Trans Canada Trail to the North : Two routes, Two Possibilities

 Choosing a Way to the Arctic

“May your choices reflect your hopes, not your fears.”
Nelson Mandela

For much of our #Hike4Birds across Canada, the Trans Canada Trail has followed a more or less continuous route.  While the landscapes, communities and even cultures along the trail have shifted from province to province – and though the composition and signage of the pathway have altered – the idea of a single, connected route remained. 

 
This sense of a singular trail changes in the north. 
 

Hike or Paddle

 
Just a couple of days beyond Fort Saskatchewan the Trans Canada Trail divides into two distinct routes – not as a spur, or detour – but as two unique and fundamentally different ways to progress to the Arctic. The first is the land trail that weaves into Northern BC, the Yukon and then the Northwest Territories – mostly on the side of roads and highways.
 
The second is the water route that moves north through Alberta and directly into the NWT en route to the Arctic Ocean and follows the Athabasca River to Lake Athabasca before tracing the Slave River en route to Great Slave Lake, where it joins with the Mackenzie River. 
 
After Athabasca, these two routes will only next intersect in the communities of Tsiigehtchic and later in Tuktoyaktuk on the shores of the Arctic Ocean.

 
While river routes and water trails are not unique to the TCT – we have encountered them in Cape Breton, Ontario, Saskatchewan and British Columbia - this is perhaps the most distinct divide in the trail that we will encounter anywhere along its length.  The result is not simply a choice of routes but a decision which fundamentally alters one’s approach, gear, and required skills.
 
Though the beauty of the water route is fascinating to consider, and while we did kayak, paddleboard, and sail the Salish Sea Marine Trail on the Pacific Coast, we know that we do not have the skillset or abilities to undertake a voyage along the Athabasca, Slave and Mackenzie rivers.  Each of these waters have their own histories, cadence and power.  They require expert knowledge and experience to navigate, as well as a deep respect for the challenges that could and likely would arise while paddling them.   They are certainly beyond our ability to handle.  To set out onto this route would be neither honest nor responsible. 

 
Knowing when not to take on a route or journey is as important as knowing when to step forward.  As such, we are setting out to hike the other route...the land trail, which we will follow for the next two years.
 
We will reach the Arctic in the same manner as we reached the Atlantic and Pacific – on foot with our backpacks on.
 

Walking North

 
While it might be seen that continuing along the land route is the lesser or easier path, the numbers and logistics speak of the challenges ahead.  To hike from Fort Saskatchewan to Whitehorse, to Dawson City and onward to the Arctic Ocean is a trek of approximately 3868 km.  This distance is tempered by harsh realities – the topography of the Rocky Mountain range, long distances between resupply points, limited services, exposure to weather, a “trail” that is on the shoulder of first the Alaska and then the Dempster highways, and sustained remoteness.  It is a route that requires preparation, adaptability and accepting all the possible unknowns that might well arise on the way.  Through remote corridors, across territorial boundaries and into landscapes that range from forests, to foothills, to permafrost, to tundra. 
 

Given these already abundant challenges in front of us, as we step back onto the national pathway, we have opted to choose the route that our skills and experience made us best prepared for which hopefully also makes it the route that we will be able to successfully complete – when we touch the Arctic waters in Tuktoyaktuk in 2025!
 
See you on the Trail!