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

Reflecting on a 14,000 km Trek Across Canada The Original Plan In June 2019, we dipped our boots into the Atlantic Ocean at Cape Spear, Newfoundland - the easternmost point of North America - and began walking westward. We carried everything we needed on our backs: a tent, sleeping bags, a stove, cameras, and an overwhelming sense that something in our lives had to change.   The original plan was simple – we estimated that it would take us 3 years of hiking 5-6 months per year, backpacking 25-35 km per day to walk 18,000 km on the Trans Canada Trail from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic.   The plan was clear, possible, and well-plotted out.     What we had not taken into account, however, was the unexpected, which between 2019 and 2022, would include (though not be limited to) snowstorms, hurricanes, floods, forest fires, trail closures, online harassment, death threats, long stretches of highway walking and an unprecedented global pandemic … that shut the...

Come Walk With Us #Hike4Birds on the TCT Over the past few weeks, since the publication of an article in Reader’s Digest Our Canada   magazine   about our #Hike4Birds we have gotten a lot of emails from people asking whether we are on the Trans Canada Trail , where we are in the Arctic and how we are doing.  We want to thank everyone for their concern and curiosity.   While many have wondered if we simply were not posting due yet to the lack of WIFI connectivity in the Arctic others have speculated that perhaps we had quit our coast to coast to coast trek altogether. Unfortunately, the answer isn’t as simple as either of these answers. Atlantic to Pacific, 2019-2022 As you know, on November 22, 2022 we arrived at Clover Point in Victoria and officially concluded the 14,000 km long Atlantic to Pacific portion of the Great Trail. In 2023, we had planned to hike from Fort Saskatchewan Alberta, north through British Columbia, the Yukon, and into the Arctic to get t...

While we have a great deal to still share about our ongoing adventure across Canada we thought we would also post about something new - the Bruce Trail.    Long before we set out onto the Great Trail or onto the Camino Frances to Santiago we set out onto the famous Bruce Trail in Ontario.   The Bruce Trail is 890 km in length tracing the Niagara Escarpment from Queenston Heights to Tobermory.   It is where our love of long-distance hiking began, where we completed our first thru hike, and where we learned so much about backpacking.   Trekked from 2014-2022 it took us nearly 10 years to complete the Bruce Trail in a series of day hikes, organized end-to-end events, and an educational thru-hike of the Peninsula Section. To be honest, when we took those first tentative steps onto the Bruce Trail we had no idea what we were doing, carrying a 4-person tent that weighed 12 lbs, enough outfits to have clean clothes for a week, and 12 days of food for 3 people.  ...

Trans Canada Trail in British Columbia Over a year ago now, in October and November 2022 we hiked into British Columbia on the Trans Canada Trail.   Owing to a combination and exhaustion over the past year we had yet to release blogs detailing our reflections on the TCT in a number of provinces.  Over the coming few weeks we hope to rectify this oversight and provide a general overview of each region, detail a few thoughts on our experiences in each, and perhaps help future hikers.  Much like Alberta the Great Trail in British Columbia has two distinct routes.   One of these routes traces along the southern border from Elkford to Vancouver and then across to Vancouver Island.   While the other, ventures north out of Alberta along the Dawson Highway to the Yukon where the trek to the Arctic Ocean begins in earnest.     The southern stretch of the TCT navigates from Alberta to Vancouver Island, is more than 1750 km in length, and includes mountain ...