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SPECIAL COLLECTOR’S EDITION

The

GREAT TRAIL Nunavut’s iconic

ITIJJAGIAQ TRAIL

The

LAKE SUPERIOR

Water Trail

The EDMONTON

New Brunswick’s FUNDY FOOTPATH

RIVER VALLEY

B.C.’s historic

DISPLAY UNTIL MARCH 5, 2018

+

AN ULTIMATE TRAIL QUIZ, TRAIL EXPLORERS, RICK HANSEN and more

canadiangeographic.ca JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018 $8.95

COWICHAN VALLEY

Committed Committed to to our our communities. communities.

Malahat First Nation singers with TCT Foundation Co-Chair Valerie Pringle, TimberWest CEO Jeff TCT President & CEO Deborah AppsValerie at the opening Malahat FirstZweig, Nationand singers with TCT Foundation Co-Chair Pringle, ceremony of the Sooke Trail. Photo: Tricia Thomas TimberWest CEO Jeff Zweig, andHills TCTWilderness President &Regional CEO Deborah Apps at the opening ceremony of the Sooke Hills Wilderness Regional Trail. Photo: Tricia Thomas

We are honoured to contribute to the We are honoured toof contribute the — historic connection The GreattoTrail historic connection of The Great Trail created by Trans Canada Trail and its — created Canada Trail and its partnersby — Trans on Vancouver Island. partners — on Vancouver Island.

@TimberWest @TimberWest

TimberWest’s financial support helped to link the TimberWest’s financial helpedWilderness to link the Trail. remaining 21 km sectionsupport of the Sooke remaining 21 km section of the Sooke Wilderness Trail.

This Trail connection now provides outdoor enthusiasts This Trail connection now provides outdoor enthusiasts from across Vancouver Island and all over the world, from Vancouver Island and world-class all over the trail world, with aacross safe, uninterrupted 100-km that with a its safe, uninterrupted 100-km world-class trailinthat winds way from the heart of Vancouver Island the winds its way from ofVictoria, Vancouver Island in the Cowichan Valley tothe theheart City of BC’s capital.

Cowichan Valley to the City of Victoria, BC’s capital.

TimberWestForestCorp TimberWestForestCorp

TimberWest.com/news TimberWest.com/news

features CONTENTS

62

COWICHAN CONNECTION

Built on the legacy of former rail lines and logging routes, the Cowichan Valley Trail now links its users to Vancouver Island’s history, cultures and communities

By Suzanne Morphet with photography by Robin O’Neill

48 ALONG THE GREAT SEA

A photo essay celebrating the 1,000-kilometre Lake Superior Water Trail, the canoe route that skirts the ancient shores of the world’s greatest freshwater expanse Photography by Gary and Joanie McGuffin with text by Jake MacDonald

54 RIBBON OF GREEN COVER: NICK HAWKINS/CAN GEO; THIS PAGE, TOP: ROBIN O’NEILL/CAN GEO; MIDDLE: NICK HAWKINS/CAN GEO

It’s an apt moniker for the Edmonton River Valley Trail, a route that plays an active role in the lives of many in the city

By Tim Querengesser

34 FOLLOWING FUNDY

New Brunswick’s Fundy Footpath traverses some of

Atlantic Canada’s last coastal wilderness, but increasing tourism and other development is always close at hand. How does the footpath find its balance?

By Karen Pinchin with photography by Nick Hawkins

42

‘OVER THE LAND’ It’s the meaning of Itijjagiaq, the trail that connects the communities of Iqaluit and Kimmirut across southern Baffin Island, spanning both age-old traditions and recent change

By Ossie Michelin with photography by David Kilabuk

with photography by Amber Bracken

71 THE ULTIMATE GREAT TRAIL QUIZ 25 questions to test your knowledge of Canada’s country-crossing, coast-connecting trail system

By Nick Walker

ON THE COVER Part of The Great Trail, the 41-kilometre Fundy Footpath runs through coastal wilderness along New Brunswick’s Bay of Fundy.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

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departments CONTENTS

22 DISCOVERY

12 14

BIG PICTURE Celebrating Canada’s grandeur

EXPOSURE Showcasing Can Geo’s photo club

IN A SNAP Sharing Can Geo via Instagram

31

POLAR BLOG

32

ON THE MAP

19

INTERVIEW Sarah Jackson, the first woman to walk The Great Trail from Pacific to Atlantic

22

WILDLIFE A hotel wildlife haven, island conservation, return of the pelicans and more

24

HISTORY How George Dawson’s surveys of the 49th parallel helped shape the nation

26

Ice road radar

Exploring cartography

28

82

PLACE Quebec’s Véloroute Marie-Hélène Prémont, a historical cycling route on the St. Lawrence River’s north shore

82 YOUR SOCIETY

INFOGRAPHIC How a Canadian wheelchair innovator is revolutionizing offroad accessibility

85

NEXT ISSUE

86

OUR COUNTRY

News from The Royal Canadian Geographical Society

80 YOUR SPACE COMMENT Your feedback COVER VOTE Choosing our cover

14 4

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

WHAT’S THIS? Recognize this mystery object?

March/April 2018, Canadian Geographic goes to the Yukon to explore wolf denning sites

Paralympian and activist Rick Hansen on his love for Vancouver’s Stanley Park

TOP TO BOTTOM: ISTOCKPHOTO; BEN POWLESS/CAN GEO; ASHLEY VOYKIN

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LET’S CELEBRATE OUR CONNECTION Congratulations Canada, and hats off to the many Canadians who dedicated their time and effort connecting this monumental gift. As a proud sponsor of The Great Trail, KEEN encourages all Canadians to get out and explore this epic trail of trails connecting Canada from coast to coast to coast.

KEENFOOTWEAR.COM

FOLLOW KEEN @KEENCANADA • DOWNLOAD THE GREAT TRAIL APP POWERED BY KEEN IN THE APP STORE

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CONTENTS

BAFFIN 360

SAVING A TRAIL TREASURE

The southern portion of the Itijjagiaq Trail follows the Soper River from Kimmirut deep into the heart of Baffin Island’s Meta Incognita Peninsula. Explore this remarkable route via 360-degree videos and meet some of its stewards.

The Kinsol Trestle in Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley is an iconic part of The Great Trail. Meet the master carpenter who helped save the historic structure from demolition and learn why he has now set his sights on the Arctic.

cangeo.ca/jf18/baffin

cangeo.ca/jf18/trestle

Take Canadian Geographic wherever you go, while also accessing bonus videos and photos with the digital issue for tablets.

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CONNECT WITH US ONLINE

500 DAYS IN THE WILD On July 1, 2015, filmmaker Dianne Whelan set out from St. John’s with a goal to hike, bike and paddle The Great Trail from east to west. This past summer, she conquered the Lake Superior Water Trail. Watch a video

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@CanGeo

highlighting her adventures on the trail so far.

Can Geo Extra is Canadian Geographic’s

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latest stories and news online.

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CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: DAVID KILABUK/CAN GEO; ROBIN O’NEILL/CAN GEO; DIANNE WHELAN

DIGITAL ISSUE

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EDITOR’S NOTEBOOK

CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER John G. Geiger CHIEF OPERATING OFFICER AND PUBLISHER Gilles Gagnier CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER EMERITUS André Préfontaine

Great way points

T

THE GREAT TRAIL changed my life.

I moved from Oshawa, Ont., to Stittsville, a suburb on Ottawa’s west side, in February 2010 for a job. One of my principal criteria for my new home: be close to work, so as to avoid anything approaching the daily fourhour commute to and from Toronto I was leaving behind. By April, I was riding my bike eight kilometres to my office in the neighbouring suburb of Kanata on a gravel path that’s part of the Trans Canada Trail (as The Great Trail was then known).

Not only did The Great Trail indirectly help me reclaim hours of my life every day, it also helped me enjoy a more active lifestyle (and lose 40 pounds!) and get acquainted with my local landscape in a way I otherwise wouldn’t have. The portion of the 23-kilometre Ottawa Carleton Trailway I rode had a forested stretch (where I’d watch leaves burst into autumn grandeur seemingly overnight each fall [above]), a section that transected farmland (where I’d regularly see white-tailed deer and one day nearly collided with a wild turkey) and crossed but one major road.

I know first-hand the power of our national pathway. Hopefully, you’ve experienced it too. This issue celebrates its importance — and its recent 25th anniversary and full connection last August — with a range of stories that speak to The Great Trail’s diversity of landscapes, uses and, most importantly, users. If you’re not already among us, you will be soon.

—Aaron Kylie

EDITOR-IN-CHIEF Aaron Kylie SENIOR EDITOR Harry Wilson MANAGING EDITOR Nick Walker ASSOCIATE EDITOR Michela Rosano DIGITAL EDITOR Alexandra Pope TRAVEL EDITOR-AT-LARGE Andrew Lovesey SPECIAL PROJECTS EDITOR Tanya Kirnishni COPY EDITOR Stephanie Small COPY EDITOR/FACT CHECKER Kiley Bell PROOFREADER Judy Yelon EDITORIAL INTERN Joanne Pearce

AARON KYLIE/CAN GEO

EDITORIAL OFFICE

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At AltaLink, we’re all about connection.

We connect more than three million Albertans to the power they need every day.

We connect communities to new sources of electricity, including wind, solar and natural gas to bring forward a greener future. We’re proud to support the connection of our country from coast to coast to coast through The Great Trail, enabling Canadians to experience the incredible natural landscapes we’re proud to call home.

www.altalink.ca

PHOTO BY TODD MINTZ Red fox kits observe passersby near their den along the Regina Trans Canada Trail, a 25-kilometre route across the Saskatchewan capital that includes walking, cycling and cross-country ski trails through Wascana Centre and other city parks. At one month old, red fox kits grow their distinctive rust-coloured coats — though they do come in other colour variants — and begin to play outside their dens. In another two months they are able to hunt for themselves, and will set out on their own.

Visit photoclub.cangeo.ca/photooftheweek to see the best of recent images submitted to Canadian Geographic’s Photo Club.

10

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC SEPTEMBER/OCTOBER 2017

big picture CELEBRATING CANADA’S GRANDEUR

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

11

exposure SHOWCASING CAN GEO’S PHOTO CLUB

PHOTO BY ZACHARY BERGAMIN The Milky Way meets the Spray Lakes Reservoir south of Canmore in Spray Valley Provincial Park, Alta. Beneath the slopes of Windtower Mountain (from which this image was taken) runs the High Rockies Trail, a section of The Great Trail that follows the reservoir and heads south to the British Columbia border.

This image won the Trail Vistas category in Canadian Geographic’s Great Trail Photography Competition. To view all of the winners, visit greattrail.canadiangeographic.ca.

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in a snap

This issue’s In a snap features nine photos taken on or near The Great Trail. Tag your photos #ShareCanGeo for a chance to be featured in the magazine or online.

SHARING CAN GEO VIA INSTAGRAM

@ryanwunsch77 Ryan Wunsch Grain elevator, Northern Trails of Saskatchewan

@julie_audet Julie Audet Red fox, Le Montagnard Trail, Quebec

@seaside_signs Michael Thornquist Mount Seymour, North Vancouver Trail

@patkanephoto Pat Kane Yukon Quest sled dogs, Klondike Highway Trail

@ashvoykin Ashley Voykin Mountains, Alberta’s High Rockies Trail

@punkodelish Kael Rebick Niagara Falls, Niagara River Recreation Pathway

@melinda.foster Melinda Foster White-tailed deer, City of Saint John Trail

@myowndrum Marion Serink Winter on the Edmonton River Valley Trail

@__brendankelly__ Brendan Kelly Atlantic puffin, Newfoundland T’Railway Trail

Check out the Canadian Geographic Instagram page at instagram.com/cangeo and share your photos with us using the hashtag #ShareCanGeo. 14

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

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INVITE YOU TO

EXPLORE THE SIGHTS, SOUNDS AND TASTES OF CANADA Enjoy an immersive culinary experience in Toronto’s historic Distillery District and attend our gala in support of Canada’s Centre for Geography and Exploration.

Live performance from Cœur de Pirate.

Meet Adam Shoalts and other top Canadian explorers.

Cocktails: 5:30 p.m. to 7:00 p.m.

Dinner: 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.

Entertainment: 9:30 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.

Get your tickets at:

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RCGS.ORG/FEBRUARY28

25 Years in the Making, and We’re Just Getting Started!

This year, Canada celebrated a major milestone: the connection of The Great Trail. As we celebrate this phenomenal achievement, it’s time to look toward the future. We need your help, now more than ever, as we continue to create new loops and spurs, make The Great Trail more accessible to all and convert roadway to greenway. Your generosity will enable future generations to enjoy this magnificent Canadian legacy.

Discover how your donations make The Great Trail even greater:

TheGreatTrail.ca/impact Information: 1-800-465-3636

Photos, clockwise from top: Confederation Trail, PEI, VJ Matthew; Sentier des caps, QC, Laval Poulin; Lake Superior Water Trail, ON, Guoqiang Xue; Alaska Highway, BC, Bruce Obee

DISCOVERY INTERVIEW

Sarah Jackson The first woman to walk The Great Trail from the Pacific to the Atlantic shares memories of her epic trek

Sarah Jackson pauses in Bowring Park in St. John’s shortly before completing her west-to-east transit of The Great Trail last June.

INTERVIEW BY JOANNE PEARCE Days spent walking: 475 Number of kilometres walked: 11,520 Pairs of hiking boots used: seven

I PAUL DALY/CAN GEO

It’s easy to reduce Sarah Jackson’s successful west-to-east transit of The Great Trail to numbers. But the story of the woman who became the first to complete the coast-to-coast route when she arrived at Cape Spear, N.L., on June 1, 2017, is far richer than a simple column of figures. Here, the Edmonton native discusses the incredible breadth of experiences she had on the trail, why she made the journey, how it changed her and more.

On what made her walk the trail My uncle walked the Camino de Santiago trail in Spain when I was young, and that really stuck with me — it was the first time I’d heard about someone going on a journey like that. When I discovered there was something called The Great Trail here in Canada,

I knew I wanted to do it. The opportunity to learn more about the country where I was born and raised by walking across it was really important to me. There was so much I didn’t know then — and still so much that I don’t know now.

On her biggest struggle Physically, the weather was a challenge, especially when it was wet. When those conditions were paired with moments that I was alone on the trail, it was sometimes a struggle. People often ask me about the loneliness, and I guess at the start I did feel lonely. But there’s a difference between being alone and being lonely.

I eventually got to the point where when I was alone in nature, I didn’t feel lonely at all — I felt like I was surrounded.

On symbolic gestures I touched the Pacific Ocean when I left Victoria on June 1, 2015, and I touched the

Atlantic when I arrived in St. John’s on May 30, 2017. I thought it would feel like a bigger moment than it did, but in St. John’s it was a blur because I was so close to the end and walking with family and friends. I felt it more after I’d finished, when I was reflecting on the experience. I don’t think the emotions around completing the walk have fully sunk in; they come in waves, where I feel a sudden pang that I should be on the trail again.

On her favourite trail memory I went to bed every night in the most beautiful place in the world, whether it was under the stars in Saskatchewan’s big open sky or in Quebec, which I really loved because of the culture. I would go back to all of it in a heartbeat. But the most beautiful encounters were with the people. I got to walk with so many different people, people who I’m friends with now, people who taught me a lot.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

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On Dianne Whelan, the documentary filmmaker who started her attempt to bike, hike and paddle the entirety of the trail one month after Jackson began her walk I was following Dianne’s journey because she was out there at the same time, although we began on opposite ends of the country. I think there’s something special about having two women start their journey on the trail in the same year. Her experiences have been

OW S N E AND L B T ILA WSS A AV NE ON

and will be so different from mine, and I hope to cross paths with her when she passes through Edmonton.

On what she feels she has accomplished I didn’t set out to accomplish anything, because to be honest, I didn’t know whether I would walk the whole way. I figured I’d keep walking and stop when it felt right. It wasn’t finishing the trail that meant something to me — it was the process of walking it. I’ve grown so much, and the trail changed me in a way I never anticipated. There’s not a lot that feels unattainable now. That’s a really big deal for me because it’s something I’ve never felt before.

On what she’ll miss about the trail Oh God — everything! Waking up outside, going to bed outside, the routine of walking, the people I met. That feeling when I was having a crappy day in my head but knew that I’d be in a new place farther along the trail by

Jackson cites Dana Meise, pictured here on The Great Trail near Grimshaw, Alta., in 2014, as a source of inspiration for her trek. the end of the day. Even though the idea of taking one step at a time is a cliché, I think I’ll always carry that feeling with me and hopefully apply it to other parts of my life.

Read an interview with Dana Meise about his experience hiking The Great Trail at cangeo.ca/jf18/meise.

A COLLECTION OF

OUR BEST STORIES

We’ve collected the best stories, photography and cartography from our 2017 issues in one special edition to celebrate the nation as the sesquicentennial year draws to a close.

CANGEO.CA/BESTOFCANGEO

COURTESY DANA MEISE

On the inspiration of Dana Meise, who has spent nearly a decade walking the entire 24,000-kilometre length of The Great Trail I heard about Dana for the first time shortly before I started my own walk. It was incredible that he had the commitment to go back year after year. For two years, the trail was my life, but I just can’t imagine doing what Dana has done — that’s challenging in a whole different way. Imagine getting your trail legs then going back home. Then doing that again and again. It’s incredible.

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DISCOVERY WILDLIFE

CAPE BRETON GEM STAYS WILD MacRaes Island, a 32-hectare patch of wetlands and hardwood forests that provides important habitat for wildlife such as bald eagles on Bras d’Or Lake, was acquired by the Nova Scotia Nature Trust in October. The trust will conserve the island, which is along The Great Trail’s Bras d’Or Lake Water Route and is already part of the UNESCO-designated Bras d’Or Lake Biosphere Reserve.

4, 090

April 2

The date organizers of Saskatoon’s annual Meewasin Pelican Watch Contest will have their eye on in 2018. If the American white pelicans that return to the South Saskatchewan River every spring arrive before then, it will be the earliest the birds have returned to the city since 1996, the year the Meewasin Valley Authority started the contest, which sees participants guess when the first pelican will arrive on the river. The pelicans draw throngs of birdwatchers to the Meewasin Trail, part of The Great Trail, every spring.

The area in hectares of the Sooke Hills Wilderness Park Reserve, a tract of land on southern Vancouver Island that became accessible after the Sooke Hills Wilderness Trail, part of The Great Trail, was completed in June. The reserve had been closed to the public for 15 years to help protect Greater Victoria’s water supply and allow the regional government to create a master plan and secure infrastructure funding.

Read the latest wildlife stories at cangeo.ca/topic/wildlife 22

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

‘People panic, but yeah, you’re literally next to a giant wildlife park — we’re going to have otters, skunks, raccoons.

Every now and then a coyote might run by.’

Caitlin Mark, a chef at Vancouver’s Westin Bayshore, on the hotel’s location near Stanley Park. A portion of The Great Trail is just steps away from the hotel, which was recently awarded a wildlife-friendly habitat certification by the Canadian Wildlife Federation for including features such as gardens and an apiary on its grounds.

TOP TO BOTTOM: ALASTAIR SAUNDERS/NOVA SCOTIA NATURE TRUST; ISTOCKPHOTO; CAPITAL REGIONAL DISTRICT

6

THE NUMBER OF TREES cut down to help create the Graves Wildlife Sanctuary Trail, a 2.13-kilometre segment of The Great Trail that winds through 121 hectares of old-growth forest near Pigeon Lake, Alta., about 45 minutes southwest of Edmonton. “Trail designers went to great lengths to minimize environmental impact and to disrupt local wildlife as little as possible,” wrote the province’s ministry of Environment and Parks in a blog post shortly before the trail opened in August.

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DISCOVERY HISTORY

Beyond the boundary How George Dawson’s seminal work for the British North American Boundary Commission did far more than simply mark the 49th parallel

H

HAD TO MAKE two portages past impossible jams. Next day got past Rouseau L. & out into a great treeless swamp where had to carry wood in canoe to cook. Slept on a mud bank in same where no place to put up tent.

Rain & wind before morning. Got thorough ducking. Crept under Canoe.

One can only imagine how Anna Dawson might have reacted after reading in her brother George’s letter of August 1873 this description of his recent canoe journey from Lake of the Woods, Ont., to Dufferin (see inset map), a base for the British North American Boundary Commission on the southern reaches of Manitoba’s Red River.

Was she horrified that her brother, whose map of the route is shown above, was slogging through the wilds of a young province that was still very much a frontier?

Amused that he had to shelter under a canoe? Or perhaps proud that he, at just 24 and with a childhood illness that had stunted his growth (he was 4'6"), curved his 24

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

spine and left him with chronic headaches, was helping delineate a nation?

During the two years he spent as a geologist and naturalist with the commission, which was marking the 49th parallel and surveying the lands along it for their resource potential, Dawson collected details on a nearly 1,300-kilometre portion of the boundary that stretched from Ontario’s western border to British Columbia’s Rocky Mountains. He spent part of that time operating out of Dufferin, which later became Fort Dufferin, a National Historic Site of Canada that’s along the Crow Wing Trail section of The Great Trail.

In 1875, Dawson submitted his Report on the geology and resources of the region in the vicinity of the forty-ninth parallel, from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains to the commission’s chief, Donald Cameron, with whom he’d worked at Dufferin and who painted the

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

watercolour above, believed to depict the region. The report, today considered a classic work of Canadian geology, established Dawson as a scholar of note (he would go on to conduct extensive fieldwork in the West before being named director of the Geological Survey of Canada in 1895) and was used for everything from planning and building railways on the Prairies to promoting the region’s agricultural potential. In short, as his entry in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography notes, “Dawson’s work for the boundary commission is recognized as an important stimulus to the settlement of Western Canada.” *with files from Erika Reinhardt, archivist, Library and Archives Canada Read more stories about the maps in Library and Archives Canada’s collection at cangeo.ca/topic/map-archive.

MAP: SKETCH MAP SHOWING INDIAN CANOE ROUTE EXPLORED BY MR. G.M. DAWSON GEOLOGIST H.M.N.A.B.C., 1873, G.M. DAWSON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, E011161386-V8 PAINTING: OUR LUNCH CAMP (CAMP WITH CHILDREN, TEEPEES AND CARTS), 1873-1874, DONALD RODERICK CAMERON, LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, E002013654-V6

By Harry Wilson*

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DISCOVERY PLACE

Mellow vélo Cycling a historical route in Quebec’s chilled-out countryside

By Sabrina Doyle

THE GREAT TRAIL Road Endpoint of featured Trail trail Ferry

QUEBEC

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20 km

A cyclist on the Véloroute Marie-Hélène Prémont, part of The Great Trail, near the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, Que.

WHEN CANADA was in its infancy, the Route de la Nouvelle-France was a lifeline that helped nourish the burgeoning colony, with farmers shuttling food from distant settlements along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River into Quebec City. Today, trundling wagons laden with produce are a rare sight on the road now known as Avenue Royale (a.k.a. Route 360), but come spring you’ll see plenty of another kind of vehicle making its steady way along this historical thoroughfare: bicycles.

That’s no surprise, given that part of Avenue Royale is on a 48-kilometre portion of The Great Trail known as the Véloroute Marie-Hélène Prémont, which in turn is a part of the Route Verte, Quebec’s enormously popular 5,000-kilometre cycling network.

Named for the Canadian mountain biker who won a silver medal at the 2004 summer Olympics, the véloroute begins

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Forest Urban Cropland Road Contour

in the impressive shadow of the 83-metre-high Montmorency Falls on the outskirts of Quebec City and ends at the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, a coastal marsh that’s home to more than 180 bird species and 30 mammal species.

Along the way, it passes apple orchards, strawberry fields, vineyards, St. Lawrence River vistas and 400-year-old houses in towns such as Boischatel, L’AngeGardien, Château Richer and Sainte-Anne-de-Beaupré.

Although cyclists do abound on this section of The Great Trail, which is fairly flat and paved, with a 50-km/h speed limit, many walkers can also be seen making the pilgrimage to the colossal Basilica of Sainte-Anne-deBeaupré, a renowned shrine dedicated to Saint Anne (believed to be the grandmother of Jesus) that welcomes almost a million visitors from around the world every year.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

With sights such as these, this part of the trail may seem tailor-made for tourists, but David Doiron, a Côte-deBeaupré tourism development advisor, believes it has mobilized locals to get out and explore their communities.

“When I was young, there were only a few people riding this road,” says Doiron. “Now there are many more, and a lot of them are local.”

Whether you’re a tourist or a local, having the opportunity to forge those community connections is part of what makes the véloroute special, says Richard Senécal, the executive director of The Great Trail’s Conseil Québécois du Sentier Transcanadien. “You constantly have something interesting to see and some way to take part in the life of the people who live here.”

See an interactive map of highlights on the véloroute at cangeo.ca/jf18/veloroute.

DÉVELOPPEMENT CÔTE-DE-BEAUPRÉ; MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

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Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area

classroom by visiting cangeoeducation.ca/resources.

Teachers! Bring this science innovation into your

ANDY MORA/CAN GEO

Abc

All of a sudden one day in 1996, Christian Bagg could no longer snowboard, mountain bike or hike the backcountry he loved so much.

A snowboarding accident broke the young Albertan’s back, but he was soon using skills acquired as an apprentice machinist at the University of Calgary to build a wheelchair that actually fit his 6'5" frame. He started designing better equipment for medical tech companies, and by 2010, had founded Icon Wheelchairs with 13-time Paralympic medallist Jeff Adams.

Frustrated by attempts to navigate narrow backcountry routes in a sit-ski, Bagg started channelling his innovation into returning to the trails — and to do so at the same level as before.

About six years and 16 major design evolutions later (many tested around The Great Trail’s West Bragg Creek routes), Bagg arrived at the Explore model illustrated here, an agile electric machine on which he can keep up with and even outpace experienced mountain bikers.

Provincial parks in Kananaskis Country and Pincher Creek are developing Icon-lending programs for their trails, and Bagg has built pushpull models for camps for kids with cancer and with disabilities. “My focus,” he says, “is all about getting the people who can’t get outside, outside.”

A

By Nick Walker

Icon Wheelchairs’ three-wheeled ‘Explore’ can get people back into the backcountry

True trailblazer

INFOGRAPHIC

PARTS A fat-bike wheel in the rear provides ample traction, while the front uses BMX wheels.

Riders are secured by kiteboard harness and leg straps. Bagg uses top-end but widely available components wherever possible to simplify maintenance.

TRAIL ACCESS The Explore’s active “leaning” system (see “Slope-stick”) means it doesn’t require a wide base to remain stable. Only about as wide as the handlebars of a mountain bike, it can manoeuvre down narrow trails and over rocks and roots larger than curbs without tipping.

DISCOVERY EXPLORE OPTIONS Icon also makes models with smaller rear wheels and less powerful motors than the Explore pictured here, as well as assisted push-pull versions for people with a variety of mobility challenges and disabilities.

SLOPE-STICK An articulating front mechanism allows the Explore to rip over rough and uneven trails, keeping the rider perpendicular to gravity on side slopes of up to 35 degrees.

“Even on skinny, offcamber trails, the Explore moulds itself to the terrain,” says Bagg.

“There really isn’t anything else out there that deals with side slope like this.”

POWERHOUSE A 3,000-watt electric motor (powered by a 52-volt lithium e-bike battery) drives the Explore up inclines steeper than most mountain bikers can handle.

One charge is good for a 20-kilometre trail, and riders can pack extra batteries for longer adventures.

ICON EXPLORE SPECS Size 1.8 m long X 0.8 m wide Weight 45 kg (30 kg for push-pull version with no battery or motor) Top speed Governed at 30 km/h (Bagg has tested his at 80 km/h) Steepest incline 45 to 60 degrees, terrain dependent Ground clearance 15 cm Cost ~$14,000 (base electric model)

Firth River

Alsek River

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THE POL A R B L OG

Ice-road radar RESEARCHERS ARE TRACKING ICE DENSITY, CRACKS AND THE IMPACTS OF TRUCK TRAFFIC FROM SPACE

BY JOHN BENNETT

THE TIBBITT TO CONTWOYTO WINTER ROAD JOINT VENTURE

E

EVERY YEAR, scores of workers brave harsh conditions to build the winter roads that many Arctic communities and mines depend on. Climate change is shortening operating seasons — during which transport trucks cross frozen lakes, rivers and muskeg — and when the trucks aren’t running, the only alternative is costly air freight.

That means higher prices for northerners.

Joost van der Sanden, a scientist at Natural Resources Canada’s Centre for Mapping and Earth Observation, is using satellite radar to study the 350-kilometre Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto winter road linking Yellowknife to mines in the Northwest Territories and Nunavut, to see whether the view from above can help road builders and users adapt to climate change.

“Unlike the limited view from the ground,” says van der Sanden, “we can get a clear picture of extensive remote areas in any weather, day or night; and radar waves

penetrate clouds, ice and snow.”

Radar can pinpoint cracks and indicate ice strength. “Heavy snow early in the season weighs down the ice and can cause it to crack,” says van der Sanden. “Water flows up, mixes with the snow and freezes, forming a weaker snow-ice layer that is clearly visible with radar.” His team is developing maps to help avoid these areas.

When the researchers first tried to gauge the ice thickness with radar, they found that wave-like patterns in the ice on the images were obstructing their measurements. The cause was the truck traffic on the Contwoyto road: “It was quite amazing,” says van der Sanden, “to discover you can map vehicleinduced, centimetre-scale ice waves accurately from 500 kilometres high in space.”

As a truck drives over ice, it displaces the ice and water beneath. A slow-moving truck creates a localized bowl-shaped depression, but fast-moving trucks trigger widespread

Truck drivers on the Tibbitt-to-Contwoyto winter road are benefiting from precise satellite-radar readings of ice characteristics.

ice and water waves that can crack the ice and cause a vehicle to break through.

Spacing and speed are strictly controlled.

On the Contwoyto road, trucks must remain at least 500 metres apart, with loaded northbound trucks limited to 25 km/h and empty southbound trucks driving 60 km/h. But the radar images show that weight is not as important as speed. “It’s the faster empty trucks that introduce the waves,” says van der Sanden. “Slow-moving loaded trucks don’t cause any.”

That could make a difference for ice road users. In a joint study, van der Sanden and National Research Council researchers showed that loaded trucks can travel closer together without increasing the risk of breaking the ice. “If you spaced them at 250 metres, you could transport the same amount of supplies in a shorter period,” he says. “That could lessen the problem of the shorter operating season.”

This is the latest in a blog series on polar issues and research (cangeo.ca/blog/polarblog) presented

by Canadian Geographic and Polar Knowledge Canada, a Government of Canada agency with a mandate to advance Canada’s knowledge of the Arctic and strengthen Canadian leadership in polar science and technology. Learn more at canada.ca/en/polar-knowledge.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

31

on the map EXPLORING CARTOGRAPHY

While Yukon covers just 4.8 per cent of Canada’s total area, the territory is home to almost seven per cent of The Great Trail.

The greatest trail Charting the highlights of the world’s longest recreational trail system

The Mackenzie River is both Canada’s longest river and the longest section of the Great Trail, at 1,660 kilometres.

BY NICK WALKER YUKON

River

NORTHWEST TERRITORIES

2,863 km

Slav e River

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SASKATCHEWAN

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The Kananaskis Country Trail is home to the highest level of elevation on the trail, at 2,185 metres.

1

map (found at thegreattrail.ca) at cangeo.ca/jf18/trailmap.

acken z i e

Read how the GIS experts at Esri created the interactive version of The Great Trail

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Start walking now, and you’d finish sometime in 2020. That’s if you were to keep trekking at a brisk pace, through every weather and season, pitching your tent alongside converted railbeds, off backcountry footpaths and in wayside greenspaces. Perhaps in some cities and towns you’d pass nights in trailside B&Bs, hostels or hotels. On remote legs you might not meet another human for hours or days. On certain urban stretches you’d share the way with crowds of people, most unaware they were on a trail system that if stretched out would reach almost two-thirds of the way around the globe.

What started in 1992 as a Canada 125 legacy project — a grand plan to span the country from east to west by hikable and cyclable greenspaces — has evolved, as all big ideas do, in the quarter-century since its conception. Today, the Trail runs both east-to-west and south-to-north, a massive and ever-expanding network of multi-use trails and waterways as varied as the regions and BRITISH communities through which they pass. Hundreds COLUMBIA of trail groups, all levels of government and 3,414 km countless volunteers and donors gave it shape.

Officially connected in August 2017 for the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the 24,410-kilometre main “spine” of The Great Trail can now be continuously trekked, cycled and paddled from Atlantic to Pacific to Arctic coasts (with another 2,036 kilometres in honorary and “spur” sections such as Ottawa’s Sussex Drive). This monumental adventure has already been undertaken by a handful of explorers (see page 19).

But “connected” does not mean “complete.” “This will continue to be a multi-generational endeavour,” says Deborah Apps, president and CEO of the Great Trail. The future, then, includes opening new loops and spurs, converting interim road routes into greenways, and improving accessibility for all. “Canadians are passionate about our country and its landscapes,” says Apps. “We believe we can count on their help to ensure that The Great Trail will thrive for generations to come.”

Explore the map to see how the longest recreational trail system in the world has taken shape.

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THE GREAT TRAIL

24,410 km* OVER LAND

OVER WATER

74%

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177 km

On southern Manitoba’s Crow Wing and Altona-Gretna-Rhineland routes, trail users literally walk along the Canada-U.S. border.

Of the nearly 4,400 kilometres of Great Trail built on old railbeds across Canada, Newfoundland’s T’Railway Trail is the longest segment, at 873 kilometres.

Ontario has the longest share of The Great Trail — more than the Quebec, New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Prince Edward Island and Newfoundland sections combined.

MANITOBA

1,709 km

NEWFOUNDLAND AND LABRADOR

1,192 km

QUEBEC

1,698 km

ONTARIO

5,833 km

Look a bit crowded? That’s because 80 per cent of Canadians live within 30 minutes’ travel of The Great Trail.

P.E.I.

446 km NEW BRUNSWICK

907 km

MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

NOVA SCOTIA

1,269 km THE GREAT TRAIL Trail Road

Water Ferry

*Does not include honorary and spur trails, which are reflected on main map

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Cliffs along New Brunswick’s southern shore shape the Fundy Footpath, part of the province’s coastal Great Trail system.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Following

FUNDY New Brunswick’s Fundy Footpath traverses some of Atlantic Canada’s last coastal wilderness, but increasing tourism and other development is always close at hand.

How does the footpath find its balance?

BY KAREN PINCHIN WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY NICK HAWKINS

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ICK BRENNAN LEANS over a dog-eared topographical map of New Brunswick’s Fundy coast, running chestnut-tanned fingers along its jagged shoreline. Ink has been rubbed to bare paper, occasionally to holes, around campsites east of St. Martins, N.B., where Brennan’s wilderness outfitting company is based. This weekend I’ll be tackling a third of the Fundy Footpath, one of the country’s hardest backcountry trails, from Little Salmon River, about 20 kilometres west of Fundy National Park, to Big Salmon River, another 20 kilometres farther west. It’s the easiest segment, and I’m hiking it in the easiest direction, but Brennan still seems concerned.

“You have to understand what this is,” he says. “It’s a single-track trail with exposed roots, not level, slippery when wet, with extreme elevation climbs and descents. And then you add tides into that mix.”

It’s on the New Brunswick side of this enormous tidal basin, along steep, south-facing cliffs, where a 60-kilometre segment of The Great Trail wends and climbs through some of its most challenging terrain. Comprising some of the last pristine coastal wilderness in Atlantic Canada, the stretch is an amalgam of three separate yet intertwined trail systems. To the west is the Fundy Trail Parkway, accessible by car and open to day-trippers and cyclists, a curving snake of pavement slicing through thick forest. To the east is the Fundy National Park trail, which features a well-maintained spider’s web of paths and trails and modern park amenities including signage, bathrooms and onsite interpreters. I will be trekking the volunteer-built Fundy Footpath — a narrow, remote, root-and-rock-strewn trail recommended for only the mostprepared hikers — that links the two.

Trail builders, entrepreneurs, environmentalists, First Nations groups and locals often carry competing visions for this area. Whether it’s slated for development, protected by government or managed by teams of volunteers, determining who can enjoy and access this landscape has long been, and will remain, a fine balance. And yet, stuffing gear into my backpack, my first concern is whether or not I’m equal to even this short section of the footpath.

IT’S THE BEAUTY and potential of St. Martins, at the western end of the coastal trail, that drew Brennan here, and where he and friend Mike Carpenter, an experienced sea kayaker, started Red Rock Adventure in 2012. They run kayaking and boat tours along the winding coast’s tide-carved caves and remote beaches, and offer guiding services and educational and therapeutic overnight trips in

ACCESS TO THIS landscape HAS LONG BEEN a fine balance.

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New Brunswick’s wildest corners. Over the past few years, they’ve seen tourism explode, visitors drawn to the area partially by the Fundy Footpath. “People are hungry to go to untouched places.

That’s the direction the global tourism industry is going in,” says Brennan.

“And we live in a province where there’s more wilderness than people.”

Long a territory travelled, harvested and fished by the Maliseet and Mi’kmaq First Nations, this coastline was a centre of the 18th- and 19th-century colonial shipbuilding trade. The pines here grow straight and strong, and make ideal masts for sailing ships; at one point, nearly every river or creek running to the ocean in this area was dammed for logging. This brought prosperity to St. Martins and other towns, but also devastated them when shipbuilding collapsed in the early 1900s.

By 2020, a brand-new paved Fundy Trail Parkway, which some call “the new Cabot Trail,” will run parallel to the Fundy coastal trails, linking St. Martins and Alma, at the easternmost point of the national park. Right now, the only straight route between the two is by backcountry hike. St. Martins gets about 70,000 tourists annually, says Brennan, compared with Alma’s annual draw of around 300,000; a through road will transform this town from a detour to a destination. While tourists are increasingly

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Sussex Corner

New Line Road Jeffries Corner

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Karen Pinchin (@karenpinchin) has written for The Walrus and National Geographic.

Nick Hawkins (@nhawkinsphoto) specializes in science and conservation photography.

Bay

N.B.

Cradle Brook

flocking to the footpath, it’s still a remote wilderness trail with all the inherent dangers: “I’ve pulled all sorts of people out of these woods,” he says.

Starting our hike in the mid-afternoon, Brennan’s truck roars toward a forest service road providing mid-trail access on this 2½-day hike. Driving past sweeping clear-cuts, peppered with stripped, sad skeletons of jack pines and spruce trees, it’s hard to believe we’re heading toward dense, intact Acadian forest. He offers an apple from a nearly empty fivekilogram bag stashed beside the driver’s chair as his aging Brittany spaniel, who ordinarily rides shotgun, crouches resentfully in the back seat. The truck leaves a plume of dust, eventually stopping at a 2½-kilometre ridgeline access trail leading to two campsites near the mouth of Little Salmon River.

After tightening packs and adjusting hiking poles, we set off. Given the trail’s steep, root-strewn terrain and the pace required to finish the trail in four days, a frequent piece of advice is “pack light.”

That means carrying dehydrated food, light tents and sleeping bags, and as few MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

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Clockwise from opposite: Red Rock Adventures founder Nick Brennan takes in a sunrise on the footpath; low tide in Fundy’s Quaco Bay, near St. Martins; Seely Beach, considered one of the best hiking destinations in the UNESCO Fundy Biosphere Reserve; an aerial view of the newly constructed Fundy Trail Parkway.

P.E.I.

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frills as possible. Luckily, as long as hikers have water filtration, the path’s many streams and brooks provide consistent opportunities to refill bottles and bladders. As soon as we arrive at our campsite and before we lose the sun, we walk upriver to fill a 10-litre water filtration bladder with fresh-running water.

Taking off my sturdy boots and sweaty hiking clothes, I dive into one of the river’s deep pools. A stiff breeze blows up the valley, carrying a whiff of ocean brine. Sitting in shallow water, I run a rainbow of rocks through my fingers and watch them drift

to the bottom. The silence is profound, cut only by the pounding of a single helicopter, which careens overhead and quickly vanishes beyond the treeline. An eagle follows a few minutes later.

As it nears dark, three hikers cross the river heading west from Goose River, 23 kilometres along the footpath from the east. They all wear long pants and carry a pole in each hand. The lead hiker waves back while another snaps a photo. They disappear into the forest, a whale-shaped crest of emerald against a robin’s-eggblue sky. The sun sets high against the CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

37

FUNDY TRAIL

valley’s ridge, the temperature plummets, and I retreat to my tent.

THE MORNING arrives with the small roar of insect wings. Following the Appalachian Trail standard, white blazes track this winding footpath.

Inconveniently, the bark of many trees in this area also carry a look-alike white fungus, so hikers are warned to pay close attention.

“Most of the time, if you get lost on the trail, you’ve been talking or daydreaming, and, poof, you forget where you are,” says Alonzo Leger, who, along with his brother Gilles, started building the footpath with a team of volunteers in the early 1990s.

Although park ranger Jack McKay blazed a gruelling straight-up-and-down trail along the coast in the 1980s, it had fallen into disuse by the time the Leger brothers started their work.

Building switchbacks and cutting trails along perilous 200-metre-high ravines was difficult and painstaking, says Alonzo Leger, but with support from other volunteer trail builders across the province, including veterans of the Moncton-area Dobson Trail, the eastern section of the Fundy Footpath was completed in 1994.

The western section — the part we’re hiking — was finished four years later.

From securing land permissions from private landowners to the thousands of volunteer hours spent building the trail, he’s still amazed they actually did it.

These days, Leger says some of the footpath’s veteran hikers are annoyed by the amount and scale of development invested in the western, driveable

parkway side of the trail, money they say would be better spent maintaining and improving the central footpath’s aging stair ladders and signage. Another challenge, he says, is that all three sections bear the “Fundy” name, which often confuses tourists looking for day hikes or bike trails. “We get people who want to cycle it, and I have to say, ‘No, it’s a footpath,’ ” Leger says. “You’d be carrying your bike most of the time.”

Passing through the sheltered inlet of Cradle Brook, we eat a leisurely, sunshine-drenched lunch of rehydrated food on the rocky beach, a pleasant change from the forest’s thick, shady canopy. It’s gorgeous on a calm day, but easy to see how a storm and high tide could pin unlucky hikers between ocean and dense shrubbery. Ascending the valley wall, the cable ladder is rotting and rickety, and quavers under our feet.

We breathe a sigh of relief when back on solid ground, but our eyes widen at the steep trail winding upward.

When emergencies happen on the footpath, one person likely to get a call is

‘PEOPLE ARE HUNGRY TO GO TO

untouched places.'

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

The 84-metre-long Big Salmon River suspension bridge marks the western access point to the Fundy Footpath.

Larry Adair, owner of Adair’s Wilderness Lodge. He has a thick white beard and often wears a khaki shirt and glasses, giving him a Santa-Claus-on-summervacation vibe. He purchased this land, about 15 kilometres north of the Little Salmon River trailhead, in 1990 and built the lodge and restaurant in 1997. Cabins, motel units and a banquet room — featuring a painted mural in which Alonzo Leger appears — followed soon after.

While Leger and other volunteers worked on the Fundy Footpath, Adair let them camp on his land for free.

“Before I opened this area, hardly anyone toured it,” says Adair. Catering to ATV riders and motorcyclists, as well as hunters in the fall and hikers in the summer, the lodge hosts groups of snowmobilers and cross-country skiers in the winter. Adair, a longtime member of the Fundy Trail Parkway board, says the area will be the province’s “number one tourism destination” when the connecting road is eventually finished. “If I can get everything rolling, in five years you’ll see at least a 100-room hotel in here, motel, pool and spa,” he says.

It’s important that all types of visitors, from adrenaline junkies to easygoing daytrippers, are able to find activities and services they’re comfortable with, says Adair. There’s room in Fundy National Park for everyone, he says, and Brennan agrees. “Making sure everyone gets along,

FUNDY TRAIL

that’s a constant balancing act,” says Brennan. “But it’s remarkable that we all have access to this trail, even across private and public land. It’s magic.”

NEARING THE END of a second, gruelling day on the footpath, my knees and feet feel the opposite of magic, but the sudden discovery of hundreds of wild trailside blueberries is still thrilling. I awkwardly stoop to pick some, filling my palms before moving on, and minutes later, the brand-new wooden guardrails of a road under construction emerge beside the trail. A wide, snaking asphalt path runs back toward where we’ve just walked, step after heavy, tired step. It’s jarring to see smooth, fresh road after days of uneven single-track path.

When we trudge into Long Beach, a serene arcing bay at low tide, we’re greeted by a brand-new facility containing washrooms, freshly plumbed showers and — even — croquet mallet rentals.

A half-dozen cars pepper a freshly paved parking lot. A white-haired man in khakis crouches on a log, staring out at the ocean. A family stands around a black SUV, doors open, music playing.

“Debbie, pass my water bottle,” the female driver shouts. “Debbie!”

After miles of silent forest, it is a cacophony, and so distracting we accidentally hike a kilometre past the area’s new campsites, the originals displaced by brand-new picnic shelters. It’s too late to continue to Big Salmon, where our car is parked, so our night will be spent here. Dark clouds threaten as we rush to pitch our tents on a sheltered plateau overlooking the beach.

Growing up cutting trails with his father Alonzo, 37-year-old Marc Leger never anticipated working in this wilderness as an adult. But now, managing a trail revitalization project for Fundy National Park, he says a childhood spent in this forest has come in handy. The “worst part” of the Fundy Footpath used to finish in the park, he says, which is one reason they recently hired a worldrenowned sustainable trail building consultant to reroute the segment of the coastal trail from Goose River, at the park’s western border.

With grey-flecked hair, long limbs and a beard, Leger wears glasses and a green Parks Canada jacket and matching collared shirt. A former employee of The Great Trail — back when it was still the Trans Canada Trail — he currently sits on the board of the Fundy Hiking Trails Association and volunteers on the footpath. When The Great Trail was still in the planning stages, he says, this park was one of the first groups on board; it is still only one of a handful of national parks represented along the path.

‘IT’S REMARKABLE WE ALL HAVE access to

this trail. It's magic.'

Tourists explore the St. Martins sea caves at low tide, a short trip from the western Fundy Trail Parkway.

Striking a balance between longtime hikers and mountain bikers and Canadians new to exploring the country’s wilderness, including day-trippers more comfortable in cars than in hiking boots, is one of his organization’s goals, says Leger. “We have our coastal trails, and we have trails you can drive. We have trails that you can walk, trails you can walk and bike,” he says, pointing to a bank of new, under-construction trail.

“This goes through the exact same terrain, but will be more accessible.

‘Fundy Footpath light’ would be a good way to put it.”

As the afternoon light dims, the park empties out, with one family arriving a half-hour before the 8 p.m. day-visiting closing time. Two older women in colourful saris take the stairs carefully down to the beach, bright fabric whipping in the wind. When they drive away, we are alone again, now surrounded by empty infrastructure. Sitting at a newwood-smelling picnic bench at Long Beach, it’s possible to see the allure of the footpath — not simply in making stretches of it more accessible, but in bringing more lucky people closer to Fundy’s fairy-tale beaches, its confounding cliffs; who wouldn’t want to rub up against this beauty and solitude?

See more of Nick Hawkins’ images of the Fundy Footpath at cangeo.ca/jf18/fundy.

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Search out legendary wildlife along the remote Chobe River. Multiple game drives and unique culinary experiences provide the perfect blend of culture and thrills.

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For more information contact Collette 800.581.8942 Refer to Booking #852773 *Price is based on land only, per person, double occupancy. Included in Price: Cancellation Waiver and Insurance, Attraction Taxes and Fees, Round Trip Air from Ottawa International Airport, Air Taxes and Fees/Surcharges (subject to increase until paid in full), Hotel Transfers, (For Round Trip Air from Toronto Intl Airport please deduct $100 from the above rates. For Round Trip Air from Calgary Intl Airport OR Vancouver Intl Airport please add $100 to the above rates.) Prices subject to change. BC Reg. #23337; Travel Industry Council of Ontario Reg. # 3206405

‘OVER THE

The Soper River cuts through the exposed rock of southern Baffin Island alongside the unmarked Itijjagiaq Trail.

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LAND’

It’s the meaning of Itijjagiaq, the trail that connects the communities of Iqaluit and Kimmirut across southern Baffin Island, spanning both age-old traditions and recent change

BY OSSIE MICHELIN WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY DAVID KILABUK

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HE ITIJJAGIAQ TRAIL is more of an expanse than a trail. There are no trail markers here other than nine emergency cabins scattered along the trail’s length.

No trees or bushes corral hikers along a set path; they must determine which ridge lines to hike or which streams to ford. Nothing but rivers, mountains and marshes influence how far and wide hikers wander to their destination.

For the Inuit of southern Baffin Island, the trail runs through their backyard, and in the winter it becomes a highway of snowmobile tracks connecting Iqaluit’s Frobisher Bay to Kimmirut on southern Baffin. It is also where they fish for Arctic char, pick berries and hunt geese, other birds and, at one time, caribou by the hundreds.

“It’s a big part of a lot of people’s lives, particularly those with family in Kimmirut and Iqaluit who use it to travel back and forth,” says Amy Brown, acting manager of parks planning and establishment with Nunavut Parks and Special Places. “Now with a growing population of southerners using the trail as well, its users have grown beyond just local Inuit. It’s interesting to share something that is so natural to us here in Nunavut with the rest of Canada as a piece of The Great Trail.”

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Running 120 kilometres across the Meta Incognita Peninsula, the Itijjagiaq is one of the newest additions to The Great Trail and the only section in Nunavut.

This is not a hike for beginners: the trail traverses Katannilik Territorial Park, crossing over mountains, vast barren plateaus and lakes and through river valleys.

For those experienced enough, however, it is an unforgettable journey.

Leaving from Iqaluit south across Frobisher Bay, the trail climbs from sea level to almost 670 metres in altitude across an expansive plateau within a span of about 25 kilometres. The terrain then shifts to broad rolling hills of sheer rock and sparse patches of stunted vegetation. The lack of distinctive points of reference is disorienting.

Two billion years ago, mountains rivalling the Himalayas pushed up here from a continental collision, but glacial erosion and time wore the mountains

down to their roots. Now ever-changing rock and mineral formations dominate the trail’s landscape, from chalky mountains of crumbling marble, to monoliths of quartzite and other rocks, to rusty brown cliff faces.

The rocks here are striking, but they are nearly identical to rocks and minerals found farther south in Quebec and Ontario. The difference lies in the fact that the glaciers have relinquished Baffin Island much more recently than southern Canada. And with such short growing seasons, the area has yet to bury the exposed rocks with topsoil, let alone top them with forests, as it has in the South.

The unbroken horizon of the upper plateau all but disappears upon reaching Mount Joy, roughly halfway along the Itijjagiaq. Known as Kiinaujaq in Inuktitut, this is where the terrain transforms into a deeply embedded sandy and marshy river valley bursting with willows,

The Itijjagiaq Trail follows the Soper River Valley (top) across much of the Meta Incognita Peninsula. Few people alive today know the region’s terrain as well as Elder Sandy Akavak (above) of Kimmirut (below).

cotton grasses and other plant life all the way to the end of the trail. Across Baffin Island, the Kimmirut area is known for having the most sought-after berries, and in the late summer they are undeniably

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abundant, plump and flavourful. Many Inuit stain their fingers purple and blue harvesting bag upon bag of crowberries and blueberries.

At this time of year, Nunavut conservation officer Sean Noble-Nowdluk patrols along the southern end of the trail on ATV and by jet boat up the Soper River. The 22-year-old bears the mark of a hunter who has spent much time on the Land, with the inverse image of his sunglasses tanned onto his face.

“This is an amazing valley for geese.

I’ve never seen so many geese as I have seen here,” says Noble-Nowdluk. As he Ossie Michelin (@Osmich) focuses his journalism on northern and Indigenous issues. His work has appeared on APTN, CBC Indigenous and Vice. David Kilabuk (@DavidKilabuk) specializes in photographing the area in and around Pangnirtung, Nunavut.

continues up the river, more and more geese enter the sky, disturbed by his boat’s drone. The protected river valley is a summer nesting ground for Canada geese. At their peak, he says, they number in the high thousands and the sound of honking fills the valley.

Also scattered across the river valley are reminders of the thousands of caribou that once roamed here. Antlers, skulls and other bones can be found almost everywhere. Like other caribou herds across the North, the number of Baffin caribou is dwindling significantly.

The most recent surveys estimate that there are fewer than 5,000 across all of Baffin, compared with more than 200,000 in the early 1990s.

“They said there used to be thousands of caribou here,” Noble-Nowdluk laments. “You might see one or two now sometimes but not so much since they went away, not like they used to.”

IN INUKTITUT, ITIJJAGIAQ means “over the land,” and for Inuit this is unique, as traditionally they remained along the coastline harvesting the bounty of the sea. Things began to change in 1942 when the American Army built a base at Frobisher Bay, on the trail’s north end, in what is now Iqaluit. With vibrant communities at either end of the peninsula, Inuit began taking the inland trail in winter by dogsled.

“The youth today have no idea what my way of life was like. I know they can’t go back to that way; some people are trying but it’s just not possible,” says Inuit Elder Sandy Akavak. He is a large man with strong weathered hands. Everyone in town greets him as he passes, and he greets them back with a smile and a twinkle in his eye.

The 76-year-old is one of the oldest residents of Kimmirut; he has seen many changes come to Baffin Island in his lifetime. He was born in a tent on a small islet off the Baffin coast. His family moved to Lake Harbour, now Kimmirut, when he was seven so his father could work as a special constable with the RCMP. His father was the first to begin running a dogsled overland to Frobisher Bay. This dogsled route for delivering supplies, assisting the RCMP and delivering the mail would become the basis for most of the Itijjagiaq.

“Sometimes we would do the entire trail run just for one letter,” Akavak laughs. He points out that the current trail veers to the north more than his father’s original trail, but he says it

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makes him happy to know people are still using the route. Akavak, and later his son, would continue the tradition of working with the RCMP in Kimmirut.

Growing up, Akavak and his brothers would set a trapline in the fall to catch Arctic fox and silver fox to sell to the Hudson’s Bay Company trading post in exchange for bullets, equipment and staples such as flour, lard and baking powder.

With the arrival of the American army in the 1940s came snowmobiles, planes parachuting supplies at Christmas, and more and more southerners moving up and bringing with them alcohol and crime, something Akavak says had never been a problem before. For better or worse, being connected by a trail to Iqaluit, and by extension the rest of the world, has brought many changes to Kimmirut. Akavak, for his part, hopes that the Itijjagiaq joining The Great Trail network will bring many new visitors and friendly faces looking to explore what makes his home so special.

Brown shares that sentiment and hopes that the trail will open visitors’ eyes to the beauty of the territory.

“When you look at Nunavut, everywhere is essentially remote. All our communities are fly-in communities,” she says.

“So having something to draw in people’s awareness — to home them in on a particular region — allows visitors to dip their toe in the pond, and it gives

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them something to gravitate toward.

We’re hoping this trail will be the first of many adventures for people in the South as they turn their gaze north toward Nunavut.”

Likewise, Brown sees this as more than just a hiking trail but something to give people in the territory a sense of belonging and connection to share with those living in the South.

“Nunavut can feel very removed from the rest of Canada,” she says. “The trail helps connect us to the rest of the country even though it’s such a vast distance between the southern communities and the southern Great Trail to here all the way up in Nunavut.”

KATANNILIK TERRITORIAL Park ranger Andrew Boyd sees visitors of all kinds, each seeking their own adventure in the beautiful land. All visitors must sign up with the park and carry GPS devices, so park staff can track them to ensure their safety. Boyd is the first to say this trail, which can take more than a week to hike in the summer, is not for beginners. “Dealing with the environment, the bugs, the elements, the animals — you never know what to expect,” he warns, although he admits that’s part of the charm. “You go out there and it’s never the same. You can cross the same land and there’s always something different. You can appreciate it in a new way every time you go out.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Andrew Boyd (in red), a Katannilik Territorial Park ranger, speaks with Ossie Michelin at one of the trail’s emergency cabins (above).

Soper Falls, in Katannilik park (below).

With every season, the trail transforms completely. Boyd jokes that the three seasons are “snow, mud and bug.” Each winter the trail becomes a vast untouched canvas only marked by rock faces jutting out defiantly from beneath the soft snow and wellworn snowmobile tracks, which create a wide, hard-packed thoroughfare that can be crossed in a single day. In the spring, as snow softens and the rivers begin to flow again, the trail becomes nearly impassable and is closed for weeks. In the summer, the scent of plants fills the air along with the droning of thousands and thousands of flies. In the autumn before the snow begins to accumulate, the land is quiet and still in anticipation of winter’s approach.

Boyd believes that what makes the trail so special is that there is no set way to get from the trail’s start to its end. “There’s no definitive line that you have to follow. You’re always trying to find the animals along the way with no guarantee, because there’s nothing to herd them or keep them in anywhere so they just roam, so you have to roam as well. That speaks to the type of trail we have here.”

See 360-degree views of the trail and meet a few of its stewards at cangeo.ca/jf18/baffin.

Thick-billed Murres (Guillemots) diving offshore Nunavut

TALLURUTIUP IMANGA What is Talluruptiup Imanga?

In the future, it will be Canada’s largest marine conservation area, located offshore Nunavut.

Working together has sustained people of the North for generations. The designation of this diverse marine area is a testament to that spirit of collaboration.

Today we congratulate the Qikiqtani Inuit Association, the Governments of Canada and Nunavut, and all organizations that contributed to the recently announced final boundary agreement for the area. Shell’s contribution of 860,000 hectares of offshore rights to the Nature Conservancy of Canada last year helped enable conservation of this wider marine protected area.

Explore more: www.shell.ca/conservation

ALONG

Great Sea THE

A photo essay celebrating the 1,000-kilometre Lake Superior Water Trail, the canoe route that skirts the ancient shores of the world’s greatest freshwater expanse PHOTOGRAPHY BY GARY AND JOANIE MCGUFFIN WITH TEXT BY JAKE MACDONALD

Paddlers rest after pulling their canoes ashore in Pukaskwa National Park.

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ONE OF THE MOST spectacular parts of The Great Trail is the route across the north shore of Lake Superior. Even for motorists, the stretch of Trans-Canada Highway from Sault Ste. Marie to Thunder Bay can be a bit of a challenge, with long gaps between services, erratic weather and the ever-present possibility of a moose jaywalking into the path of your vehicle.

In the past, only skilled paddlers have risked the north shore of Superior. The lake’s notorious gales generate massive waves that have swallowed hundreds of ships over the years, some as large as the legendary Edmund Fitzgerald (which at 222 metres was about the size of Toronto’s TD Bank tower). But with the modern-day development of sturdy canoes and kayaks fit for long-distance travel on a lake of Superior’s size, more people than ever before can explore this 1,000-kilometre section of The Great Trail.

A consortium of municipalities, conservation groups, First Nations and myriad volunteers have worked together to build the trail network, which consists of 16 water-access points and a network of campsites and boat launches. Some of these are in lakeshore communities such as Rossport and Terrace Bay; many feature hiking trails, picnic tables, composting toilets, bear-proof garbage containers and wheelchair-accessible launching docks.

Still, this is Lake Superior, and anyone interested in exploring the water trail is urged to prepare and exercise caution. The lake has many stretches of rocky, inaccessible shoreline, and weather conditions can change abruptly. Fog can persist for days. Paddlers are therefore urged to monitor marine weather forecasts and remember the old bush pilot’s advice: “When in doubt, chicken out.”

But on calm-weather days, travelling from cove to cove along Superior’s shoreline is an unparalleled experience that offers natural wonders with every dip of your paddle. Maybe it’s the water, jade-green and as clear as a window, through which you can see boulders looming far beneath you. Or the Till Creek waterfall cascading into the lake near Old Woman Bay. Or the tiny, hardy plants that sprout from barren stone outcrops. Or the soaring ravens drifting like tiny flecks of soot below the rim of ancient cliffs.

No matter which of these draws your eye, each is quintessentially Superior and emblematic of a spiritual intensity you can experience nowhere else but on the big lake they call Gitche Gumee.

Clockwise from top: Battle Island Lighthouse, located in the Lake Superior National Marine Conservation Area; a greater yellowlegs; an aerial view of a small island within the marine conservation area.

Gary and Joanie McGuffin are conservation photographers whose work has appeared in the Globe and Mail and explore. Jake MacDonald writes regularly for Report on Business Magazine and Cottage Life.

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Clockwise from opposite: Kayakers at Wilson Island, near Rossport; the rock formation known as Nanabijou’s Chair in the Gargantua Islands Preserve, near Lake Superior Provincial Park; paddlers explore a cave on St. Ignace Island; sunset on Healy Island, near Rossport.

Watch a video and see photos of filmmaker Dianne Whelan’s journey along the Lake Superior Water Trail, part of her attempt to hike, bike and paddle the entirety of The Great Trail, at cangeo.ca/jf18/superior.

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green RIBBON OF

It’s an apt moniker for the Edmonton River Valley Trail, a route that plays an active role in the lives of many in the city.

Here are some of their stories.

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BY TIM QUERENGESSER WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY AMBER BRACKEN

“THOSE WERE JUST the best times for me in the world as a child, being with that little group of girls hiking along the trails,” says Sheila Thompson of her introduction to Edmonton’s pathways at the age of 10.

It was 1960, and Thompson was in Grade 5 at King Edward Elementary in the Strathcona neighbourhood.

Her teacher, Ms. Brenton, was an outdoorswoman who stabled a horse in the city’s river valley, and she would hike Thompson and several other girls through the trails on Saturday mornings.

Trail views (clockwise from top left): Looking out over the river valley; Edmonton’s skyline; the High Level Bridge; a man walks his dog in Forest Heights Park; a volleyball game on the shore of the North Saskatchewan River; Sandra Gaherty and her sons Samuel (left) and Noah in Constable Ezio Faraone Park.

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Years later, Thompson, as a member of Alberta TrailNet, a group tasked with helping create The Great Trail, worked to establish numerous parts of the network.

Today, she’s one of tens of thousands who ride, walk, hike, bike and explore the city’s trails. These people and their stories offer a glimpse into what the Edmonton River Valley Trail means to its city. And there may be no more knowledgeable guide to begin such a tour than Thompson.

Before she retired in 2010, Thompson was a teacher, and her instructions for a beginning lesson on The Great Trail in Edmonton are fittingly teacher-like. Meet her on your bicycle at the Alberta Legislature grounds at 8 a.m., sharp.

Erin Jackson and her dog, Kaya, in Rundle Park (above), part of Edmonton’s River Valley Trail. The iconic High Level Bridge (below) is visible from many parts of the trail.

The legislature sits where the fur-trading post Fort Edmonton once did, its presence marked now by a tiny concrete plinth. The trail, Thompson says, offers Edmontonians not only mobility but also a way to connect themselves to the city’s past — the river’s use as an Indigenous meeting place, then for the fur trade, urban settlement and so on.

“The trail allows you to experience it in three dimensions because you choose the activity that you want to do, you choose the area of the trail you want to visit, and then you can also have the added dimension of time,” she says. “This is a historic route, and much of Alberta’s Great Trail is built on historic routes.”

THE GREAT TRAIL runs along the Petroleum Way highway for a few kilometres before entering the North Saskatchewan River valley at Strathcona Science Provincial Park, tucked away on Edmonton’s northeast edge. Refinery smokestacks loom, hugging the river bank.

Harmony Wolgemuth first came here as a junior-high student in the 1980s. Back then, the park was home to government-run pavilions extolling the virtues of turning Alberta’s bitumen into oil and displaying old coal mines, while other areas hosted scientists excavating Indigenous artifacts in what became the city’s largest-scale archeological project.

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EDMONTON RIVER VALLEY

“It would have been a field trip, and I wouldn’t have had as much interest in it then as I do now,” says Wolgemuth.

She’s a post-secondary educator today and is interested in finding ways to maintain human connections to places such as this. Wolgemuth, 51, walks her dog, Chili, here at least 12 hours each week. Mountain bikers and a contingent of model airplane enthusiasts — who have taken a spot in the abandoned park as their de facto airfield — are her usual companions, though on this sweltering August afternoon, she’s joined by some nudist sunbathers.

“I hope they have some other plans for this,” Wolgemuth says, as she surveys the UFO-inspired former main building, a would-be lair for some evil genius to plot world domination. It was long ago boarded up. Since she discovered the spot three years ago, Wolgemuth comes regularly, a mug of decaf coffee always in hand, seemingly using

herself as a subtle push to keep life in the park since the closure of its exhibits.

But she can only do so much, despite this park’s connections to the River Valley Trail. “It’s not one of the busiest places going, that’s for sure. But cyclists and dog walkers still use it. If you leave the park sort of half up and half down, looking like a ghost town, and everybody knows it used to be something, but nobody knows why it isn’t any more, it just seems kind of sad.”

MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

‘Being active is an important part of life, particularly for people with disabilities.

I think that’s why the trail is so important to me.’

Tim Querengesser (@timquerengesser) writes for publications such as Eighteen Bridges, Alberta Views, the Walrus and CityLab. Amber Bracken (@Amber_Bracken) shoots for the Globe and Mail, Reuters, Maclean’s and more. Both live in Edmonton.

IMMEDIATELY WEST of Strathcona Science Park, down the trail and across the industrial Ainsworth Dyer Bridge spanning the North Saskatchewan, is Rundle Park.

Named after Reverend Robert Rundle, the first missionary educator in Fort Edmonton, it was built atop a former landfill.

On a crisp July morning, Erin Jackson, 33, is here training for a triathlon and, every so often, pulls her dog, Kaya, away from squirrels. Jackson is a lawyer, a member of several boards and a wheelchair athlete, slowly scaling back her racing to focus on a new job — drafting a new mental-health policy for the Alberta government.

Jackson first came to this part of the trail on family picnics, but after injuring her spinal cord in a car accident in CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

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2003, she now comes to train in her race wheelchair, on her hand-cycle or, her new passion, on cross-country skis.

“Being active is an important part of life, particularly for people with disabilities,” she says. “Actually, I think that’s why the trail is so important to me. I just choose this one because there’s nice shade coverage and it’s really open. It’s really actively used so you feel safer, and it’s nicer than being in a gym.”

Jackson and Kaya move at a slow, jogging pace, dodging ruts in the asphalt. To their right, Rundle’s baseball diamonds and tennis courts slowly spark to life. As she rolls, Jackson says she only realized she was using The Great Trail in Rundle Park, as well as other parts closer to downtown, in preparing to chat about it. Now she wants to use the system elsewhere.

“Someday, I would like to see other parts of it,” she says, “although I have to say I’m kind of biased because I think Edmonton is by far one of the nicest river valleys I’ve ever been in.”

Sandra Gaherty with her sons Noah (left) and Samuel. Gaherty, who doesn’t own a car, regularly uses the trail to walk or bike to work.

Park. Sandra Gaherty is here, helping her six-year-old son, Samuel, open a bag of Cheezies after a long bike ride across the city’s iconic High Level Bridge.

“If you have kids and choose to live without a car, get used to them complaining, and teaching them about resilience,” she says. Nearby, her other son, 10-year-old Noah, sits quietly, partly watching over Samuel to help his mom and partly scanning the bridge for excitement.

Gaherty, 39, first stepped on the trail in 2011 after moving to Edmonton from Edinburgh, Scotland. She came with lofty ambitions: Despite Edmonton being one of the most car-dependent cities in Canada, she planned to walk and bike to work just as she did as a civil engineer in Scotland. Then she promptly began commuting by car.

Her experiences walking and biking on parts of The Great Trail rescued her dream. “The realization that Edmonton was walkable and bikeable motivated me then to decide that I may as well do this to go to work. It might take a bit longer, but if I’m loving it this much, why not?”

‘The realization that Edmonton was walkable and bikeable motivated me then to decide that I may as well do this to go to work. If I’m loving it this much, why not?’

DOWN THE TRAIL from Rundle, atop a ridge with views of the river-valley-sized chasm between downtown Edmonton and the old city of Strathcona, sits Constable Ezio Faraone 58

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Presented by

Canadian students increase their energy awareness while educating the nation.

DON’T FORGET TO TURN OFF THE LIGHTS! In 2017, kids across Canada saved over 91,000 kWh of energy and went 3,500 hours without power through the Classroom Energy Diet Challenge!

Tips to help conserve energy at home: Turn the lights off Unplug/power down electronics Wear a sweater instead of turning up the heat facebook.com/cangeo @energy_lit #ThinkCreateDo #energydiet

Register a classroom by January 28, 2018 at energydiet.ca

EDMONTON RIVER VALLEY

Today, Gaherty has become something of a flag-bearer for carfree child rearing, earning a feature story in the local daily for bucking the city’s trend as she raises her boys without a vehicle.

“When Samuel was a baby, I used to just ride across the bridge with him in the bikeseat on the front, because it was an amazing view of the river,” she says.

“He loved it. He just learned how to ride his bike three weeks ago, and just when we were coming down the hill onto the bridge today I looked right, because he has coaster brakes on his bike, and was like ‘Oh, I don’t know if he can do that hill.’ He just had this huge smile on his face.”

Moments later, Noah jumps up and points at the bridge. But Samuel wants his mom’s attention, too. “A tram — it’s a tram!” Samuel screams, pointing at the High Level historic streetcar on top.

Sheila Thompson (right) and Tim Querengesser ride toward a portion of the trail near the south side of the High Level Bridge.

training for an upcoming triathlon. Thompson freezes on her green city bike and the peloton flies around her like water rushing around a rock in a river.

Across the North Saskatchewan again, this time on the LaurierHawrelak footbridge, she passes the Edmonton Valley Zoo. Eventually, after trudging up the steep river bank, Thompson ends up at the new home of Fort Edmonton, near where she first started exploring trails as a 10-year-old.

“We are at the place where all of the trails join together,” she says.

“To have that so close to home, it’s a game changer for me. I’m very happy that we have the idea of The Great Trail, and I think it’s important that everybody has a chance to get out and experience nature, especially in an urban environment — for children to be able to know what it’s like to get out and explore.”

‘The trail allows you to experience it in three dimensions because you choose the activity you want, you choose the area you want, and then you have the added dimension of time.’

SHEILA THOMPSON’S tour continues from the legislature across the North Saskatchewan River and into the University of Alberta campus, which Thompson explains was annexed as part of the river lot system used to allocate land as Europeans settled in Edmonton. She then rolls farther west, into William Hawrelak Park, only to be “swooped upon,” as Thompson later describes it, by more than 100 cyclists on The Great Trail 60

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See more of the Edmonton River Valley Trail in a video of its notable sites and the people who use it at cangeo.ca/jf18/edmonton.

Lifetime It was incredible to wake up every experience ‘ day in a new part of the Arctic ’

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PAINTING: “ARCTIC PASSAGE” (DETAIL), 48” X 24”, OIL ON LINEN, GIBBS FIORD, BAFFIN ISLAND, NUNAVUT, CANADA; PHOTO: JEFF TOPHAM, JEFFTOPHAM.COM

I wish that I’d had a camera that was able to capture the combination of those four kinds of light. To have been able to put that on film would have been wonderful, but it will just have to remain one of those great travel experiences that I tell people about.

on

One Ocean ships made a huge difference to my Into the Arctic project — I’m only able to access so much landscape when on land — but it was also just incredible to wake up every day in a new part of the Arctic, especially because I was still in full-on painting and filming mode. [Trépanier started his Arctic Passage painting shown above during his One Ocean Expeditions trip. — Ed.] Having the opportunity to see parts of the region I otherwise never would have seen was a big thrill for me as an artist and as a traveller.

There were many standout moments, but one I’ll never forget was when we were sailing down the west coast of Baffin Island. The sun had just set, but there was still a glow in the sky. When I walked around to the east side of the deck, I saw that the moon was beginning to rise and noticed northern fulmars gliding alongside the ship in the moonlight. Then the northern lights started to come up; they were weak, but still dancing. I thought it couldn’t get any better, but then I looked down at the water and saw it was aglow with bioluminescent creatures — they were like fireflies of the sea.

THE ROYA

Being on the

The restored Kinsol Trestle spans the Koksilah River and is one of many dramatic highlights to be seen along Vancouver Island’s Cowichan Valley Trail.

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CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

COWICHAN CONNECTION Built on the legacy of former rail lines and logging routes, the Cowichan Valley Trail now links its users to Vancouver Island’s history, cultures and communities

BY SUZANNE MORPHET WITH PHOTOGRAPHY BY ROBIN O’NEILL

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

63

O

ON A HOT July afternoon, a young mother ambles across a long wooden trestle, her toddler pushing alongside her on a small trike. The child is too young to know it, and his mother has probably walked this former rail bridge too many times to give it a second thought, but the Kinsol Trestle near southern Vancouver Island’s Shawnigan Lake isn’t just any old bridge. Yes, its weathered fir timbers elegantly span the Koksilah River with a pleasing geometric symmetry, but at 44 metres high and 187 metres long, it’s not just the highest wooden trestle in the Commonwealth but also one of the largest wooden trestles in the world.

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CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

The trestle is a dramatic highlight of the Cowichan Valley Trail, a 122kilometre segment of The Great Trail that winds along the island’s southeastern coast between Malahat and just beyond Ladysmith, passing through conifer forests with dense understories of salal and fern, over eight restored wooden trestles (including the Kinsol),

IT’S HARD TO IMAGINE today, but in the late 1800s more people lived on Vancouver Island than the British Columbia mainland. Victoria was, after all, the colony’s largest and capital city, so when a transcontinental railway was proposed, people naturally expected it to terminate on the island.

But with rugged mountains on the mainland and the Strait of Georgia in between, “it didn’t make sense from an engineering point of view,” says Bob Turner, a transportation historian and the author of Vancouver Island Railroads.

“So Vancouver Island got the Esquimalt and Nanaimo Railway, kind of as a compensation.”

Esquimalt was the site of a Royal Navy base next to Victoria, and Nanaimo was an important coal-mining centre, “so a connection between them was seen as being a good idea in any case,” Turner adds.

The Cowichan Valley, about halfway between Victoria and Nanaimo, had an enviable climate, and the E&N, as it was known, spurred settlement after it was completed in 1886. (Macdonald himself, who’d represented Victoria as an MP from 1878 to 1882 without ever visiting the city, drove in the last spike near

The trestle is a dramatic highlight of the Cowichan Valley Trail. past former logging and mining towns, and alongside the Cowichan River, a Canadian Heritage River renowned for its salmon and steelhead trout.

But for all the nail-biting around the trestle’s near demise and subsequent rescue (see “Saving the Kinsol Trestle” sidebar on page 66), its history, and the history of the Cowichan Valley Trail, is only one part of a much bigger story — one that intertwines Prime Minister John A. Macdonald’s Confederation-era “national dream” of a railway that linked the country from coast to coast and the development of Vancouver Island.

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

COWICHAN VALLEY TRAIL Nanaimo

St ra

it

of

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Ladysmith

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Duncan

Paldi

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Forest Urban Cropland First Nations Reserve Road Contour

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Kinsol Ri Trestle Shawnigan h a l i Lake Kok s Tr

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THE GREAT TRAIL Road Endpoint of featured Trail trail Ferry

0

them,” he says, laughing and stretching his arms to give some idea of the massive size of the trees.

By 1924, a second railway — Canadian National — was completed from Victoria to the east end of Lake Cowichan, giving the logging industry access to even more timber, and laying the groundwork for the recreational trails of the future.

Malahat

VICTORIA

10 km

Juan

Shawnigan Lake.) The main hindrance for settlers was the enormous trees that were an obstacle to farming. For others, however, the trees were the plum.

“Much of the valley was this amazing stand of 300- to 400-year-old Douglas fir, which was highly prized for its lumber,” says Turner. “From the perspective of forest companies, and probably the province too, this was like a gold mine.”

In 1912, the E&N opened a branch line from Duncan to Lake Cowichan to serve the burgeoning logging industry.

It was a game changer, according to Tom Paterson, who writes a twice-weekly history column for the Cowichan Valley Citizen. “Numerous trains came out of Lake Cowichan in a day, loaded with logs. And when I say loaded, there were cars that had only two or three of what they call B.C. toothpicks on

de

Fuca

it Stra

Clockwise from above: Old-growth forest along the trail; a cyclist rides over one of the trail’s restored bridges; the Cowichan River.

Vancouver Island, the key pieces of land were available. By 2002, the Cowichan Valley Regional District had fi nalized a route, and the Cowichan Valley Trail was born.

LAST JULY, Chris Newton, a former tree faller, was smoothing out the southernmost and newest portion of the Cowichan Valley Trail, the Malahat Connector, which had opened a month earlier. Unlike most of the rest of the trail, the connector is hilly, with grand views of the Gulf Islands, the Olympic Mountains and, on a clear day, Washington state’s Mount Rainier.

“This had been logged back in the ’30s and ’40s,” he explained to a group of cyclists who had stopped to chat. Leaning against his dusty pickup truck in the shade of second-growth forest, Newton said that although still relatively young, these quiet forests shelter numerous species, including black bears, Roosevelt elk, deer, cougars and wolves.

From the Malahat Connector, the trail flattens out as it pushes northwest past

MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

By the 1950s, trains were gradually pulled from service in the Cowichan Valley, and many tracks were eventually ripped up.

Suzanne Morphet (@SecretsSuitcase) writes regularly about adventure travel for publications such as the Globe and Mail and Vancouver Sun. Robin O’Neill is an outdoor lifestyle and action photographer whose work has appeared in Mountain Life, explore and Powder magazines.

Over the next quarter century, the rail and logging boom continued. But by the 1950s, the railways were losing out to trucks and cars. Trains were gradually pulled from service in the Cowichan Valley and — except for the E&N mainline — tracks were eventually ripped up.

Fortunately, the former rail corridors began to be purchased and preserved in the 1980s, and by the time the Trans Canada Trail Foundation came calling in 1997 seeking a route on

rgi

r

Lake Cowichan

eo

Tr a i l

Enlarged area

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

65

a

COWICHAN VALLEY TRAIL

Shawnigan Lake, across the Kinsol Trestle and the Koksilah River, and along the Cowichan River before reaching Lake Cowichan, one of the largest lakes on the island. From there, it hooks east and descends slowly but steadily, passing Paldi, a former logging community named for its Punjabi founder’s hometown in India. At Duncan, which once echoed with the rumble of passing log

trains, it turns north and up the island’s east coast, through Chemainus — famous for its murals, many of which depict its sawmill heyday — and into Ladysmith, originally a coal-mining community and rail hub where boxcars filled with merchandise from the mainland were transferred from barge to rail.

In short, there is no dearth of rail-andlogging-related sites along the trail;

Hikers make their way along the trail after visiting the Kinsol Trestle.

Duncan alone is home to two of the six museums in the region — the BC Forest Discovery Centre and the Cowichan Valley Museum — that help preserve this aspect of its history.

But there is more to the Cowichan Valley Trail than lumber and steel.

SAVING THE KINSOL TRESTLE Constructed by hand between 1911 and 1920, the Kinsol Trestle is a magnificent feat of engineering from the Age of Steam that today is the must-see site on the Cowichan Valley Trail. A little more than a decade ago, though, the historic railway bridge seemed destined to be lost.

In 2006, after years of neglect, vandalism and two arson attempts, a Victoria engineering firm recommended to British Columbia’s Ministry of Transportation that the trestle be demolished and replaced.

The Cowichan Valley Regional District agreed, and the following spring the province announced $1.6 million in funding toward a 66

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

new bridge, on top of a previous commitment of $1.5 million to dismantle the original trestle.

That’s when Macdonald & Lawrence Timber Framing, a local company specializing in building and conserving timber structures, decided to study the trestle and offer a second opinion. “I had never been there before and I was blown away by what an impressive structure it was,” says Gordon Macdonald, the company’s CEO. “I realized a couple things. One was that there was a lot of good material in the bridge. The other was that there were well-proven ways of repairing structures like the trestle that hadn’t been considered.”

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Macdonald also sought input from other volunteer experts, including the retired senior engineer for CN Rail who had been responsible for the Kinsol Trestle for more than 30 years.

In June 2007, Macdonald’s group convinced the Cowichan Valley Regional District that the trestle could, and should, be saved. Rehabilitation would be cheaper and more environmentally sound than replacement. But foremost, says Macdonald, the trestle was simply too significant to lose. “It was one of the few survivors from this era when no project was too big or too crazy to be undertaken.”

It took about a year to restore the trestle, including a couple of “intense months” when seven sections of the bridge were removed, from the top deck down to the foundation, leaving the rest of the bridge “just standing there, temporarily guyed together,” Macdonald recalls, noting that he barely slept during that time.

The result? “Our dream of making it a destination has come true,” says Lori Treloar, curator of the nearby Shawnigan Lake Museum and a vocal proponent of saving the trestle. “We have hundreds of people out there every week. We consider it a jewel in The Great Trail.”

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COWICHAN VALLEY TRAIL

In Duncan, for instance, trail users can detour onto the Totem Tour Walk and see how the city honours the culture and history of the Cowichan Tribes and the Coast Salish people with one of the world’s largest outdoor displays of totem poles, now numbering 40.

In the local Hul’q’umi’num language, Quw’utsun (Cowichan) means “warm land,” a reference to the climate that drew early settlers eager to reap the agricultural bounty the valley still offers.

Among those who knew a good thing when they saw it was Dionisio Zanatta, who moved from Treviso, Italy, in

the 1950s and helped pioneer the local wine industry by providing an acre of his property to the provincial government as a test site for grapes. Later, Zanatta and his daughter opened Vigneti Zanatta, one of the first commercial wineries on

Farm Table Inn owners George Gates and Evelyn Koops (above). Old railcars at the BC Forest Discovery Centre in Duncan (below).

and, on an experimental basis, olives.

“These are things you wouldn’t think of normally being grown in Canada,” says Docherty.

The same mild, sunny weather that’s good for agriculture makes the trail an appealing year-round option for everyone from the cyclists that stop for sleep and sustenance at businesses such as the Farm Table Inn, a B&B and restaurant about halfway between Duncan and Lake Cowichan, to hikers and history buffs such as Tom Paterson, the Cowichan Valley Citizen columnist who strolls its course searching for railway artifacts. “It’s quiet and your imagination’s at work, and you realize that a train used to come along right where you’re walking,” says Paterson. “Well, for every mile on the trail, there’s a hundred stories.”

Although still relatively young, these quiet forests shelter numerous species, including black bears, Roosevelt elk, deer, cougars and wolves. the island. Located just southwest of Duncan, it’s less than two kilometres from the trail.

More recently, Rick Pipes and Janet Docherty found their dream property near the Kinsol Trestle — a small farm called Merridale that was planted with heritage varieties of apples. Today, the couple produce more than 200,000 litres of cider per year, in addition to operating an on-site distillery and gastropub. Most wouldn’t be surprised to find an apple orchard on the island, but less common crops pop up, too, including lavender, tea

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Read an interview with Gordon Macdonald about his restoration work on the Kinsol Trestle and the history and culture of the Cowichan Valley at cangeo.ca/jf18/trestle.

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THE

G R E AT TRAIL

QUIZ GEOGRAPHY

25 questions to test your knowledge of Canada’s country-crossing, coastconnecting trail system

BY N I C K WA L K E R

WIN GREAT PRIZES! Visit geoquiz.cangeo.ca/ult18 and enter your answers online in the interactive version of this quiz for your chance to win.

See the website for complete prize details, as well as rules and regulations. Deadline for entries is June 6, 2018. Winners will be randomly selected.

I

It took many trails and waterways — 432, to be exact — to link Atlantic coast and Shield country, Prairie and northern tundra, Rocky Mountains and Pacific rainforest. And not only those landscapes, but also all of Canada’s largest cities and countless smaller communities, historic sites and protected areas. The more you drill down, the more staggering the idea behind The Great Trail becomes.

So in small tribute to a very large trail system, here are 25 questions to test your knowledge of this national network and a few of the places, people and histories it ties together. Good luck!

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

71

1

WHAT IS THE LONGEST land-based

section of The Great Trail?

a) Alaska Highway, B.C.-Yukon b) Mackenzie Highway, N.W.T. c) Mackenzie River Trail, N.W.T. d) Newfoundland T’Railway Trail

2

AT 1,660 KILOMETRES, this is the longest water route on The Great Trail.

3

AROUND HOW LONG have Ojibwa and Cree been using the “Path of the Paddle” — water trails between Thunder Bay, Ont., and eastern Manitoba — for travel and trade?

a) Lake Superior Water Trail b) Northwest Passage

a) 1,000 years b) 5,000 years

c) Athabasca River Trail, Alta. d) Mackenzie River Trail, N.W.T.

4 5

ALBERTA’S KANANASKIS Country Trail is home to The Great Trail’s — a) highest elevation b) deepest average snowfall c) highest foot-traffic d) highest number of geo-tagged Instagram photos

ON THE MORE THAN 500-kilometre Northern Trails of Saskatchewan, you follow part of a route taken by this famous Canadian in 1885. a) Major-General Sir Isaac Brock b) suffragist Nellie McClung c) explorer David Thompson d) Métis leader Louis Riel

c) 10,000 years d) 20,000 years

6

IT’S NOT THE ARCTIC, Pacific or Atlantic Ocean, but follow this water route and you’ll be paddling salt water. a) Great Slave Lake, N.W.T. b) Qu’Appelle River, Sask. c) Lake Superior, Ont. d) Bras d’Or Lake, Cape Breton, N.S.

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CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

PREVIOUS PAGE: THE GREAT TRAIL. THIS SPREAD, CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT: JENNIFER SUGDEN/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB; THE GREAT TRAIL; CHAD HIPOLITO/THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES (A); JOHN MCNEILL/THE GLOBE AND MAIL/THE CANADIAN PRESS IMAGES (C); L. M. MONTGOMERY COLLECTION, ARCHIVAL AND SPECIAL COLLECTIONS, UNIVERSITY OF GUELPH LIBRARY (D); ANNICK PRESS (B); PATRICK DARBY/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB

U LT I M AT E Q U I Z

7

IF YOU WERE TO FOLLOW The Great Trail east across

the Chignecto Isthmus, what province or territory would you enter? a) Northwest Territories b) Quebec

8

c) New Brunswick d) Nova Scotia

9

THE WRECKHOUSE TRAIL, on Newfoundland’s southwest coast, is named after — a) multiple shipwrecks in nearby coastal waters b) a string of train derailments c) storm-damaged fishing settlements d) all of the above

IN WESTERN MANITOBA, TRUE OR FALSE

The Great Trail runs through Neepawa, home to which great Canadian author? a) Alice Munro b) Robert Munsch c) Margaret Laurence d) Lucy Maud Montgomery

SCOTTISH EXPLORER Alexander Mackenzie was the first person to travel the length of the Northwest Territories’ Mackenzie River, which today forms the Mackenzie River Trail.

11 a)

c)

PARTS OF YUKON’S Ridge Road Heritage Trail, built in 1899 during the Klondike Gold Rush, are “corduroy road.” What does this mean? a) Rich mineral deposits give the ground a striped appearance. b) Logs were laid down in rows to add stability to the trail. c) It was a general term for any supply route (think “silk road”). d) Way markers were made from the durable cotton material.

b)

d)

a) Cascade Mountains b) Coastal Mountains

13

ON THE MILLENNIUM TRAIL in Whitehorse, stop for an underwater observation-deck view of the world’s longest wooden fish ladder, through which hundreds to thousands of these fish bypass the Whitehorse dam each year. a) Arctic char b) chinook salmon

14

c) sockeye salmon d) rock perch

NOW INCLUDED in The Great Trail, this was built during the Second World War because the government feared an attack by the Japanese. a) Cowichan Valley Trail, Vancouver Island b) Alaska Highway, B.C.-Yukon c) Sea to Sky Trail and Highway, B.C. d) Dempster Highway, Yukon

74

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

c) Appalachian Mountains d) Rocky Mountains

TRUE OR FALSE

NEWFOUNDLAND, not mainland Canada, is home to the longest trail built on an old railbed.

TOP: ANDREWENNS UNCLE [CC BY-SA 3.0]/WIKIMEDIA COMMONS; BOTTOM: OFFICE OF WAR INFORMATION. OVERSEAS PICTURE DIVISION. WASHINGTON DIVISION,1944

12

TAKE SOUTHWESTERN B.C.’s Chilliwack Valley Trail for views of Slesse Mountain (right), Mount Cheam and other stunning peaks. To what major mountain range do these belong?

U LT I M AT E Q U I Z

18

IN SOUTHERN MANITOBA, trail users walk directly along the Canada-U.S. border. In what year did the Canadian and U.S. governments start working together to mark the border? a) 1814 b) 1867

19

c) 1872 d) 1920

A METEORITE impact created this huge natural feature, accessible by several trail sections. a) Gulf of St. Lawrence b) Sudbury Basin, Ont. c) Lake Superior, Ont. d) Frobisher Bay, Baffin Island, Nunavut

a) Cree b) Iroquois

17

c) Michif (Métis) d) Inuktitut (Inuit)

20

a) East Coast Trail, Avalon Peninsula, N.L. b) Dempster Highway, northern mainland N.W.T. c) Itijjagiaq Trail, southern Baffin Island, Nunavut d) b and c e) all of the above

THE TRAIL OUTLINED BELOW extends to each of this province

or territory’s three main geographical “points.”

Where is it?

21 0

76

20 km

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

ON WHICH of these trails might you encounter caribou in their natural habitat?

WHICH OF the following is not part of The Great Trail? a) North Sydney, N.S., to Port-aux-Basques, N.L., ferry b) Great Slave Lake ice road, N.W.T. c) Stanley Park Seawall, B.C. d) North Vancouver to Vancouver Sea Bus

TOP: KAREN EDWARDS; MIDDLE: RON HOETMER/CAN GEO PHOTO CLUB; MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

16

THE MEEWASIN TRAIL runs along both sides of the South Saskatchewan River through Saskatoon.

Simply meaning “beautiful” or “nice,” from what language does meewasin come?

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U LT I M AT E Q U I Z

22

WHICH CAPITAL CITY’S stretch of Great Trail would take you over the site of the former Iroquois village of Stadacona? a) Charlottetown b) Halifax c) Quebec City d) Ottawa

23

25

THIS IS THE REGIONAL TERM for the wind-stunted, twisted spruces along the Wreckhouse Trail and other Newfoundland coastlines. a) scoffs b) Newfie bonsai

c) Joe Batt’s timber d) tuckamore

WHICH CANADIAN PARK is home to — 1) one of the nation’s largest cross-country ski trail systems 2) an accessible marble cave named for a pioneering family 3) a former prime minister’s estate 4) 45 kilometres of The Great Trail

24

IF YOU COULD stretch every piece of The Great Trail out in a straight line, how many times would it reach from Victoria to St. John’s? a) 1½ times b) a little more than 3 times

c) almost 5 times d) 11 times

ARE YOU A GEOGRAPHY

GENIUS? RANK YOUR SCORE 25

Great Trail guru

20-24 Pathfinder 15-19 Trail tenderfoot 10-14 Armchair explorer 0-9 St. John's

Are you reading the right magazine?

Victoria

The short answers to this quiz appear on the opposite page. To see the long answers, visit geoquiz.cangeo.ca/ult18.

78

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

TOP: LIBRARY AND ARCHIVES CANADA, ACC. NO. 1989-606-20; BOTTOM: MARY SANCHE/CAN GEO; MAP: CHRIS BRACKLEY/CAN GEO

a) Prince Edward Island National Park, P.E.I. b) Gatineau Park, Que. c) Algonquin Provincial Park, Ont. d) Banff National Park, Alta.

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d) Nova Scotia (from New Brunswick)

7.

d) Bras d’Or Lake, Cape Breton, N.S., one of the world’s largest “inland seas”

6.

d) Métis leader Louis Riel, during the Northwest Resistance

5.

a) highest elevation (2,185 metres)

4.

c) 10,000 years

3.

d) Mackenzie River Trail, N.W.T., connecting Great Slave Lake to Tuktoyaktuk and the Arctic Ocean

2.

a) Alaska Highway, B.C.-Yukon, accounting for 1,318 kilometres of trail

1.

b) a string of train derailments, caused by 160 km/h winds

9.

c) Margaret Laurence

8.

10. False. Indigenous Peoples have been using the waterway for millennia.

11. b) Logs were laid down in rows to add stability to the trail.

12. a) Cascade Mountains, a range that extends as far south as northern California 13. b) chinook salmon 14. b) Alaska Highway, B.C.-Yukon. With the help of Indigenous guides, this huge Canada-U.S. project was completed in just eight months.

15. True. Newfoundland’s T’Railway Trail is 872 kilometres long.

16. a) Cree 17. Prince Edward Island 18. c) 1872 19. b) Sudbury Basin, Ont. 20. e) all of the above 21. b) Great Slave Lake ice road, N.W.T. 22. c) Quebec City. Jacques Cartier first visited Stadacona in 1535. By 1603, explorers found it had disappeared.

23. d) tuckamore 24. c) almost five times. The entire trail network is 24,410 kilometres long.

25. b) Gatineau Park, Que., home to the Lusk Caves and the Mackenzie King Estate

QUESTIONS START ON PAGE 71

ANSWERS

QUIZ

See us at canadiangeographic.ca

ADVENTURES

YOUR SPACE ENGAGING WITH US

COMMENT Your feedback

I

Thank you for this (“Land of their own”). Not a lot of people realize that there are landbased Métis in Canada.

Jacqueline Bellerose Edmonton

I loved your special Indigenous issue. It is important for Canadians to hear the stories of the survivors whose lives were terribly altered by residential schools (“Survivors’ Circle”). I suggest that you publish another issue portraying more of the various Indigenous cultures, past and present. We all want to learn more about this country’s history. That is what Canada is all about!

Christine Barbini North York, Ont. Great take I worked full time on freighters for four years in the late ’70s and early ’80s (“Titans of the Great Lakes,” July/August 2017). Many Canadian sailors lost jobs when foreign ships were allowed to steam past Montreal into the Great Lakes, relieving us of what could have been our cargos.

The worst part about the job was sailing

on Lake Superior with the fall and winter gales. Many times, I thought we’d never make it to port.

Nancy Thompson South Bruce Peninsula, Ont. Corrections: The bentwood box on the cover of the November/ December 2017 issue was carved by Coast Salish artist Luke Marston. He was not credited. In “The Inuit future” in the same issue, the Inuit relationship with the federal government should have been referred to as “an Inuit-Crown relationship” and there are four land-claim presidents.

COVER VOTE How we chose this issue’s cover

Beautiful Luke Marston mask gracing the cover of this month’s @CanGeo. #Indigenous —@mjmclean

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W

Wrong. It’s not often that no one on our team of experts — including newsstand director Nathalie Cuerrier, newsstand consultant Scott Bullock, creative director Javier Frutos and editor-in-chief Aaron Kylie — picks the image that ultimately wins our regular reader cover vote.

Going into the tally, we strongly favoured options one and two. In the end, these garnered just 22 and 30 per cent of the vote. No one predicted that option three, a dramatic vista of the Bay of Fundy coast, would win a decided victory with 48 per cent. (Of course, we still felt it was a strong candidate, or we’d never have included it!) But this is exactly why we do this exercise: to gauge the reaction of our readers, the people who will ultimately buy the magazine. Voters commented that the image depicts the most attractive hiking destination, a spectacular view and one of the nation’s most renowned locations. We couldn’t argue much with that. Fundy it is.

editor@canadiangeographic.ca

Comments may be edited for length and clarity.

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

Not already receiving our cover vote email? Visit cangeo.ca/newsletter and sign up for the Canadian Geographic newsletter to get in on the action.

THIS PAGE, COVERS, LEFT TO RIGHT: GARY AND JOANIE MCGUFFIN; ROBIN O’NEILL; NICK HAWKINS. OPPOSITE PAGE, LEFT: STEPHEN ELGERT; RIGHT: CANADIAN MUSEUM OF HISTORY, X-B:17, S91-2020

Indigenous Peoples issue I found the special Indigenous issue of Canadian Geographic (November/December) inspiring and informative. I was impressed by the quality of the Indigenous languages map. I wish the traditional language of the Okanagan region of B.C., where I reside, was better represented in the schools, college and university here. It’s good to be able to think in many ways, particularly when the way of the Syilx people has been connected to the land here for so long. Your issue rekindled my interest to learn more of this language. I also enjoyed the interview with Ry Moran (“Discovery”) and the cultural revival inherent in “The Tribal Canoe Journey.” I found the “Survivors’ Circle” stories from residential school survivors to be heroic, painful, touching, inspiring and enlightening. I was particularly thrilled by Ted Quewezance’s words: “Reconciliation starts with the individual.”

Garth Thomson Kelowna, B.C.

W H A T’S T H I S ?

Recognize this mystery object and how it relates to Canadian geography and history?

Visit cangeo.ca/whatsthis for a hint, to enter your guess and for a chance to win one of three copies of The Ultimate Canadian Geography Quiz special issue.* Follow us on (@CanGeo) for more hints.

The deadline is Feb. 20, 2018.

The correct answer will appear in the March/April 2018 issue. *Three winners will be randomly selected from all correct responses.

Canadian Geographic and the Canadian Heritage Information Network have partnered to showcase important artifacts from Canadian history and geography.

Each object comes from one of the museums in CHIN’s national network.

LAST ISSUE’S OBJECT: Bison vertebra with arrowhead This thoracic vertebra from a bison has been punctured by an iron arrowhead and is a rare example of the effectiveness of traditional Indigenous hunting techniques. Iron arrowheads rapidly replaced chert (stone) arrowheads following the arrival of Europeans on the Prairies. Similar vertebrae embedded with chert arrowheads have been found, indicating that despite technological change, local Indigenous people continued to hunt bison in much the same way while incorporating new materials in their traditional weapons. This specimen was found in the mid-1880s in Saskatchewan’s Cypress Hills and is displayed in the new Canadian History Hall of the Canadian Museum of History.

With files from the Canadian Museum of History. Learn more about this artifact and others by visiting historymuseum.ca.

Explore more stories from Canada’s past through cangeo.ca/whatsthis.

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YOUR SOCIETY NEWS FROM THE ROYAL CANADIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY

GEOGRAPHY’S BIG NIGHT

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xploration and innovation were the two prevalent themes at The Royal Canadian Geographical Society’s annual College of Fellows Dinner, held at the Canadian Museum of History in Gatineau, Que., on Nov. 16.

The Society made several major announcements, unveiling the official ensign of the RCGS Resolute (One Ocean Expeditions’ new RCGSflagged polar vessel), celebrating a new memorandum of understanding with the Royal Scottish Geographical Society and revealing design plans for the RCGS’s new headquarters at 50 Sussex Dr., which reopens to the public in spring 2018.

Guests included Ontario Lt.-Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell, Jeopardy! host and RCGS Honorary President Alex Trebek, former deputy prime minister John Manley, and Mike Robinson and Roger Crofts, CEO and chair, respectively, of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society. Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie, President of the Crown Council of Ethiopia, and Princess Saba Kebede were hosted by the Society as part of a trip commemorating Emperor Haile Selassie I’s 1967 visit to Canada. The prince became the first royal inducted into the College of Fellows since Edward, Prince of Wales, in 1930.

In the keynote address, Wade Davis, the renowned anthropologist and ethnobotanist, shared photographs and insights from his travels to some of the most remote places on Earth, including the heart of the Amazon rainforest.

“Indigenous people the world over are leading the fight to protect the planet’s ecosystems from anthropogenic threats,” Davis said, “and it is on all of us to listen and learn from their efforts.”

—Andrew Lovesey 82

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JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2018

THIS YEAR’S MEDALLISTS The 19 2017 RCGS medallists are widely accomplished, and include Prince Ermias Sahle-Selassie Haile-Selassie of Ethiopia (top left), Mike Robinson, CEO of the Royal Scottish Geographical Society (top right, left), historian and author Shelagh Grant, and Arctic archeologist David Morrison. Ontario Lt.Gov. Elizabeth Dowdeswell and Alex Trebek presented the awards at the annual ceremony. For the full list of medallists, visit cangeo.ca/rcgs17.

2017 ANNUAL GENERAL MEETING The RCGS had one of its best years ever — a fact that was celebrated at the Society’s annual general meeting (above). Fellows heard that the Society is in a strong financial position going into 2018, which will see the RCGS continue to expand its national programming and fully move into headquarters at 50 Sussex.

THIS PAGE, BOTTOM LEFT AND CUT OUTS: ALEX TETREAULT/CAN GEO; OTHERS: BEN POWLESS/CAN GEO

THE 2017 RCGS FELLOWS DINNER Clockwise from top left: RCGS President Gavin Fitch (left) with Abenaki storyteller and crier Daniel Richer, Alex Trebek and RCGS Explorer-in-Residence Jill Heinerth; Wade Davis delivering the keynote address; Ry Moran, director of the National Centre for Truth and Reconciliation; Deborah Apps, president and CEO of The Great Trail, with Trebek; One Ocean Expeditions’ Andrew Prossin (right) and the RCGS brass unveiling the ensign for RCGS Resolute; Society CEO John Geiger speaking about the new polar vessel; Algonquin drummer Awema Tendesi opening with a traditional song; explorer Adam Shoalts and Alexia Wiatr.

CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

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next issue MARCH/APRIL 2018

Wolf pups play near their den close to Yukon’s Kluane National Park (top).

Natural history specimens await transfer to the Royal Alberta Museum’s new location in Edmonton (above).

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“Wolves are a litmus test for competing world views on nature and life.” So longtime wolf researchers John and Mary Theberge told writer Alanna Mitchell for her story exploring our love-hate relationship with the species in the January/February 2015 issue of Canadian Geographic. Our readers, however, seem to fall largely on the appreciative side of that ledger. Wolves are one of the magazine’s most popular topics and cover subjects.

So when the opportunity arose for us to once again work with renowned wildlife photographer Peter Mather, a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers, to share his recent work capturing wolf dens in his home territory of the Yukon, we jumped at the chance. What’s better than wolves? Wolves with pups.

Mather located, visited and photographed numerous wolf dens last summer.

Wolves create them, or use abandoned dens of other animals, to raise their pups in the summer. Dens can be used by generations of wolves, with some having been dated at more than 700 years old. A selection of Mather’s results will be featured as a photo essay in the March/April issue.

There’s more great photography in the issue, too, including the award-winning images from our latest annual Canadian Geographic photo competition and amazing shots from Edmonton-based photojournalist Amber Bracken, who spent the past three years documenting the move of artifacts and exhibits from the old location of the city’s Royal Alberta Museum to its new home.

The issue also features the story of Canadian archeologist Dougald O’Reilly, a senior lecturer at the Australian National University and one of the world’s foremost experts on the mythical Plain of Jars archeological landscape in Laos.

And there’s much more, too. Don’t miss it.

Subscribe or renew today at canadiangeographic.ca/subscribe or by calling 1-800-267-0824.

The March/April 2018 issue hits newsstands February 26.

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TOP: PETER MATHER; BOTTOM: AMBER BRACKEN

Canadian Geographic goes to the wolves

our country REVEALING CANADA

The Paralympian explains why Vancouver’s Stanley Park is his favourite place on The Great Trail

What’s your favourite Canadian place?

Tell us on Twitter (@CanGeo) using the hashtag #ShareCanGeo. Or share it with us on Facebook (facebook.com/cangeo).

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CANADIAN GEOGRAPHIC

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The first time I went to Stanley Park was probably in 1976, when I had just come down from Williams Lake, B.C., to go to the University of British Columbia. I’d decided to do some training, and one of my friends said, “Let’s go to Stanley Park,” and off we went. We wheeled around it, and it was like I had gone to the other side of the moon; it was quite a long journey for me at the time because I’d just come out of the rehabilitation centre and was starting to learn about my endurance and how far I could go. I thought, “Well, if I did that, I could go even farther.”

When I was an aspiring Paralympian in the late 1970s and 1980s, I lived in a little apartment in Kitsilano and was always trying to get down to the water, which I’ve always been drawn to. When parts of the seawall started to become accessible, Stanley Park became my training ground because I could go completely around it.

Even though the park is in a big city, when you get out on the seawall, you feel like you’re a part of the natural beauty of the ocean ecosystem.

When you move around to Siwash Rock, you really get that sense of the West Coast, with the waves crashing in off the rocks. Sometimes at high tide and with strong winds, the water can blow up and over the wall and onto the trail, and you have to time it so you can pass before the next wave crashes across. If you’re lucky, you can see a seal or even a killer whale or a humpback whale.

The park is a place that made me realize that the world is accessible and inclusive, that I can have a life that’s full, that I don’t need to be cured in order to be whole, be included or be a part of something special.

It’s truly inspiring.

—As told to Joanne Pearce

PATRICK LAMONTAGNE/CAN GEO

Rick Hansen

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