Getting On and Off the Trans Canada Trail

The Logistical Realities of Walking Across Canada Over Several Seasons

One of the questions we have increasingly been asked about the Trans Canada Trail is also one of the most straightforward: how do you get onto it?

 
For many Canadians, the answer is surprisingly simple. One of the wonderful qualities of the Trans Canada Trail is the extraordinary number of local pathways, urban trails, rail trails, waterfront promenades, and community green spaces that form part of the national network. In communities across the country, residents can often reach a section of the trail by walking from their homes, taking local public transportation, or travelling a short distance to a familiar trailhead. In many cases, a local map or a little knowledge of the surrounding community is all that is needed.

 
For someone planning an afternoon walk, a weekend outing, or even a short multi-day adventure, getting onto the Trans Canada Trail may require little more than identifying a suitable starting point and arranging transportation home afterward. These accessible community connections are among the great strengths of a trail system that extends across such an enormous and geographically diverse country.
 
However, the same question about reaching the Trans Canada Trail takes on a different meaning when someone begins considering a journey across an entire province, across Canada, or northward toward the Arctic Ocean. Although the Trans Canada Trail links thousands of kilometres of pathways and communities, those connections do not necessarily form a convenient public transportation network for someone relying upon it over the course of an extended journey.

 
A community might have an airport, a regional bus connection, or a railway station, but that does not automatically make it a practical place to begin or end a long-distance walk. Reaching the available transportation might require additional kilometres of walking, an expensive taxi, an overnight stay, or several connections between services that operate only on certain days. Technically, it might be possible to fly into many northern communities or hire transportation across vast distances, but the expense and practical difficulties involved can make those possibilities unrealistic, even for someone with the financial resources and flexibility to undertake an extended journey.  These distinctions became increasingly important during our six years of walking almost 18,000 kilometres across Canada along the Trans Canada Trail, from Cape Spear, Newfoundland, to Victoria, British Columbia, and eventually north to Tuktoyaktuk, Northwest Territories.

 

Because we completed our journey over several seasons rather than in one continuous expedition, we repeatedly faced a logistical question that was quite different from finding our way along the trail itself: where could we reasonably stop walking, travel back to family, and return months later to resume from precisely where we had left off?  After all, every decision to leave the trail creates a second logistical obligation - to return to exactly where the journey was interrupted.  As we discovered, those decisions were shaped not only by distance, exhaustion, changing seasons, and the demands of everyday life, but also by the availability, affordability, and practicality of transportation connections across Canada.
 

Planning Beyond the Trail Itself

 
One of the Trans Canada Trail's remarkable achievements is that approximately 80 percent of Canadians live within 20 minutes of a section of the national trail network. Yet, while this reflects the extraordinary reach of the TCT into communities across the country, it can also obscure the considerable distances that separate many of those communities, particularly across northern Ontario, the Prairies, northern British Columbia, and the territories.
 
For someone exploring a local trail, access may be relatively straightforward. However, for those travelling between communities or undertaking a journey lasting weeks or months, understanding how to get onto and off the trail becomes an important part of planning. This is true not only when deciding where to begin or end a journey, but also when considering what options might be available if circumstances change, equipment fails, someone becomes ill or injured, or deteriorating weather makes continuing unwise.

 
Consequently, although much of our original research focused on understanding the Trans Canada Trail itself - its route, conditions, distances, terrain, accommodations, and resupply opportunities - we also had to investigate the transportation connections surrounding it. Knowing where the trail went was only part of the equation. We needed to understand how communities along the route were connected to one another, which offered access to regional or national transportation networks, and whether those connections could reasonably accommodate two long-distance walkers carrying backpacks and, at times, pushing hiking carts.  Because in the end it is not just you – it’s your gear and supplies as well.
 
This meant looking beyond the official trail maps to research passenger rail services, regional buses, airports, ferries, local transportation providers, and the distances between the trail and the places where those services operated. Some communities offered several alternatives, while others had only occasional options, regional service, or none that would be practical for our circumstances. Even where transportation existed, its usefulness depended on schedules, costs, baggage restrictions, and the additional distance required to reach it.

 
These considerations became part of how we divided our journey into manageable sections. Rather than thinking only about how many kilometres we hoped to walk during a particular season, we also had to consider where we could reasonably leave the trail if necessary and, equally importantly, how we would return to that same location to continue our journey.
 

Where We Actually Stopped and Restarted

 
Although our original itinerary eventually gave way to a considerably longer trek each year on the trail, the practical importance of transportation connections - both on and off the trail - remained. In fact, as our walk progressed, we found ourselves increasingly conscious of where the next major transportation hub was located, how far we would have to travel to reach it, and whether continuing beyond it would commit us to another lengthy section before we could reasonably leave the trail.

 
In Atlantic Canada, getting onto and off the Trans Canada Trail was generally less complicated than it would become farther west. Beginning at Cape Spear, Newfoundland, required us to reach St. John's and make our way to the eastern starting point of our journey. Although Cape Spear itself is outside the city, St. John's is served by a major airport, making it a relatively straightforward starting location for someone travelling from another province.  The same general principle applied to many of the larger communities we encountered throughout the Maritime provinces. Ferries, regional buses, airports, and connections through major centres such as Sydney, Halifax, Charlottetown, Moncton, and Fredericton offered transportation possibilities. Not every community or section of trail was equally accessible, and reaching some of these services required additional planning, but there were enough connections that we generally had several possibilities to consider.
 
However, as we continued walking westward during the autumn of our first year in 2019, the relationship between the distances we were covering, the changing weather, and the availability of practical transportation became increasingly important.
 

Why We Stopped in Rivière-du-Loup

 
By November 2019, we had spent more than five months walking from Newfoundland, through the Maritime provinces, and into Québec. We had already covered thousands of kilometres; the days were becoming shorter, and winter conditions were beginning to make themselves felt.  Our original ambition had been to continue much farther west during our first season, potentially reaching the Greater Toronto Area and southwestern Ontario. However, as we approached Rivière-du-Loup on the south shore of the St. Lawrence River, it became increasingly obvious that we needed to reconsider.

 
Rivière-du-Loup offered something particularly valuable: a connection to VIA Rail's Ocean service, which provided a means of travelling west toward Montréal and onward to family. It was a practical place to interrupt our journey without creating unnecessary complications when we eventually returned.  Continuing beyond Rivière-du-Loup, if we had chosen to do so, was another matter. The route of the TCT from here crossed the St. Lawrence River into the Charlevoix region, where hikers have to navigate mountainous terrain, significant changes in elevation, and challenging sections of trail, including afterwards - the Sentier des Caps. Although there were communities along the way, relatively few offered convenient connections to the larger national transportation network.

 
At the time, we estimated that continuing toward Québec City could mean committing ourselves to approximately another 300 kilometres of walking before reaching a similarly convenient transportation hub – once again VIA Rail. Given the topography, approaching winter, and the physical demands of the preceding months, that was not an insignificant undertaking.

 
Of course, it would have been possible to leave the trail somewhere along the way. Regional transportation services existed in many (though not all communities, and private transportation could potentially have been arranged. However, that would also have introduced additional costs, uncertainties, and the obligation to navigate those same connections when we returned.  Instead, we completed our first season in Rivière-du-Loup and, on November 11,2019, boarded an early-morning VIA Rail train toward Montréal. Our first year had taken us considerably less far west than originally imagined, but we had reached a location from which leaving the trail was relatively straightforward.
 
It was a practical decision that also influenced how we approached the following seasons. Reaching a major transportation connection was not simply convenient; it allowed us to end one section of the journey with a realistic plan for beginning the next.
 

Québec, Ontario, and the Value of Major Transportation Hubs

 
As we continued through Québec and Ontario, the availability of rail services and regional transportation connections helped determine where we could interrupt and resume our travels.  Communities such as Baie-Saint-Paul offered regional transportation possibilities, while Québec City and Montréal provided access to a much broader range of passenger rail, bus, and air services. Ottawa offered similar advantages, particularly through VIA Rail's Québec City–Windsor corridor – if departure was necessary.  These locations were valuable not merely because they were familiar cities, but because they allowed us to connect the places where we were walking with the places we needed to travel when we were away from the trail.

 
During our 2020 journey through Ontario and into Manitoba, Winnipeg became another important transportation milestone. As a major city served by VIA Rail's Canadian, an airport, and other regional connections, it represented a practical place to conclude that portion of our walk.

 
The contrast with the surrounding landscape was considerable. Across much of southern Manitoba, the Trans Canada Trail follows a combination of provincial park trails, rail trails, urban pathways, and regional roads. Although these routes pass through towns and agricultural communities, many of those places do not have the frequent (or any) intercommunity transportation that someone hiking might expect to be able to rely on.   For example, a walker leaving Winnipeg and following the southern portions of the trail toward communities such as Emerson, Morden and Winkler cannot necessarily expect to find a convenient public transportation connection whenever they decide to stop. The fact that a community has stores, accommodations, and road access does not mean there is a scheduled passenger service that can carry someone back to Winnipeg or onward to another major transportation hub.

 
This is an important distinction for anyone planning a journey in shorter sections. Walking another 20 or 30 kilometres may be reasonable, but if the next practical departure point is several hundred kilometres farther along the route, the decision to continue requires a different kind of consideration. In many ways this is why, with yet another winter about to settle in, we concluded our second year on the TCT in Winnipeg rather than pushing on.  Because at the time it was not just about covering another section of the national pathway – it was about committing to another 300-500 km of hiking before we could connect to transit again.
 
It also raises a question that is easily overlooked during the excitement of planning a long walk: if you decide to stop in a community with limited transportation, how will you get back there?
 

The Saskatchewan–Alberta Border: A Lesson in Choosing Where to Stop

 
Perhaps the clearest example of what happens when a geographical milestone becomes more important than transportation accessibility occurred near the conclusion of our westward trek in 2021.  After continuing westward from Winnipeg, across Manitoba and Saskatchewan, we approached the Alberta border in early October. Reaching another province felt like a natural place to conclude the year, and with colder weather approaching, we were increasingly ready to leave the trail. 

 
However, though beautiful, the Saskatchewan–Alberta boundary was not a particularly convenient place to leave the Trans Canada Trail.  It was literally a crossroads surrounded by fields.   Unlike Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary, or even many smaller regional centres, the rural location where our route crossed the provincial border had no convenient passenger transportation connection – actually, it had nothing beyond two stop signs and a TCT trail marker. The closest practical option involved travelling off the trail to Lloydminster, where we could obtain a bus connection to Edmonton.
 
On October 5, 2021, we reached the provincial boundary along Highway 17, photographed the location, and waited approximately an hour and a half for a taxi that we were fortunate would come out to pick us up. The taxi took us into Lloydminster, where we could catch a regional bus to Edmonton and begin the trip back to Quebec and another section of the TCT (that is another entire story).

 
Ultimately, of course, it worked, but it was not an especially convenient or economical arrangement. The consequences of our decision became even clearer when we prepared to resume walking the following year.  In June 2022, with our hike across Quebec completed, we flew to Edmonton, travelled by Rider Express bus to Lloydminster, and arranged transportation back to the precise location where we had stopped the previous October.
 
This was more complicated than simply arriving at a station and walking back onto the trail. We were carrying backpacks, photography equipment, and hiking carts that had to be transported separately or accommodated in vehicles large enough to carry them. Even the bus journey presented logistical considerations. We had to decide how to transport our carts and other equipment, and the bus did not necessarily stop where we had anticipated. Once in Lloydminster, we still needed to get back to the provincial boundary and the Trans Canada Trail.
 
Ultimately, we took the easy route and sought to use a taxi once more to take us back.  Yet arranging that return journey proved particularly frustrating. The first company dispatched vehicles that could not adequately accommodate our equipment, and the suitable transportation we eventually obtained came at a high additional cost. Regardless, and with significant frustration owing to our own choices, the year before we returned to the border and the Trans Canada Trail. Only then could we reassemble our hiking carts and resume the actual walk across Alberta.

 

Looking back, it was one of the few occasions when we would have made a distinctly different decision about where to conclude a season. Had circumstances allowed, continuing toward Edmonton would have brought us to a major transportation hub and eliminated much of the difficulty associated with departing from and returning to an isolated provincial boundary.

Of course, the decision was not as obvious at the time. We had already walked considerable distances that year, autumn was approaching, and we were figuring out our return to Quebec to complete additional sections of the province against the time available to continue west.
 
Nevertheless, the experience demonstrated an important distinction between a satisfying place to stop walking and a practical place to interrupt a journey. A provincial boundary might provide a meaningful milestone, but it does not necessarily provide a useful transportation connection. We had reached Alberta, but doing so left us with an additional logistical challenge that extended into the following year.  As such, it is key to remember that every decision to leave the trail creates a second logistical obligation - to return to exactly where the journey was interrupted. At the Saskatchewan–Alberta border, we experienced just how inconvenient and expensive that obligation could become.
 

The Growing Importance of Transportation in Western Canada

 
As our journey continued through Alberta and British Columbia, major centres such as Edmonton, Calgary, the Greater Vancouver area, and Victoria remained important reference points for planning. Their transportation connections offered substantially more flexibility than many of the smaller communities and remote trail sections between them.  However, even being relatively close to a major city did not necessarily mean that the trail itself was easily accessible by public transportation. Some sections required us to hike through mountain passes, provincial parks, rural valleys, or smaller communities where regular passenger services were limited or unavailable.

 
The practical question was therefore not simply which towns appeared along the trail, but which towns offered realistic connections to larger transportation networks. The difference influenced how we thought about our remaining walking distances, the time available before seasonal changes, and where we might have to stop if one of us was injured or our plans changed. 
 
This became particularly relevant as we approached the Rocky Mountains and eventually crossed British Columbia toward the Pacific Coast. Although the province has a substantial network of highways, airports, ferries, and regional transportation services, these do not always coincide with the more remote portions of the Trans Canada Trail. A road leading to a trailhead does not necessarily mean there is a bus travelling along it. Similarly, a town that is easily accessible by private vehicle may require a complicated combination of services for someone travelling without one.

 
By the time we reached Victoria and completed the coast-to-coast portion of our journey, these considerations had become a familiar part of how we prepared each section. We were no longer simply calculating how far we wanted to walk. We were considering where the next practical opportunity to leave and return might be found, and what travelling to or from that location would involve if we had to leave the Trans Canada Trail.
 

Heading North: When Transportation Options Become More Limited

 
The importance of identifying practical departure and return points became even more evident when we turned north from the Edmonton region toward the Yukon and Northwest Territories. Although we had spent years navigating rural roads, mountain trails, and remote areas elsewhere in Canada (especially Northern Ontario and the Prairies), the distances between major communities and the limited availability of scheduled passenger transportation introduced another consideration to our planning.

 
From Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, the northern land route of the Trans Canada Trail would eventually lead us approximately 3,800 kilometres to Tuktoyaktuk. Along the way, communities such as Dawson Creek, Fort St. John, Fort Nelson, Watson Lake, and Whitehorse became important reference points, not simply because they offered accommodations and resupply opportunities, but because they provided some of the relatively few possibilities for reaching larger transportation networks.  Even these connections were not necessarily straightforward. A community might be served by a regional bus or have an airport, yet scheduled departures could be infrequent, onward connections limited, and the expense of travelling with large backpacks and hiking equipment considerable. Some services required advance arrangements, while others were difficult to incorporate into the uncertain schedule of a long-distance walker.
 
By the time we reached Whitehorse in September 2024, after walking approximately 2,291 kilometres from Fort Saskatchewan during that season, we had arrived at another important transportation hub. The territorial capital offered commercial air connections and a practical place to conclude our fifth year before returning to continue northward in 2025.

 
Beyond Whitehorse, the available options became more limited still. Dawson City and Inuvik offered services and limited transportation possibilities, but the long stretches between them, particularly along the Dempster Highway, could not be approached with the assumption that a convenient bus or taxi would be available whenever we decided to leave the trail. Communities such as Tuktoyaktuk could potentially be reached through complicated and indirect regional arrangements, but travelling to and from the Arctic involved a very different level of expense and planning than reaching a major southern Canadian city.
 
To put it more succinctly, once you are out there you are out there – and even walking into Tuktoyaktuk definitely does not mean your journey is done – because you still have to make your way back to Whitehorse to return south.    These realities and challenges did not make hiking through the north impossible (though it felt that way at times). It simply meant that understanding the available connections, the distances separating them, and the implications of an unexpected change in plans was particularly important. For someone undertaking a long-distance journey, these considerations were just as relevant as researching the route, available water, resupply opportunities, or seasonal weather.
 

Passenger Rail, Regional Buses, and the Changing Transportation Network

 
Throughout our years on the Trans Canada Trail, passenger rail was one of the most useful transportation options available when we needed to conclude a season or return to a major section of the route. VIA Rail's network connects several important centres along or near the national trail, including Halifax, Montréal, Québec City, Ottawa, Toronto, Winnipeg, Saskatoon, and Edmonton.  For someone travelling without a support vehicle (which we did not have), these connections can make an enormous difference. Rail travel allows walkers to cover substantial distances between seasons, often while travelling with their equipment, and can provide connections between communities that would otherwise require complicated combinations of buses, flights, and private transportation.

 
With that said, VIA Rail is not a comprehensive national transportation network reaching every community along the Trans Canada Trail. Its passenger services operate along a particular railway corridor, which does not necessarily coincide with the national trail's route. Across much of western Canada, stations may be separated by considerable distances, and the timing of trains and delays along the Canadian service can make connections more complicated than they initially appear.
 
Baggage restrictions are another consideration. Over the years, we have travelled on Canadian passenger trains with substantial amounts of outdoor equipment, and we have seen how the services and practices surrounding luggage have changed. Where larger or unusually shaped items might once have been accommodated relatively informally, travellers now need to pay careful attention to baggage dimensions, weight limits, checked baggage availability, and restrictions affecting particular routes or stations.  These restrictions are not heavily enforced.   For a walker carrying a relatively small backpack, these requirements may present few difficulties. For someone carrying camping equipment, photography gear, trekking poles, or a hiking cart, they can become an important part of arranging transportation. What fits comfortably into a backpack or can be wheeled along a trail may not necessarily meet the requirements of a passenger train, aircraft, or regional bus.

 
Regional bus transportation presents its own challenges. The withdrawal of Greyhound from Western Canada in 2018, followed by the closure of its remaining Canadian services in 2021, significantly changed the ways travellers could move between communities without a vehicle. Other operators have continued to provide connections, and services such as Rider Express helped us reach places that would otherwise have been more difficult to access.  Nevertheless, these services do not necessarily create a continuous or convenient network across the country. Routes may follow major highways rather than smaller roads or trail corridors, schedules may offer only limited departures, and stops may be located some distance from the communities or trails a walker is attempting to reach.
 
There is also a difference between the advertised location of a transportation stop and where a vehicle actually collects or discharges passengers. We encountered this ourselves when travelling to Lloydminster, where the bus stopped farther from our anticipated destination than expected. What might be a minor inconvenience for someone travelling with a suitcase or small bag can become a considerably greater challenge when carrying expedition equipment. For these reasons, researching regional bus services involves more than discovering whether a company lists a particular community on its route. It requires understanding where the vehicle stops, how frequently it operates, what luggage is permitted, whether connections are possible, and how far the stop is from the trail itself.

 
Air travel offers another possibility, particularly at the beginning or conclusion of a major section and in northern regions where other transportation choices are limited. Yet the presence of an airport does not automatically make flying economical or practical. Smaller regional flights can be expensive, connections may require travel through larger hubs, and baggage charges or restrictions can add significantly to the cost of transporting hiking equipment.
 
Similarly, private taxis and chartered transportation may provide access to places that scheduled services do not reach, but this convenience comes at a price. Over short distances, a taxi may be a reasonable means of bridging the gap between a railway station, bus stop, airport, and nearby section of trail. Over longer distances, the costs can quickly become prohibitive. 
 
The challenge, therefore, is not necessarily a complete absence of transportation. It is determining which of the available services can realistically be incorporated into the logistics and budget of an extended journey.
 

Planning Where to Leave - and Where to Return

 
For someone considering walking a significant section of the Trans Canada Trail over several weeks, months, or years, our experience suggests that transportation planning should begin well before reaching the intended stopping point. When researching a route, it is natural to concentrate on the trail itself: its length, surfaces, elevation changes, available camping opportunities or accommodation options, resupply opportunities, and regional weather realities.  These are all essential considerations, but for someone who cannot complete the entire journey continuously, they provide only part of the information needed.
 
It is equally important to identify the communities that offer realistic transportation connections and to understand how those connections relate to the distances being walked.  This does not necessarily mean choosing a rigid itinerary or committing to reaching a particular city by an exact date. Indeed, one of the lessons of our journey was how frequently circumstances changed despite careful preparation. Weather, unexpected trail conditions, exhaustion, family commitments, and the availability of accommodations or supplies all affected how quickly we progressed.  Remember when we set out, this was a 3-year hike, while ultimately it became 6 years of trekking.

 
As such, knowing where the practical transportation connections exist helps establish the options available when those circumstances change.  A walker who knows that the next convenient railway station, regional bus stop, or airport is 300 kilometres ahead can make a more informed decision about whether to continue. Someone approaching a remote section can consider whether their available time and supplies are sufficient to reach the next realistic departure point. And someone planning to complete a province over several seasons can identify locations that will make returning to the trail less complicated.
 
Importantly, these considerations do not apply only to people walking across the entire country. They can be equally relevant to someone travelling from another province to spend two or three weeks exploring a section of the trail, particularly where local transportation is limited, gear has to be moved, or travelling with bikes.
 
A suitable place to begin walking is not necessarily a suitable place to end. Likewise, a community that provides a convenient departure at the conclusion of one journey may be expensive or difficult to reach when the time comes to return.  Understanding both sides of that equation makes planning more realistic, allowing travellers to devote more of their time and resources to the experience of exploring the trail rather than overcoming avoidable transportation difficulties.
 

Getting to the Trail Is Only Part of the Journey

 
Looking back on our six years of walking across Canada, it is striking how much our original planning was influenced by transportation networks that existed beyond the Trans Canada Trail itself. Although our estimated schedule changed dramatically, many of the principles that guided our first itinerary continued to shape our decisions throughout the journey.  We researched railways, regional bus routes, airports, ferries, and other transportation connections because we needed to know how to begin and conclude each season, return to family when necessary, and subsequently resume walking from the point where we had stopped. We also wanted to understand what alternatives might exist if circumstances required an unexpected departure.
 
To be very clear - These were logistical arrangements surrounding our walk, not a means of travelling along the Trans Canada Trail.  From 2019 until 2025, we hiked as much of the route from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic as was possible. During our hiking seasons, we progressed across the country on foot. The transportation connections discussed here were primarily important at the beginning and end of those seasons or during major interruptions, when we needed to leave the journey and eventually return to continue it. That distinction is fundamental to understanding both our experience and the purpose of this discussion.

 
The Trans Canada Trail connects an extraordinary number of communities and provides opportunities for Canadians to discover local pathways, regional landscapes, and parts of the country they may otherwise never have explored. For many people, reaching a nearby section is relatively easy, and that accessibility is one of the network's greatest achievements.  Yet for those hoping to journey beyond their local communities, particularly over extended distances and multiple seasons, the question of how to get onto the trail necessarily involves another question: how will they get off it, and how will they return?  The answers, of course, will depend on the places they hope to explore, the distances they intend to travel, the time and resources available, and the transportation connections that exist around their chosen route. There is no single arrangement that will work equally well across every province and territory, just as there is no single way to experience the Trans Canada Trail.
 
For us, understanding these connections was part of understanding the country we were walking through. The national trail provided the route, but the wider transportation geography of Canada frequently also determined how we could make that journey possible over six years.  And while we occasionally discovered that our intended stopping points were considerably less convenient than expected, those experiences reinforced a simple lesson: planning how to reach the Trans Canada Trail is important, but for anyone undertaking an extended journey, planning how to leave it and return deserves just as much consideration.

See you on the trail!