“I found out long ago
it’s a long way down the Holiday Road
Jack be nimble, Jack be quick
Take a ride on a West Coast kick”
Lindsey Buckingham – Holiday Road
When we set out in 2018 onto the East Coast Trail – the most
easterly part of the Trans Canada Trail – and again in 2019 from Cape Spear
Newfoundland on the Great Trail to begin our cross country #Hike4Birds we knew
some of what to expect but could never have phantomed the range of adventures
and obstacles we would experience en route before arriving at the Pacific Ocean
some four years later.
In the 540 days we have ventured across Canada we have dealt
with freak snow storms and flooded trails in Newfoundland, Hurricane Dorian in Nova Scotia and its destruction in PEI, intense winter cold in Quebec, tornado
warnings in southern Ontario, historic droughts in Manitoba, thick prairie mud
in Saskatchewan, and dense forest fire smoke in Alberta – just to name some of
the most prominent. This year, British Columbia has also presented us with forest fires, logging operations, trail development, and the construction of the Trans
Mountain Pipeline.
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This is not to suggest that things have been all bad of
course. There is no denying that since
we set out from the Atlantic Coast we have had wonderful opportunities and met
terrific people. Throughout this past
year we have enjoyed great luck including great weather as we completed Quebec,
smooth sailing and welcoming kindness in Alberta, and unseasonably warm weather
in southern British Columbia for October and November. All of which has made trekking throughout
2022 easier than we ever could have anticipated. While we have had a few nights and mornings
recently which have been cold and produced snowfall the truth is that this
entire undertaking could have been much much harder. To everyone along the way and online who have eased our path forward we heartily thank you!
Over the past month we have been notified by regional trail
builders and hikers that we had a problem on our horizon – the 156 km section
of the TCT from Princeton to Hope cannot be traversed. While officially it is simply closed the fact
is that much of this section of the KVR and TCT is essentially non-existent.
This has meant that rather than continuing our
hike along the national pathway from Princeton to Hope our options were to simple go around this section as we have with water trails in the past or to navigate
our way to the edge of the Greater Vancouver Region along unappealing local
roadways and speeding highways.
Unfortunately this is not a new circumstance for the KVR or
TCT in this area. Bruce Obee, the author of the now dated TCT guide for British Columbia published in 2008 notes, at
the best of times “parts of the historic Kettle Valley Railway from Hope [to
Princeton] have been washed out by rivers, bulldozed by industrial road
builders, or paved over by highways” amid a section where “derelict trestles
have tumbled into ravines, collapsed tunnels have become impassible and
constructed stone walls still hold the railbed tight against the cliffs.” The realities of which are offset by the fact
that “the scenery’s great, the history is visible, and the route [along the
Trans Canada Trail] is a welcome reprieve from the traffic on Highway 5”. While other parts of this stretch of the KVR
are “comprised of industrial roads, railway beds, and trails”.
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In 2021-2022 according to online forums the stretch from Princeton to Hope remains severely damaged, washed out, subject to landslides, rock slides and historic amounts of
water as a result of the catastrophic floods and forest fires in November of
2021. The extent of the regional destruction throughout
the Fraser Valley and River Delta – even more than a year later – is
stunning. When you visit communities
that still do not have potable water, where many are living in motels and RVs rather
than their homes, where insurance companies have used loopholes to refuse
claims, where government officials debate rather than assist, and where
townsites are still at risk from future weather events you are left humbled. From Penticton to Princeton, while visiting
Merritt, and as we moved onward to Hope it is clear that it is not just that
the Trans Canada Trail is broken here but more essentially that the local
communities filled with strong willed and hardworking individuals have also been irrevocably shattered.
online trail image of KVR damage 2021
Finding information
on the extent of the closures and potential challenges has not been easy. The Trans Canada Trail's own website which purports to have up to date
information on the pathway from coast to coast to coast lists the entire system
as open and useable. Our emails to the TCT asking for information over the past two weeks received no response.
Similarly several
cycling companies who operate along the Kettle Valley Rail Trail suggested that the entire pathway could still be ventured
along but that they could only share specifics if we purchased a tour
package. This stood in contrast to what
we were regularly hearing from almost every regional hiker, cyclist, or trail builder we met who consistently reiterated the extent of the trail damage west of Princeton. Thankfully local Tourism offices were honest and advised us to take another route such as the amazing and Historical Hudson’s Bay
Trail – which given the season is beyond our means to traverse.
In
addition to these assessments we have the advantage of trekking so closely
behind the intrepid Mel Vogel (@betweentwosunsets) who is presently only some
5-7 days ahead of us as she nears the completion of her own epic trek from the
Atlantic to the Arctic to the Pacific.
Her Facebook posts and emailed messages - which reflect her recent
experiences - have been bluntly honest and filled with important advice. She has noted that the trail – in small sections –
can be navigated but that one spends more time on the suggested roadways and busy
highways. Mel highlighted that even the
suggested alternative highway routes are under construction, that they are at
times impassible, and that they often push trekkers into dangerous situations
involving traffic. Alternatively if one
attempts to trek on the TCT from Princeton to Hope they must expect to deal
with washed out rail trestles, mudslides, landslides, closed tunnels, forest
fires, and locating a pathway which for all practical purposes no longer
exists.
Adding
to all of this, over the past week the ongoing “atmospheric river” - the
Weather Network’s term for a great deal of rain and potentially snow at the
higher elevations - only served to make this stretch that much more dangerous. Indeed
the rainfall has averaged from 5-10 mm per day to 35-55 mm per day. For us the answer was clear – at present it
was not and is not practical, safe or responsible for us to attempt to navigate
the trail closure of the Trans Canada Trail from Princeton to Hope. Indeed even the suggested replacement route
down busy roadways and highways – which we ultimately did navigate – was in itself
wildly unsafe to propose as an feasible alternative for hikers and cyclists use.
Our
original schedule on the TCT would have taken us :
Day
1 – Princeton through Colemont to Tulameen
Day
2 – Tulameen through Otter Lake to Brookmere
Day
3 – Brookmere to Coquihalla Lake
Day
4 – Coquihalla Lake to Portia Station
Day
5 – Portia Station through the photogenic Othello Tunnels to Hope
Instead, being unable to venture along the Trans Canada
Trail we had to navigate roadways and busy highways well off trail and amid vehicles
travelling at high speeds, down forest service roads busy with workers building
the Trans Mountain Pipeline, around ongoing road and highway construction and
through inclement weather. What should
have been a relaxing few days on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail and Trans Canada
Trail instead turned into regularly playing ‘Russian Roulette’ in areas that no
hiker has any sane expectation to be. In
the process – given the loss of bridges and trails along the route – we did not
trek along the TCT once we left Princeton or again until we reached Hope some seven days later. It was altogether a depressing turn of
events and not how we wanted our last days on the KVR before the
cityscapes of the Greater Vancouver Region to be.
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Yet
while we are personally disappointed to have bypassed this section of the
Trans Canada Trail the fact is that we set out on this journey to take part in
and explore the Canadian Experience. Sadly these days the Canadian Experience now
regularly includes natural disasters whether that be the collapse of the cod
fisheries in Newfoundland, hurricanes across the Maritimes, severe droughts in
the prairies, or regular wildfires and floods across British Columbia. Each of which leave families homeless, essential
roadways undermined, businesses destroyed, and communities shattered. Add to
all of this the current economic situation which is increasingly pushing people
out of the system and there is no denying that the “new normal” ain’t easy for
anyone anymore and the future is not clear.
While
the TCT and local pathways are clearly not a priority to repair amid such
crisis and while local communities remain shattered. However if as a nation in the 21st century we cannot
restore basic services to towns in the 12 months following such disasters then we have a crisis of larger proportions in this country. Yet little pressure seems to exist to stop the political debates and just get things done. As happens so often, once the media has stopped focusing on the drama of the
moment such areas are quickly forgotten by Canadians.
While
I have no specific answers to these challenges I am nonetheless certain that
our governments and Canadians can and must do better to help one another.
With
all of these matters aside, today we arrived into Hope, BC with only an
estimated 10 days left to get to Vancouver’s Horseshoe Bay and the Pacific
Ocean and an additional 7 days to trek the length of Vancouver Island from
Nanimo to Victoria where the west coast terminus of the TCT awaits us. Yet after all we have seen of these
devastated communities we have the strongest sense that while we are so very
close to the end, that it is still nonetheless “…a long way down the Holiday Road.”
Tomorrow
we return to the Trans Canada Trail as we continue onward. From Hope to Agassiz the TCT is 32 km of
hiking on the side of HWY 7 also known as the Lougheed HWY. Some 10 km beyond Agassiz in Chilliwack we
are due to get off these roadways and back onto actual pathways which we hope
will make things somewhat more enjoyable.
Yet so much may still change these plans and routes. These
days even going for a hike isn’t so simple and our late arrival in the season
seems set to make things a little more challenging than we had hoped for.
Here
is to hoping that brighter and easier days are ahead for all of us as we strive
toward our goals together.
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