It has been awhile since I stepped off the trail in my walk across Canada. On July 5, 2017, I checked myself into a hospital for a problem that was unrelated to the walk, but was also probably acerbated by it. By the time I was fit to go again, I had already committed to hiking the Camino de Santiago in France and Spain and walking the length of the Rhine River.
I finished my Canada walk at a rest stop about eight kilometers east of Gull Lake, a small town in Saskatchewan about 170 kilometers from the Alberta border. I’ve been itching to get back on the trail, but have been a bit wimpy because I don’t like hiking long distances in a Canadian winter. Besides, walking along the snow-filled shoulder of the Trans-Canada highway wouldn’t be considered safe by anyone’s standards.
I’ve been having the urge to finish this walk within a year of starting it, which means I would have to complete it by April 20th. The highway shoulders are still clogged with snow in Alberta, but here in British Columbia, they are generally pretty clear. And the two-week forecast for western British Columbia is looking favourable (i.e. above-zero temperatures even at night).
So I’ve decided to finish my walk across Canada in a flip-flop style, which means that instead of continuing where I left off in Saskatchewan and walking to Vancouver, I’ll start in Vancouver and finish where I left off in Saskatchewan. The flip-flop is a popular way of completing long-distance hikes, such as the Appalachian Trail and Pacific Crest Trail in the United States, where hikers can take advantage of weather conditions to walk the entire trail during the hiking season.
I’ll be doing things a little differently for the remainder of this walk. I’ll be carrying a backpack instead of pushing a jogging stroller. The stroller has been donated to a fine family and is performing the duties she was created for, to transport a little baby.
I’ve been walking about 10-15 kilometers per day for the last couple of months, but I haven’t been carrying any weight. Yesterday, I decided to do a training walk of 35 kilometers with full pack around Skaha Lake, from Penticton to Okanagan Falls and then back again along the old Kettle Valley Rail line. The good news is that the boots I’ve been breaking in worked splendidly – no blisters and no hot spots.
The sad news is that, lordy, my body is sore. It’s going to take a while for my body to adjust again to the workload. But once I get my trail legs back, this walk should be a lot of fun.
The adventure continues March 12 in Vancouver. I have a little more than 1,500 kilometers to go.
