A Vancouver Island couple is just steps away from completing a journey of over 15,000-kilometre on foot.
Langford’s Simon Lanoix and Julie Chatelain have been walking the length of the Trans Canada Trail in stages, a trek they began in 2018 in St. John’s, Newfoundland.
On Saturday, they’ll finish the final stretch to Mile Zero in Victoria.
CBC Victoria’s Alex Wauthy caught up with them near Mount Wells to get an inside look at an epic journey.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
What made you want to do this?
Julie: We’ve done a lot of long-distance hiking … and at the 150th anniversary of Canada, the Trans Canada Trail opened. So we decided, hey, that sounds like a good plan.
Simon: It sounded like a challenge for us. We knew we weren’t going to walk all season. At first we thought it was going to be four summers. It turned into eight because of COVID.
What has this journey been like?
Julie: Long journeys like that, you can never think about the end because it’s usually too far away. So you think of it in small bites.
It hasn’t sunk in yet that we’ve actually walked over 15,000 kilometres.
What are some of your highlights?
Julie: For me it’s the people.
Strangers giving us ice water when we were walking on roads when it was really hot. Strangers inviting us into their homes for showers or sleepovers or home-cooked meals. Friends joining us for certain sections.
Simon: Waking up in Gray Creek Pass in the Kootenays.
Snow all over the place in early June and I could hear some noise around me. I unzipped the tent, looked out and there’s a herd of elk just a few metres away and you just sit there and you’re in awe.
I walked across Canada and it changed what I thought I knew about it
How would you assess the trail?
Julie: It’s a new trail, so there’s still some hiccups.
It’s not for long-distance walkers because we can be told, ‘Oh, there’s a campground 40 kilometres away that you can sleep at.’ Well, 40 kilometres is two days of walking.
The trail sometimes is closed, but the application won’t tell us because it’s not updated.
Simon: It’s made up of trails from somewhere short of 400 different municipalities … and some have done an incredible job.
Newfoundland, unbelievable. The T’Railway is one of a kind.
Prince Edward Island and Quebec have incredible infrastructure for cycling and walking.
And then there are some provinces who just don’t have the infrastructure or the trail system, so they’re connected by roads. So we do a lot road walking.
What have you learned about each other?
Julie: We are a good team. We don’t always focus exactly on the same thing and I think that’s a really good thing. I’m a micromanager, so I look at the details of food and equipment and things like that. And Simon loves to map out our routes.
Simon: We took this on 30 years into our marriage… For newlyweds, that might be a challenge.
Sometimes during the day, we’re just in our heads. I used to ask Julie, ‘What are you thinking of?’ She never used to say [this] before, but now, regularly it’s ‘Nothing’ because there’s an empty box there, which is beautiful, right?
What will it feel like when you reach mile zero?
Julie: I’m already crying about it. I’ve been fantasizing about having some of our good friends that live locally join us and pretty much everybody has said that they would … so being surrounded by really good people that we love it’s a gift.
Simon: It just feels like I know Canada so much more having done it in slow motion, and by that I mean walking. You just get to appreciate every moment along the way.
