Arctic Bound on the Trans Canada Trail

Arctic Bound on the Trans Canada Trail

North … as Far as we Can Go

 

"There are three kinds of lies: lies, damned lies, and statistics"

Mark Twain

 

The Trans Canada Trail by the Numbers

 

In late 2018, we broke down the Great Trail, now the Trans Canada Trail, mathematically. 24,000 km divided by 25 km a day gave us 960 days or 3 years (well, 2.6 years precisely) of hiking to get from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic.  This was a conservative estimate.  In the UK and Europe, we averaged 35 km a day and figured that as we hiked, our bodies would get more and more used to the rigours of the undertaking, and so our pace would only increase.  Some nights, we even wishfully speculated it could be all done in 2 years.  

 

Then we walked onto the trail and came to see (in so many ways) that clearly not all that can be calculated, put on paper, and hoped for is true in the real world.

 

All too soon, you realize that “500 Days in the Wild” quickly (well, not so quickly) becomes 6 years on the trail.

 

Learning to Expect the Unexpected

 

It would be on our first day on the TCT, the Easterly section known as the East Coast Trail, that would teach us our first lesson.  Instead of 25 or 30 or 35 km as we estimated the path, the topography of the land, and a freak summer snow storm would give way to us going exactly 15 km on our first day.  By the time we reached Halifax, some 1800 km beyond the Atlantic terminus of the TCT, we were 30 days behind, and our first year concluded not in Northern Ontario but in Riviere du Loup Quebec. 

 

Since 2019, the world and the trail have only increased the obstacles.  Hurricanes, tornadoes, extreme droughts, wildfires, floods and of course Covid have led to delay after delay.  

In addition to this, when we began the TCT, it was 24,000 km long.  In the years since, it has expanded to 28,000 km.  This means that it has added 4000 km to our route, which is equal to adding 4 Camino pilgrimages, or the entire Appalachian Trail, to an already improbably long hike. 

 

One Step at a Time

 

Yet we are still here pushing forward one step at a time. 

 

Trekking the northern branch of the Trans Canada Trail feels like starting a whole new trail.  Mathematically, the pathway from Edmonton, Alberta, through northern Alberta, northern British Columbia, the Yukon, and into the Northwest Territories makes the 3943 km route look doable in 4 or 5 months of trekking.   At 25 km a day, it can potentially be done in 158 days.    

 

Given our years of experiences and time spent being unexpectedly delayed, we very much doubt that the north will proceed anymore on schedule than the trek from the Atlantic to the Pacific.  With only Dana Meise (The Great Hike) and Mel Vogel (Between Sunsets) having hiked this section on foot by 2024, we have only a little insight into the unexpected challenges that we might encounter along the way.

 

Ultimately, like every other path and I suppose life, the Trans Canada Trail is more than just the math, more than the distances involved, and more than the route.

 

We are of course, both aware of some of the obstacles we face as we head north to the Arctic, such as the lack of amenities, vast distances between resupply points, and regional topography. In addition to this, we need to deal with the reality that most of this section is on a busy roadway, subject to wildfires, and that we now must be prepared for wildlife encounters such as grizzly and polar bears. 

 

So we will take everything one day at a time and admit that while our goal is to get to Tuktoyaktuk, we are settling out with tempered expectations to hike as far as we can as best as we can.  The rest is in the hands of fate, chance, and luck. 

 

See you on the Trail!