These activities consist of developing educational materials,
reaching out to potential collaborators and sponsors, delivering our
free presentation on the birds, wildlife and natural landscapes we've
seen on Canada's Great Trail, pursing opportunities to share the story
of our hike through podcasts and written articles, as well as editing a
soon-to-be-published photo retrospective on Atlantic Canada: A View from The Great Trail.
In addition, since postponing our expedition we have been featured by
Eh Canada Travel group, JourneyWoman.com, and She Inspires Me: The
Woman’s Portrait Project, been asked to give a virtual presentation at
the Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington, Ont. and been highlighted by
Adventure Blog, HipCamp, and The Great Trail. During this period we have
also become involved in helping various regions develop ‘Nature in the
City’ programs, as well as advising teachers on setting up backyard and
schoolyard bioblitz projects.
We cannot wait to return to the trail, but our outreach efforts have
taken on a new significance for us since the pandemic began. One of the
goals of our hike is to reconnect youth to nature through birds and
citizen science, with the hope that we can spark a sense of excitement,
wonder, and curiosity that will inspire a new generation of explorers,
environmental stewards, and community leaders who are grounded and
empowered. While living under lockdown, many Canadians have striven to
learn about nature, reconnect to the outdoors, and in the process have
become increasingly interested in birding. This surge in interest in
Canada’s natural places and wild spaces has meant that we have seen a
corresponding interest in our trek and outreach. For this reason we have
come to see that expeditions are more than the steps you take, more
than the ‘planting of the flag,’ and much more than reaching the final
goal — they are also about seizing unexpected opportunities along the
way.
Although we've had an unprecedented opportunity to reach out to new
audiences who were looking for ways to connect to nature for the first
time, we've also observed and experienced the negative mental health
effects of losing the balance between screen time and green time. Online
resources can be fantastic tools for learning, motivation, and
inspiration, but spending too much time on social media, where
uninformed opinions, harmful speculation, and hateful commentary appear
alongside scientific fact, creative endeavors, and opportunity can
distort our perception of reality. Now more than ever it is clear that
digital landscapes are no replacement for natural ones. Navigating an
online world that readily responds to a simple delayed departure by
gleefully labeling us 'losers' and 'epic failures' for 'giving up'
requires an immense amount of courage from young people who haven't yet
developed the self confidence that is born of personal experience. Amid
the born digital generation — many of whom seem to believe that all is
known, that everything can be ‘Googled’ and that there is little point
in retreading old pathways — there is a need to foster positive examples
and to continue positive outreach to aspiring explorers to assure them
that there is still much to be discovered and that there is a network of
support for their curiosity.
By sharing our experiences on the Great Trail, which include not just
good days, successes, and Canada's beauty, but also bad days,
situations that require tough choices and changes in plan, and some of
Canada's historical and cultural challenges, we hope our journey can
provide an example of how step by step ordinary people can realize
extraordinary dreams. Pushing the limits of our knowledge, whether it's
curing a disease, traveling to Mars, or developing solutions to climate
change, requires innovation, creativity, adaptability, perseverance, and
multiple tries. As we wait to continue our journey on the trail, we're
dedicating our time towards redefining how failure is perceived and
finding ways to encourage youth to explore, discover, learn, and connect
with themselves and the natural world – one step at a time.
We invite you to "Come Walk With Us" on our #Hike4Birds as we continue to hike across Canada on the Great Trail.
Find the 'Come Walk With Us' expedition team online, on Facebook, Twitter or Instagram. At this point, the pair hope to get started when the current COVID-19 lockdown in Ontario lifts, on June 2.
