving presentations, editing pictures (hopefully for a photobook), and publishing the regular blog.   The following entry - which is largely a review of the challenges of hiking during Covid - also serves as a way of introducing the f

A huge #thanks to the talented Sophie Woodrooffe of the Coast Reporter for the wonderful article on our 24,000km #hike4birds on The Great Trail ! Always exciting for someone who spent almost two decades in Sechelt on British Columbia's gorgeous Sunshine Coast! Looking forward to getting to #britishcolumbia in 2022!   Cross-Canada birders aim for Sechelt this December Sophie Woodrooffe / Coast Reporter January 14, 2021 11:34 AM They began in Newfoundland in 2019, got as far as Quebec in 2020 and by December 2021 two hikers with a Sechelt connection are hoping to make it to the Sunshine Coast.  Sonya Richmond and her partner, Sean Morton, have been walking across Canada on the 24,000-kilometre Great Trail to promote citizen science and birding. So far, they’ve hiked more than 6,500 kilometres. Richmond, an ornithologist and former GIS analyst with the charity Birds Canada, and Morton sold their house in Ontario and are relying on donations and sponso

Before the New Year we had the wonderful chance to talk with the gracious Mary Baxter of TVO's The Agenda !  During the interview we were fortunate to be able to share some of our tales from the trail, talk about nature and the need to keep youth connected to the outdoors,  discuss some of the challenges we have encountered as well as highlighting the wonderful support we have received.   It was a great opportunity to share our story and introduce more people to the joys of Citizen Science and Birding here in Canada!   To access the original article please click on the link embedded in the title!   Hiking Canada’s Great Trail in the name of Citizen Science TVO.org speaks with bird ecologist Sonya Richmond about why she and her partner quit their jobs, sold their house — and set out to explore the world’s longest recreational trail Mary Baxter Jan. 6th, 2021     Sonya Richmond and Sean Morton in Arnold, Newfoundland, in 2019. (Daniel Baylis) LONDON — In 2019, Sonya Richmo