Trans Canada Trail- Toronto to Vancouver

[Singlecell]

Hi everybody!

Just wanted to get out of the way that it's great to find this forum. Now, for the proposition of a trail...

The Trans Canada Trail. I've always wanted to bike across Canada, but I absolutely HATE riding in a straight line. I bike in Toronto, which is a lot of fun cause it's so fast paced, and dangerous, but highways are not for me. Then the other week someone told me about the Trans Canada Trail. I couldn't believe it. Just the concept... So I've been researching the trail with a fine toothed comb, figured out how much all the necessary equipment is gonna cost, figured out how much money I'm gonna need for food and repairs, and I think I should be ready by mid April or May 1st.

Here is the trail...  http://tctrail.ca/explore-the-trail/

At some points it looks like there is a good 700km where theirs not so much as a corner store, let alone a house or a road. It's gonna be a crazy trip. I've estimated it to be about 6500- 7000 km, it goes through almost a thousand communities, towns, and major cities.

Has anyone ever done this? or know of anyone who has?

Of course I'll be training to ride up to 500 km at a time from now till then, from Toronto to Barrie, Toronto to Huntsville, and Toronto to North Bay, to get familiar with the idea, and the first few hundred KM of the trail. The cool thing about this trail is I can literally leave my apartment, ride through Toronto and hit the trail just outside of the city.

Any comments would be greatly appreciated! I have not done much travelling at all, and I feel this would be an opportunity to make up for that.

[dave]

That trail does look great!

I notice that there are plenty of sections that are not completed yet, just "proposed."  Are these proposed sections on existing roads or trails so that it is obvious to you how you would connect the completed sections?  If not, how are you piecing them together?

Being that you mention not having much experience and that you plan on being out in relatively wild areas for long stretches, perhaps it would help you to supplement your research on bike touring with the knowledge of the long-distance ultralight hiking community, if you haven't already.  People who hike a trail like the PCT in the USA are routinely far from services for long stretches at a time, whereas the majority of bike tourists encounter civilization much more frequently and thus don't need the same level of wilderness expertise.  There's plenty of internet info available, or I can recommend a book that has taught me quite a lot:
http://www.rayjardine.com/ray-way/Trail-Life/index.htm

Good luck!

[Cawlin]

It should be noted that the Trans Canada Trail was not designed for long distance travel, it's more of a metaphor for connecting Canadians across the country. Large portions of the trail are totally unrideable. For example there are sections that include staircases in Vancouver and other sections are unfit to ride due to ATV riding or just general bad planning. Some of the planning will leave you scratching your head.

Is the trail awesome in theory? Yes. Is it awesome in for long distance travel in real life? Not really. It could be great for certain sections so use it for inspirations but you may want to look into other routes along the way.

[Singlecell]

No doubt, I've recently discovered that. What's a staircase though, here and there... I'm more concerned about knowing when to hop off the trail and onto the highway, particularly in northern Ontario where a significant amount of the trail is only accessible by canoe, as it winds through hundreds of small lakes.

In regards to the ATV accessible sections, most of those are to the east of Ontario, going all the way to the Atlantic. To tell you the truth, I pretty much can't find any trails where ATV's are allowed until almost BC and Alberta, even then a lot of it is gravel. There are large sections of the trail in Manitoba and Saskatchewan which I plan on passing as they zigzag to hell and back. Pretty much making a straight line through the prairies.

Most of it's gravel. Even in the sections where it says it's incomplete, you can tell by the satellite imagery there is definitely a path there.

Anyways thanks for the advice. I'm planning to start training this weekend biking all over Ontario, and planning over-nighters, camping outside.

This goal is a little far fetched, honestly I'd pretty much be giving up anything I'd worked for. I'd lose my job, and possibly even my apartment. Maybe I'm a in a little over my head. Screw stairways though, I did masonry for years. A stairway every hundred kilometers isn't gonna stop me from anything.

[Cawlin]

The staircase is just an example, certainly not common. I looked into riding the Trans Canada at one point thinking it would be a great alternative to highways and then came up disappointed.

Maybe grab the Backroads Maps book for Ontario and find some alternatives? There should be a water route and a non water route in Ontario but I haven't looked at the trail in that area in detail.

[THE LONG RANGER]

I know little to nothing about the Trans Canada trail, but from the vids posted up from dual sport enthusiasts, a lot of the trails look really wide, well graded and sort of... boring - hard to say if that's what ALL of the route is like, or only the parts these people rode/what they captured, so is the nature of a patchwork system. Just reminded me of very well-maintained roads used for very large trucks/equipment for various natural resource extraction.

A lot of the difficulties these people were having was with figuring out fuel supply opportunities. That COULD be interesting in of itself, when it just comes to food opportunities, when going much slower.

[Singlecell]

I'm not saying it's the most exiting trail in the world. It's a lot better than roads though, a lot safer as well. Like I believe I said, always wanted to do a mean feat of endurance like this, but I absolutely hate road biking if it's not in the city. The idea of staring straight ahead, staring at the same things for like a half hour makes e want to shoot myself.

You gotta keep in mind whats boring too. Matter of perspective. I bet you do this all the time. So it's probably nothing to you, but keep in mind I'm a dude who grew up in a rural area, but has been living in the city for six years now. I'm kinda craving it. It's thousands of kilometers of wilderness, lots of wildlife, lots of fishing across the country, hundreds of different towns and cities, solitude, the chance to see old friends and family along the way, and as a reward, the last two weeks of this trail is through the mountains, which is awesome.

As for back roads in Ontario, i'm not too sure if a back road is a good idea in some of these spots. It's a maze of thousands of lakes. Really, it looks like the highways the only way straight threw. Besides theirs still hundreds of KM of wilderness trail.

What WILL be boring is the prairies. That's gonna suck.

[Singlecell]

Just to clarify as well, sometimes I fly off the handle and decide to do something ridiculous, honestly sorry for posting this in the first place, it was not a good choice for a first post hahaha. I still have yet to train!

[Eastman]

I rode the Newfoundland section of the TCT this summer.  Here is my write up of it:  http://theslowbiker.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/across-newfoundland-by-fatbike/

[Singlecell]

I rode the Newfoundland section of the TCT this summer.  Here is my write up of it:  http://theslowbiker.wordpress.com/2013/08/04/across-newfoundland-by-fatbike/

Hey, man, thanks a lot, appreciate that. Will take a look.

[Cawlin]

Just to clarify as well, sometimes I fly off the handle and decide to do something ridiculous, honestly sorry for posting this in the first place, it was not a good choice for a first post hahaha. I still have yet to train!

Don't be sorry! I hope I didn't discourage you with my original post, I just wanted to make sure you knew the true nature of this "trail". There are many sections that are well worth doing. As you continue your research keep us posted