The Soundtrack of the Trans Canada Trail
Songs from Six Years on Canada’s Great Trail
“There is a road, no simple highway
Between the dawn and the dark of night.”
Grateful Dead, Ripple
Music for a Coast-to-Coast-to-Coast Journey
Some songs were played over and over again on long road walks. Some carried us through rain, heat, droughts, wind, smoke, exhaustion, and uncertainty. Some reminded us of a province, a town, a coastline, a prairie sunrise, a mountain pass, or a long (ok, very long) northern highway. Others were suggested by people we met along the way, heard in cafés, campgrounds, or grocery stores, and somehow became woven into the memory of that section of the trail.
Beginning in Newfoundland in June 2019, one of our traditions was to release a soundtrack for each province and territory we crossed. These were never meant to be definitive lists of “Canadian songs” or formal playlists for hikers. They were simply the songs that spoke to us in the moment - tracks that reflected the mood of the trail, the landscape we were moving through, or the emotional weight of that stage of the #Hike4Birds journey.
Now that our coast-to-coast-to-coast walk has reached its end, we wanted to gather those soundtracks in one place so that if you are looking for song listings for your own daily walk, weekend trek, or long-distance hike, you might find a track or two to enjoy!
These are the songs that carried us across Canada.
Provincial and Territorial Soundtracks from the Trans Canada Trail
Hiking Songs for Newfoundland and Labrador
Our first soundtrack began where the journey began: at Cape Spear, on the edge of the Atlantic Ocean. These songs belong to the early days of the trek, when everything was still uncertain, the trail ahead seemed almost impossibly long, and every step westward felt like the beginning of a story we could not yet imagine but hoped to complete
Nova Scotia brought our first ferry crossing, coastal trails, road walks, rail trails, and the growing realization that the Trans Canada Trail would not be one single kind of pathway. The music from this section reflects the energy of getting moving, the beauty of Atlantic Canada, and the first lessons in adapting to whatever the trail became.
Check out the Nova Scotia Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Prince Edward Island
On Prince Edward Island, the trail opened into red sands, stunning shorelines, time on the Confederation Trail, small communities, and the pace of life on the island that felt different from everywhere else. These songs remember a gentler and enjoyable section of our journey - one shaped by colourful fields, birdsong, and the memory of walking across a province easily.
Check out the Prince Edward Island Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for New Brunswick
New Brunswick on the Trans Canada Trail brought long rail trails, deep forests, river valleys, covered bridges, and realities of wilderness and paddling routes. In addition, it was the end of our first year on the TCT and the conclusion of our time in Atlantic Canada. Its soundtrack reflects transition - the sense of leaving the Atlantic provinces behind while still carrying the kindness of the region with us.
Check out the New Brunswick Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Quebec on the Sentier Transcanadien
Quebec was beautiful, complicated, surprising, and memorable. From the Petit Témis and the south shore of the St. Lawrence to larger urban centres and refined long-distance cycling corridors, this section of the national pathway challenged our assumptions about what walking across Canada would mean. The songs from our three treks across Quebec carry both the beauty of the pathways and the complexity of the experience.
Check out the Quebec Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Ontario
Ontario was long – in fact, it was longer than any other province or territory we would ultimately walk across. Interestingly, it was also both familiar and unfamiliar at the same time - a province we knew as home, but not in the way we came to know it on foot. Its soundtrack belongs to the capital region, the Great Lakes, rail trails, GTA, small towns, long roads, forested sections, urban crossings, fatigue, endurance, and the weight of walking through the province, where the journey became both deeply personal and much larger than we had imagined and are still coming to terms with.
Check out the Eastern Ontario Soundtrack
Check out the GTA Soundtrack
Check out the Northern Ontario Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Manitoba
Manitoba began at the end of our second year and ended at the beginning of our third year on the Trans Canada Trail. It began in the forests of the Canadian Shield, cottage country, and wove along rail trails into the capital city of Winnipeg before leading out into the prairies with all of their cultural diversity, heat, wind and exposure. The songs from this section reflect that shift - from forested paths to exposed trails toward horizons that seemed to stretch farther with every step. Though we had visited the province before, Manitoba repeatedly revealed new aspects and visions of the country.
Check out the Eastern Manitoba Soundtrack
The Trans Canada Trail Saskatchewan continued to lead us across the prairies – along dusty, amid heat waves, past grain elevators, and the stunning beauty of the Qu’Appelle Valley – all of which make this region unforgettable. Its soundtrack (hopefully) reflects the open spaces, the loneliness, and the strange beauty of walking day after day through one of the most misunderstood landscapes in Canada.
Check out the Saskatchewan Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Alberta
Alberta, undertaking in our fourth year on the TCT, was for us a province of transition, leading us westward through the last of the prairies, across ranchland, into welcoming city centers before arriving at the incomparable foothills and Rocky Mountains. Its soundtrack reflects both the excitement of approaching the Rockies and the growing awareness that the trail was becoming harder, more complex, and more meaningful with each province crossed.
Check out the Alberta Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for British Columbia
British Columbia was arrival on the west coast after 4 years of hiking. It was the province of mountains, river valleys, rail trails, beauty, challenge, and finally the achievement of reaching the Pacific Ocean. The music from this section carries the excitement of arrival - not the end of the entire journey, as it turned out, but the completion of the coast-to-coast dream we had been walking toward since Newfoundland.
Check out the Southern British Columbia Soundtrack
Check out the Vancouver Island and Pacific Coast Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Northern Alberta
After a year of delays owing to historic forest fires across northern Canada, we returned to the Trans Canada Trail. Back at the crossroads of the TCT in Fort Saskatchewan, our journey turned north, and the national pathway changed once again. Northern Alberta marked the beginning of the Arctic chapter, which turned out to be a long road into Northern Alberta and the boreal forest past remote communities. The route was largely one of walking on roadways with few sections of trail, which marked a different kind of uncertainty and exhaustion for us.
These songs reflect the feeling of setting out again after reaching the Pacific, knowing there was still another ocean ahead.
Check out the Northern Alberta Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for Northern British Columbia
Leaving Alberta for the last time on the Trans Canada Trail, we entered Northern British Columbia, which carried us along highways, through mountain corridors, unpredictable weather, remoteness, and the growing sense that the North was not what we expected. Its soundtrack belongs to endurance, distance, and the strange goal of continuing beyond what once felt like the finish line.
Check out the Northern British Columbia Soundtrack
Hiking Songs for the Yukon
Entered at the end of our fifth year and completed in our sixth and final year on the Trans Canada Trail - the Yukon was vast, beautiful, difficult, and unforgettable. From long road sections to sections of permafrost that forced us to backtrack, to historic communities en route, through exciting and terrifying wildlife encounters, and with the gift of a lot of time to ourselves. The Yukon on the TCT was filled with so much doubt, uncertainty, and sheer exhaustion. The north had begun to strip us bare and we felt it with each step.
The songs from the Yukon reflect distance, resilience, wonder, and the growing nearness of the Arctic.
Check out the Yukon soundtrack
Hiking Songs for the Northwest Territories
The Northwest Territories soundtrack marked the final territory of our #Hike4Birds journey and the closing chapter of six years on the Trans Canada Trail. These songs carried us toward Tuktoyaktuk, the Arctic Ocean, and the end of a coast-to-coast-to-coast walk that had begun at Cape Spear in 2019 and which concluded in 2025.
Check out the Northwest Territories soundtrack
Looking back, these soundtracks are more than playlists. They are small time capsules from each stage of the journey. They remind us where we were, what we were carrying, what we were learning, and how far we still had to go.
Check out the Northwest Territories soundtrack
Sound Tracks Across Canada
Looking back, these soundtracks are more than playlists. They are small time capsules from each stage of the journey. They remind us where we were, what we were carrying, what we were learning, and how far we still had to go.
Other songs remind us of the people who encouraged us, walked with us, wrote to us, waved from vehicles, offered advice, shared stories, or simply followed along from home.
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For six years, these songs helped us keep going.
They helped us laugh when things were hard, move when we were tired, remember why we began, and believe - sometimes stubbornly - that the next step still mattered.
Thank You for Listening Along
Thank you to everyone who followed our #Hike4Birds journey across the Trans Canada Trail from coast to coast to coast. We hope that you have had the time of your lives – I know that despite the challenges en route, we have.
The trail may have taken longer than we ever imagined, but the songs, stories, landscapes, birds, and people we met along the way helped carry us forward.
Thank you for listening along as we trekked from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean to the Arctic Ocean. We hope that if you are looking for music to inspire your own daily walks, long-distance treks or even adventure on the Trans Canada Trail, you take the time to check out some of our selections.
See you on the trail.
Remember to follow our entire adventure here:
www.comewalkwithus.online
See you on the trail.
Remember to follow our entire adventure here:
www.comewalkwithus.online
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