Ten years in the making, British Columbia’s Vancouver Island Trail (VIT) is Canada’s newest long-distance trail. It cuts across the spine of Vancouver Island for 770km stretching from the regal city of Victoria in the south to jagged sea-stacks of Cape Scott in the north.

Along the way, trail-users can immerse themselves in every facet of the island’s ecology and culture: old-growth forests, velvety mountains, bumpy logging roads, abandoned mining camps, colossal wooden railway trestles and the territories of 49 First Nations cultures. Inspired in part by the US’s Pacific Crest Trail, the trail has been dubbed a ‘pilgrimage into the wilderness.’

Developing the VIT has been a gargantuan undertaking. Juxtaposing well-established paths along erstwhile railway lines with rugged new sections that require good navigational skills, the task of threading the route together began in 2009 with the establishment of the Vancouver Island Trail Association (VITA).

A community-run non-profit group formed by experienced Canadian climber and hiker, Gil Parker, the VITA organizes volunteer trail-building expeditions as well as tackling more prosaic tasks such as liaising with private landowners and First Nations groups to iron out land access issues. It’s been an exhaustive process.

Indeed, the initial aim of inaugurating the trail in time for Canada’s 150th anniversary in 2017 proved to be overly ambitious. A year later, significant progress was made when Isobel Glover, a 20-year-old University of Victoria student, became the first hiker to complete the trail in its entirety (albeit with a bit of bushwhacking en route) and in July 2019 the VIT’s southern terminus was officially opened at a ceremony in Victoria’s Anderson Hill Park.

Read full story…

What is it about fall that makes people even more anxious to get out and experience the great outdoors? Thanks to its unparalleled geography, Canada boasts an amazing array of hiking trails that show-off autumn’s cornucopia of colors.

One of the country’s not-to-be-missed autumnal hikes is Miscou Island’s peat bogs. Though the island is small enough to be driven end-to-end in just 15-minutes, its leaf peeping payload is huge. Here you’ll find sand beaches ringed by peat bogs that turn a jaw-dropping scarlet come fall.

Famed for its maple syrup, you just know that the province of Quebec is going to be rich in maple trees, which are hands-down autumn’s best color-changing performers. Forillon National Park offers some of Quebec’s most outstanding fall vistas, with the dramatic seaside cliffs (from which you can sometimes see whales and seals) of the Cap-Bon-Ami trail topping the list.

Whether you’re a hard-core hiker, a nature lover or are on the hunt for some impressive autumn panoramas, Gros Morne National Park, Newfoundland has what you need. It’s one of Canada’s most celebrated sanctuaries and you can watch this UNESCO World Heritage Site catch fire (figuratively, of course) as fall colors set the landscape aflame.

Here are some of Canada’s best fall foliage hikes…

A group hoping to build a wilderness hiking trail in northern Cape Breton, Nova Scotia has now laid out its route.

The Seawall Trail Society has just completed a proposed trail development plan, which would see the trail run for about 50 km from Red River, near Pleasant Bay, to Meat Cove, hugging the coastline most of the way.

“It’s pretty epic,” said member Dave Williams. “One thing you want to aim for in an amazing hike is a large variance in terrain and scenery. And this trail has it all.”

The proposed route includes beaches, old growth forest, semi-arctic tundra, mountain scree and grassy fields. But what really sets it apart is the combination of elevation and coastline, he said.

“You’re walking along very high cliffs, right at the ocean’s edge. And for 180 degrees, all you see it water.”

In exchange for those vistas, hikers will pay the price of some steeps ascents and descents — with elevations ranging from sea level to 450 meters.

Read full story…

Parks Canada says wild plains bison that were reintroduced to Banff National Park are now free-roaming animals. Officials say 31 bison were released last month into a 1,200 square-kilometre zone that features meadows and grassy valleys for grazing along the park’s eastern slopes.

“Now, they are free-roaming wild bison and their path forward may not be easy,” said Bill Hunt, manager of resource conservation with Banff National Park. “They will experience harsh winters, they will travel through difficult terrain and they will eventually be hunted by wolves and other predators.”

He said they will also play an important role in keeping the ecosystem healthy in the national park. “Bison are what we call a keystone species – that means bison alter the food web and the landscapes.”

As examples, he said they improve grazing for animals such as elk because they fertilize the grasses, open forests for meadow-loving birds and small mammals, create amphibian habitat by wallowing in the lowlands and their heavy winter coats shed each spring to provide nesting material for alpine birds.

Plains bison are an iconic part of Canada’s history, having freely roamed in the Rockies, filling an important need for the livelihoods of First Nations people and early settlers. They disappeared from the area due to overhunting before the national park was created in 1885.

Read full story…

April 21-22, 2018 weekend will see the kickoff of a season of celebrations of the 50th anniversary of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail Association, Inc. (GHTA), an association of nine member clubs stewarding a 500 km trail stretching from Port Hope (Lake Ontario) at the southern terminus, to Devil’s Glen near Glen Huron, (just south of Blue Mountains) at the western terminus.

The trail winds through rolling farmlands and woods, follows quiet country roads and small towns and villages, and even traverses a city (Orillia, Ontario). The wilderness section of the Ganaraska Hiking Trail, is unique and passes through the Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park. Including branch trails, the total length of the trail is in excess of 500 kilometres, used for hiking, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing, thanks to the generosity of landowners who have given permission to cross their land.

The association will be 50 years old as of April 21, 2018, and the first of the celebratory events will be a public hike offered by the member clubs on Saturday, April 21 and Sunday, April 22.

These hikes will be easy to moderate, and everyone, including families, novice hikers, nature lovers, and those curious about hiking, are invited to come along and join in the celebrations.

Learn more here…

Colin Seymour is ready to place 158 yellow ribbons – one for each Canadian soldier who lost their life in the war in Afghanistan – along the hiking trail leading to Mark Rock Mountain, just outside South Branch, where a monument honors Sgt. Craig Gillam of that community. Gillam died in Afghanistan on Oct. 3, 2006. He was 40 years old.

When Seymour, his wife Cindy and family friend Donna Stuckless tried to hike the trail and visit the monument in August 2015, they found it had grown in so much they couldn’t get near the top of the mountain.

Seymour returned to the trail alone, determined to make his way to the monument. It would be his first of many trips.

“I picked my way up through the woods… originally, they’d put out (over 140) yellow ribbons to mark the trail,” he said, referring to the ribbons commemorating soldiers who had lost their lives in Afghanistan when the monument was first erected in Gillam’s memory. Remnants of those ribbons are still there, he said.

With the permission of Gillam’s family, Seymour has made a new wooden cross for the monument to replace the original one that had withered with time.

Read full story…

Dan Brinkman — a self-described tree nerd — knew he’d hit the jackpot when he was told about a certain tree standing in a cattle pasture near Mount Brydges, Ontario, Canada.

To most, the tree looks like any other. But Brinkman was pretty certain this was an American chestnut, a species that once thrived in southern Ontario, and most of the eastern United States, but has been nearly wiped out by blight in the past century.

“You read in the books about how rare it is and how small most of them are, just a sprout coming off a stump, and to find a tree without a spec of blight on it, that’s like going for a hike in China and seeing a panda bear cross the path in front of you. It’s there, you just don’t expect to see that.”

It’s believed that up to two million American chestnuts once grew in southern Ontario’s Carolinian zone, a stretch of land that covers much of the area from Lake Huron to Lake Erie.

But blight, an insidious tree-killing fungus, has nearly doomed the species. It’s believed there are only about 2,000 wild American chestnuts left in Ontario.

Most found are suckers sprouting up from a stump or hybrids mixed with other chestnut species. But a fully grown chestnut tree about 70 years old and 50 feet tall? That’s rare.

Cite…

McKenna said that each province would be allowed to create their own pricing scheme — whether a tax like British Columbia, or a cap-and-trade system like Quebec — and would only be subject to the national scheme if they are not achieving sufficient reductions. Four provinces in Canada — British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario and, Quebec — currently have some kind of carbon pricing scheme, and approximately 80 percent of Canadians live in an area where there is a price on carbon.

British Columbia’s carbon tax, which was implemented in 2008, has been successful in reducing emissions while having a “negligible” effect on the province’s economic activity. Moreover, the tax has become popular among residents and businesses — polling last year found that only 32 percent of voters oppose the tax, and businesses have actually called for the tax to be increased.

In Washington state, residents will have a chance to vote for their own version of a carbon tax this November, inspired by the success seen in British Columbia. And nationwide, a new poll shows that Americans might be willing to pay a carbon tax in order to reduce global warming.

Read full story…

Besides biking, hiking and horseback riding, the path will be open in winter for cross country skiing and snowmobiling. And with a quarter of the trail on water, canoes, kayaks or other water craft can also be used.

Formerly called the Trans Canada Trail, the Great Trail is made up of newly designated pathways, along with some 400 community trails that have been linked together, such as the Galloping Goose in British Columbia and the Petit Témis in Quebec.

A large portion of the trail is located on defunct rail lines donated by Canadian Pacific and Canadian National Railway. No single entity owns the trail. Instead, it’s managed and maintained by trail and conservation groups, as well as local, regional and national government bodies, making it one of the largest volunteer projects in the country.

Read full story…

The trailhead to Crypt Lake is actually located at what is known as Crypt Landing, and by far the easiest way to get to Crypt Landing is take a boat named “Miss Waterton” across Upper Waterton Lake to the trailhead at Crypt Landing with 50 hikers at a time. The cruise company also uses a smaller boat named the “Connie Marlene” when fewer hikers are heading for Crypt Lake.

Once you get off the boat, you and fifty other hikers (during peak season) will head for the Crypt Lake Trail. Stay calm and stay polite, and fairly quickly this bottle neck will straighten itself out. The faster hikers will separate from the slower hikers, and it will all work out just fine.

The Crypt Lake Trail in Waterton Lakes National Park climbs quite abruptly initially. In fact, the Crypt Lake Trail climbs about 900 vertical feet in one mile. So be ready to get a little “cardio” going during this first mile of the hike. By the way, you will be hiking through fairly dense forest, so make sure you talk loud so you don’t surprise a grizzly bear that may be on or near the trail.

Read full story…