Beyond the Trail: Sharing What We Learned Walking Across Canada

Questions and Answers about Hiking the Trans Canada Trail

 
Standing on the shores of the Arctic Ocean in Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories, we had finally reached the northern end of a journey that began more than six years earlier at Cape Spear, Newfoundland. After almost 18,000 kilometres and 759 days on the Trans Canada Trail, we had travelled from the Atlantic to the Pacific and north to the Arctic, exploring an extraordinary network of trails, roads, waterways, and community pathways that connect much of Canada.

 
When we began researching this journey in 2018, one of our greatest challenges was finding practical information about what travelling the Trans Canada Trail from end to end might actually involve. There were maps, regional trail descriptions, cycling resources, dated guidebooks, and short accounts of individual adventures, but remarkably little information that brought the entire national network together from the perspective of someone attempting to travel across it. Questions about trail conditions, accommodation, camping, resupply, equipment, and the distances between communities often required considerable research, and even then, the answers were not always clear.

 
Over the years, we came to appreciate just how complicated the Trans Canada Trail could be, not simply because of its enormous length, but because it was never a single, continuous wilderness footpath. It connected established hiking trails, former railway corridors, urban greenways, rural roads, cycling routes, waterways, and remote northern landscapes. Understanding how these different sections fit together, what activities they accommodated, and what conditions a traveller  - whether hiking, cycling, snowmobiling, ATVing, or paddling, -- might encounter was an important part of preparing for the journey.

 
After arriving in Victoria, BC and connecting the Atlantic and Pacific Coasts on the TCT, we sought to answer questions we were being asked about our experiences on the national pathway over the course of the first 14,000 km of our hike.  Having now completed our coast-to-coast-to-coast travels, we wanted to return to some of the questions that first confronted us and share some of the knowledge we learned along the way.
 
Questions such as: What exactly is the Trans Canada Trail, and why might someone choose to explore it? Is it possible to hike the entire network from coast to coast to coast? Can the same journey be undertaken entirely by bicycle? What equipment is necessary, and which of the items we carried proved useful or unnecessary?  What technology did we use to navigate?  Or to photograph and post our daily blogs while on the trail?  Where can travellers camp, find accommodation, obtain food, and replenish supplies? How difficult is it to cross Canada using the national trail network, and which sections presented the greatest challenges?

 
There were also questions that could only be honestly answered through experience. What was the hardest part of our journey? Where did our preparations prove inadequate? What mistakes did we make, and how did we respond when circumstances forced us to change our plans? And perhaps most importantly, what did six years of walking across Canada teach us about the country, its landscapes, its communities, and ourselves?
 
In the entries that follow, we hope to explore these questions while also bringing together the planning guides we developed for each province and territory, including information relevant to both hiking and cycling the Trans Canada Trail. Drawing upon our research, journals, photographs, and experiences, these articles are intended to provide a more detailed understanding of the national pathway, its regional differences, and the practical considerations involved in travelling along it.

 
Our intention is not to present the Trans Canada Trail as an uninterrupted series of spectacular landscapes or extraordinary adventures. Some sections were beautiful and rewarding, while others were physically demanding, difficult to navigate, monotonous, or considerably less developed than we had anticipated. At times, we made mistakes, misunderstood conditions, underestimated distances, overestimated our abilities, or discovered that information we had relied upon was outdated. We believe these experiences are worth sharing alongside the memorable encounters and remarkable places, because understanding the challenges is every bit as important as appreciating the opportunities.
 
Nor do we imagine that our experiences provide the only way to approach the Trans Canada Trail. Conditions change, routes evolve, and the interests and abilities of those exploring the network vary enormously.  Always remember that we hiked the Trans Canada Trail from our first days on the East Coast Trail in 2018, to setting out from St. John’s, Newfoundland in 2019, until reaching the Arctic in 2025.  As odd as it is to say this for us – what we are showing is now a record and things change.
 
What worked for us may not suit everyone, and the decisions involved in walking for several years are not necessarily the same as those required for a weekend excursion or a cycling holiday.  Whether you are considering a short walk close to home, a weekend ramble, a cycling journey across a province, or an ambitious attempt to travel the entire national network, we hope these guides, photographs, observations, and reflections will help you better understand what lies ahead. Just as importantly, we hope they encourage you to look beyond the famous destinations and discover the remarkable variety of landscapes, wildlife, histories, and communities connected by the trail.

 
Our original journals remain the record of where we went and what we experienced each day. They show what the landscapes looked like, what the trail conditions were, and how we navigated them.  These additional articles are an opportunity to bring together the practical lessons, unanswered questions, and broader observations that emerged from those years on the road.
 
After six years of travelling across Canada, we certainly did not come away with all the answers, and I am not sure we are much wiser.  However, we gained a much better understanding of which questions were worth asking, and how important it is to approach a journey of this scale with curiosity, preparation, flexibility, and a willingness to learn.  If sharing those experiences makes the Trans Canada Trail a little easier for someone else to understand, plan, or explore, then we believe the effort will have been worthwhile.
 
See you on the trail!