Striving to Find Balance : Challenges and Uncertainty
We have not published regular blogs in a while. For that we apologize.
Don’t worry we are still here, and still dreaming of continuing. We are still giving dozens of free presentations every month to youth groups, naturalist clubs, and hiking organizations across Canada about our time on the Trans Canada Trail.
We both recognize that there is a lot to say about our amazing experiences in 2021 crossing Quebec, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan getting to Alberta. We know that there are a ton of wildlife and birding experiences as well as moments from the Trans Canada Trail that we have yet to share. However both of us have found it hard to find the right words lately to summarize our time throughout third year on the Trans Canada Trail during which we ventured from the shores of the St Lawrence Seaway across Manitoba’s vast open landscapes and to the rolling hills of western Saskatchewan and eastern Alberta.
Unfortunately our small trek is no different, and perhaps in such a complex world our hike no longer matters.
It seems that every experience we share is subject to doubt and ridicule. Each sighting or observation we make is a basis for error. And each comment we make is the focus of judgment and critique. And so we have gone silent, if only for our own peace of mind.
The fact is that right now is a tough time to be positive and inspirational.
"O Muse! Sing in me, and through me tell the story of that man skilled in the ways of contending, a wanderer, harried for years on end…”
Homer, The Odyssey
Heartbreak and Frustration
From our final day on the TCT in Montreal onward so much for us has been a challenge. What we thought was a huge achievement – crossing the 10,000 km mark in our expedition at the Trans Canada Trail head office – instead quickly transformed in a moment of humility and heartbreak.
After years of hard work
and struggle it quickly became clear that no one even seemed to know we existed
or that our efforts mattered. Even
though we had spent more than 3 years on the Trans Canada Trail, even though we are one of the TCT’s own Pathfinders
and even though we were a Royal Canadian Geographical Society Expedition we were not known or acknowledged.
While we have sought to find the positive in this moment the fact is that we were both pretty devastated. It was a moment that cast a shadow on everything.
Since Montreal we have heard back from nature groups, hiking clubs and people across Canada who have inquired to the TCT about us and who all seem to receive the same depressing response:
“Nifty! Thank you so much for bringing this interesting individual to our attention! We had no idea that someone had invested so much time and effort into the Trans Canada Trail! We have never heard about Sonya Richmond and we promise to spend some time looking into her and discovering about her cute trip! Thank you for taking the time to reach out to us and tell us about how much you enjoy the Trans Canada Trail! Please consider donating to support the national trail system. Take Care”
As such we have struggled with the question of whether there is any point in continuing if no one even knows we are out here? Are we even having an impact? Have our efforts inspired anyone? Is all of this worth it only to be either ignored or attacked?
Beyond this situation, Sean has worked hard throughout the past couple of years to get noticed by professional photographers and artists and see if we could publish some of our experiences and his amazing images. We had hoped to spend the winter of 2021-2022 developing many of his pictures of the nation and its wildlife into something larger. Instead we have been noted by photography forums as “cute amateurs” who lack art degrees. We have had our applications for art residencies to share the nation turned down. And almost every publishing house we have approached about producing a photography book of Canada: A View from the Trail has been rejected as not good enough or as not being produced by an established professional. And so it now seems that even our photography has met with a dead-end.
Adding to these disappointments we have had a number of other challenges throughout the winter.
In December 2021 our Paypal account was accessed by someone who quickly transferred the funds in our hiking account meaning that we lost the earnings from our calendar and card fundraising at the end of last year creating some very real financial challenges for us.
Following this, in early 2022 both our email and social media accounts were also accessed and used to spread false stories about us as well to nature groups, hiking clubs and schools as well as asking various groups that we be taken out of contention for awards and sponsorship considerations.
In addition to which, in recent weeks we have been contacted by an individual who has been contracted and who has been fully funded to “properly blog and professionally photograph” the Trans Canada Trail. They in turn have asked us for advice on equipment, asked for copies of our pre-expedition notes and to borrow our copies of the dated TCT guide books to help them and even wanted our advice on how to photograph the nation. Leaving us feeling that while we have struggled for support others have excelled were we were unable to.
And so we are also left with the question as to whether we are even properly blogging or photographing the nation?
This brings us to our next challenge. Given that unfortunately this past week we also came to the conclusion of our tenure as a Royal Canadian Geographical Society Expedition.
For which we would like to take this opportunity to thank the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for supporting our #Hike4Birds across Canada on the 28,000 km Trans Canada Trail in 2021! There is very little funding available for exploration and discovery in Canada, and we were thrilled to receive $2,000 through the RCGS Major Grant for Expeditions in 2021, especially given the substantial costs we faced from extra travel, multiple quarantines, and campground closures resulting from the global pandemic. It was an honour and a privilege to carry RCGS Flag #5 across three provinces last year, from the Laurentian Mountains along the Saint Lawrence River in Quebec, across the Prairies in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, to Alberta's eastern border. Despite spending more than eight weeks last spring in lock-down, we ultimately walked more than 3,500 km during a global pandemic, a drought, and an extreme heat wave, and reached some important milestones, including spending more than 400 days on the trail, completing 10,000 km on foot, and giving our 100th free educational presentation. In the past year alone we shared 170 blog posts (bringing our total to over 700), hundreds of social media updates, thousands of amazing pictures of the nation, written 20 travel pieces for Eh Canada Travel, been featured in 35 articles in the media, and four podcasts, and continued to collect both scientific and academic data for researchers across Canada.
In 2021, our efforts were recognized by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, Sonya received the Inspire award from the Universal Women’s Network and was nominated for the Canadian Museum of Nature’s Nature Inspiration Award! While Sean became a Fellow of the Royal Canadian Geographical Society for his photography and outreach.
Despite these achievements and overcoming the challenges of 2022, we once again are on our own and without support as well as having little motivation to continue.
We have never felt more than now that it seems that so much of the world is actively pushing against anyone striving to accomplish something, to explore, or to do something unique.
Doubt and Uncertainty
As hikers and pilgrims know, not everything you carry with you is in your backpacks unfortunately this past year has added a great deal to what we all carry inside.
While the focus of our #Hike4Birds has never been to get praise or recognition and we certainly don’t rely upon a government organization for validation. Yet the fact remains that being noticed is inherently connected to us striving to helping birds, getting youth interested in the outdoors and reconnecting with nature. It was always going to be more important to show Canada to Canadians, to meet with people across the nation, to share the wonders we have seen en route, and to encourage youth to explore their communities and the nation.
The peoples of Canada have always been the source of our encouragement and support. Just as the landscapes of the nation have always been the true basis of our wonder.
What Comes Next?
The past few weeks have flown by with travel becoming easier but our way forward is not much clearer.
So what comes next? Well...we honestly have no answers.
More than anything we want to send out a huge thank you to all the groups and Canadians from coast to coast to coast, as well as the amazing Royal Canadian Geographical Society for being part of our epic journey and for helping us get as far as we have!
What comes next is yet to be determined but we will always continue to promote diversity in the outdoor community, encourage youth to connect with nature through birds and Citizen Science, use photography and digital storytelling with the goal of making Canada better known to Canadians and the world.
For now we wait at the crossroads, hope for clarity, and wait to see if we can find a way forward.
“It was the best of times,
it was the worst of times, it was the age of
wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was
the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of
Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had
everything before us, we had nothing before us,…”
Charles Dickens, A Tale of Two Cities
Remember to follow our entire adventure here : www.comewalkwithus.online
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