What’s Next? Hiking across Canada

“Traveller, there is no road; you make your own path as you walk.”

Antonio Machado, “Traveller, your footprints.”

Beyond the Way

 
And so, another pilgrimage has come to an end.
 
After setting out from Lisbon, walking north through Portugal to Porto, continuing onward into Spain, and arriving once again in Santiago de Compostela, we have completed our time on the Camino Portuguese. From there, as we had hoped, we continued beyond Santiago to the Atlantic coast, walking onward to Muxia and Fisterra before finally bringing this chapter of the journey to a close.

 
It is a strange feeling to finish another Camino and another pilgrimage.

In 2016, when we first arrived in Santiago after walking the Camino Frances, we were overwhelmed by the experience and unsure if we would ever return. Yet only a few months later, the Way called us back, and we found ourselves in France walking the Via Podiensis toward St. Jean-Pied-de-Port. Now, in 2019, we have again followed yellow arrows, carried scallop shells on our packs, collected stamps in our credentials, and walked day after day through towns, fields, forests, cities, vineyards, cobblestone streets, rain, sunshine, fatigue, and joy.
 

Unexpected Pilgrimage

 
The Camino Portuguese was not originally part of our plan for this year. In many ways, it happened and arrived unexpectedly.
 
Our home had sold earlier than anticipated, and while we were preparing for the next large chapter of our lives, we found ourselves with a small window of time before we could begin. We were between places, between plans, and between journeys. We could not yet set out onto our next adventure, but we were no longer rooted in the life we had been living either.

So blessed with the time and opportunity, we returned to the Camino.  And perhaps that was exactly what we needed.

 
The Camino Portuguese gave us time to walk again before the larger unknown. It gave us a chance to remember the rhythm of pilgrimage, the simplicity of waking each morning with a pack beside the bed, the comfort of having direction, the kindness of strangers, the pleasure of coffee and pastries in small towns, and the reassurance that long distances are crossed one step at a time.
 
It also gave us a pause before something far less defined. 
 

The Trans Canada Trail

 
What comes next in our lives is another hike, though not another Camino.                                                   
 
There will be no yellow arrows leading across Canada. There will be no steady line of albergues, pilgrim menus, or church bells guiding us from one town to the next. We will not be walking toward Santiago, or a cathedral, or a traditional place of pilgrimage.  Instead, we will be returning to Canada to begin walking the Trans Canada Trail, also known as The Great Trail.

 
The Trans Canada Trail is the world’s longest recreational pathway, stretching from the Atlantic to the Pacific to the Arctic across every province and territory in Canada. It is a vast network of footpaths, rail trails, roads, waterways, community trails, wilderness routes, and regional pathways that together form a line across the country.

 
At least, that is what we understand from the maps.  What it will actually feel like to walk it, we do not yet know.
 
We know there will be long days. We know there will be road sections, logistical challenges, resupply questions, weather, insects, uncertainty, and distances far greater than anything we have attempted before. We know that crossing Canada on foot will not be like walking the Camino. It will not have the same infrastructure, the same traditions, or the same sense of shared pilgrimage.

But perhaps that is part of why it calls to us.  To date, only one other person has completed the TCT and at present, there are three other people hiking it. Very different from the Camino.
 

A Long Path Across Canada

 
Within a week of returning home, our Camino packs will become Canadian hiking packs once again. We will sort gear, mail resupply boxes, make final decisions, check maps, review routes, and fly east to Newfoundland.  From there, we hope to begin at Cape Spear and set out across Canada.

 

Our goal is to spend the next three years hiking the Trans Canada Trail from coast to coast to coast. We hope to walk from the Atlantic Ocean through Newfoundland, the Maritime provinces, Quebec, Ontario, the Prairies, the mountains, and eventually to the Pacific. From there, if life, time, weather, resources, and our bodies allow, we hope to continue north toward the Arctic.
 
At the moment, it is almost too large to imagine.

After the Camino Portuguese, it is easy to look back and measure what has been completed: Lisbon to Porto, Porto to Santiago, Santiago to Muxia, Muxia to Fisterra. Stages, towns, kilometres, stamps, and memories. The Camino gives a shape to the journey. It gives you a beginning, a direction, and an ending.  At the moment, the Trans Canada Trail feels different.
 
At the moment, it is less a single route in our minds than a long line of possibilities stretching across a map. It is a dream made of provinces, seasons, landscapes, and questions. We do not know what we will find. We do not know how the trail will unfold. We do not know how we will change along the way.  In fact we don’t even know if we will be able to finish it. 
 
All we know is that we are ready to begin.

Hiking for Birds, Connecting to Nature

 
As we set out, our goal is not simply to cross Canada.
 
Through our #Hike4Birds, we hope to document, photograph, and share the journey while promoting bird conservation, nature connection, and time spent outdoors. We want to walk slowly enough to notice the places we pass through, the species we encounter, the habitats that sustain them, and the communities connected by the trail.

 
The Camino has taught us many things over the years, but one of its clearest lessons is that walking changes how you see the world. When you move slowly, landscapes stop being scenery and become places. Towns stop being names on a map and become memories. Birds, flowers, weather, rivers, forests, farms, and coastlines become part of the story.
 
We hope to carry that way of seeing with us across Canada.
 
We hope to share not only the trail itself, but the country it reveals: its natural spaces, its birds, its people, its difficulties, its beauty, and its complexity. We hope that by walking, writing, photographing, and paying attention, we can encourage others to step outside, explore nearby trails, learn the birds in their own communities, and reconnect with the outdoors.

 
We do not know if we will succeed.  We do not know what the next three years will demand of us. We do not know how far we will get, how hard it will be, or what lessons are waiting somewhere along the trail.
 
But the Camino has reminded us that no long journey is completed all at once. It begins with one step. Then another. Then another after that.
 

What’s Next?

 
So what’s next?
 
Next, we go home. We unpack from one pilgrimage and begin packing for another. We exchange yellow arrows for Canadian trail markers, albergues for tents, pilgrim menus for resupply boxes, and the familiar routines of the Camino for the unknown rhythm of the Trans Canada Trail.
 
The Camino Portuguese has been a gift, an unexpected journey between one life and the next.
Now the larger journey begins.

Thank you for following along as we walked from Lisbon to Santiago and beyond. We hope you will continue with us as we return to Canada and set out across the country, one step, one bird, and one trail day at a time.
 
See you on the trail.
Follow our journey: www.comewalkwithus.online