
Canada's 'Great Trail' Is Finally Connected - jonbaer
http://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/canada-great-trail-longest
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notatoad
>It’s almost four times as long as the Grand Italian trail, which covers all
of Italy. It’s also over five times as long as the West Coast’s famed Pacific
Crest Trail, and over six times as long as the Appalachian.

the difference being that the pacific crest trail, the appalachian trail, and
the grand italian trail are all actually trails rather than just lines on a
map. The trans canada trail isn't a real thing, it's just some marketing
people looking at maps, saying "this probably counts as a trail, right" and
then calling the job done.

the trans-canada "trail" includes creeks, four-lane highways, and unmaintained
deer tracks.

~~~
uoaei
Stretches of the Pacific Crest Trail are also unsegregated shoulders of
Highway 1.

~~~
seattle_spring
This is definitely not true. Are you thinking of the California Coastal Trail?

Highway 1 runs directly on the coast. The PCT runs along the crest of the
Sierra Nevada and Cascade mountain ranges-- more than 100+ miles to the east
of Highway 1.

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njarboe
The first thing most people who would be interested in this topic want to see
is a map. None in this article.

For an interactive map see: [https://thegreattrail.ca/explore-the-
map/](https://thegreattrail.ca/explore-the-map/)

~~~
goodcanadian
That map is linked in the article . . .

~~~
njarboe
True. Wanted to see the map right away so googled for it before reading all
the way through. Ended up spending time on the map and forgot about the
article till later. I guess that is why the author put the map link at the
very end of the article. A map image at the start of the article might have
kept people reading.

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Alex3917
I recently spent some time trying to figure out the furthest north you can
drive in Canada by car (or at least without a float plane), and what there is
to do up there. It's actually pretty interesting. Apparently you can get up to
James Bay via the James Bay Road and the Trans Taiga Highway, but there isn't
any way to actually get up to Hudson Bay without a boat or a float plane. It's
crazy how much of the country is basically unexplored. Apparently over 90% of
the lakes don't even have names, so you can name a lake if you want to be the
first person to visit it.

~~~
ghaff
I think the furthest north you can drive is probably Whitehorse in Yukon
[EDIT: not BC] on the Pan-American Highway. But presumably you were looking at
the eastern end of Canada.

[ADDED: As someone else noted, you can keep going north of Whitehorse with the
Pan-American Highway eventually crossing the border with Alaska or the Dempsey
Highway.]

~~~
emilyfm
You can drive a further 1200km+ road distance north of Whitehorse, Yukon on
the Dempster Highway to Inuvik in the Northwest Territories.

End of the road appears to be just north of town:
[https://goo.gl/maps/shD9UoxTtK42](https://goo.gl/maps/shD9UoxTtK42)

Western Canada is big. If you drive from Inuvik to San Diego over 60% of the
entire road distance is within Canada.

~~~
abruzzi
They're actually building a road north out of Inuvik to Tuktoyaktuk, which
will take you to the Arctic Ocean:

[http://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/driving-to-the-top-of-
the-...](http://www.cbc.ca/news/multimedia/driving-to-the-top-of-the-world-
exploring-canada-s-new-arctic-highway-1.4073615)

~~~
emilyfm
I didn't realise that road was so nearly finished. Should be open by end of
this year.

That's 3750 km (2400 miles) by road from Vancouver BC to the Arctic Ocean.
Longer than Melbourne to Perth across Australia.

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nbanks
A few years ago I road the section from Magog to Montréal, QC which is part of
Quebec's "Route Verte". This stretch was completed separate from highways and
only occasionally crossed roads. What I noticed most was that it was nowhere
near the fastest way to travel because it often went in a round about route
instead of following a straight line. The section near Mont Orford was likely
the slowest bike path I've been on, followed by a section near Waterloo,
Quebec which was a converted rail line which was likely the fastest. The lack
of straight lines may be part of the reason why there's 21,000km of trail when
you can bike from St. John's to Victoria in just 7,000km.

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sandworm101
Trail has been in place for years. What this is is the end of a decades-long
debate about trail use. Parts of the trail were once open to motor vehicles
(quads, logging roads etc) and some people dont think that should count. Note
the very specific language about use, that snow machines are allowed in winter
and horses in summer. Some trails are also on private land, where limitation
on use gets complicated. This the end of a long debate between specific
parties not the physical completion of any great work.

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mikeash
Presented without comment: "(In case you were wondering, it would take a
roller-grill hot dog 76 years and 256 days to travel the entire trail
network.)"

~~~
whois
Thank you

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ghaff
FYI, this is apparently what used to be referred to as the Trans-Canada Trail.
I have a poster I picked up ages ago; it was probably around the time that the
trail was first being promoted.

Note that "connected" is somewhat euphemistic (and controversial). [1] A lot
of the trail is unsegregated shoulders of highways.

[1] [http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/the-not-so-great-trans-
canada...](http://www.cbc.ca/radio/the180/the-not-so-great-trans-canada-trail-
it-s-ok-to-be-grumpy-at-work-policing-free-speech-on-campus-1.4078755/it-s-
dangerous-to-call-the-trans-canada-trail-complete-says-cyclist-1.4078859)

~~~
kurthr
Wow, at least the P.E.I. government has revised their Trans Canada Trail
guide, which said you would never need to leave the trail...

 _We got to Prince Edward Island which was supposed to be the safest place in
Canada to cycle, and the afternoon we arrived we were riding on the Trans
Canada Trail, the trail guide took us off the trail, we did 2.9 kilometres on
a highway, and she was struck by a drunk driver and killed._

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jayvanguard
Why did they change the name from the Trans Canada Trail? I liked it better.

~~~
philipov
Maybe they wanted to make hiking Great again.

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microcolonel
Man, I'm going to traverse this thing if I can. I wonder how long it would
take to walk it (and boat somehow, don't think you could swim it). Probably
not practical on foot, about two years of ten-hour days maybe, and that's in
good weather.

 _Added:_

Looks like somebody has already done the whole east-west leg.

~~~
jbeales
There's a guy[1] who has been working on hiking it all for a couple of years.
I think he just has a bit of the journey from somewhere in the Yukon to the
Arctic Ocean left.

[1][https://www.facebook.com/thegreathike/](https://www.facebook.com/thegreathike/)

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twoodfin
Looking forward to the HN post on the first person to thru-hike/paddle it.

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pavement

      article includes no map
    

Seriously?

EDIT: [https://thegreattrail.ca](https://thegreattrail.ca)

[https://cangeo-media-library.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-
public/im...](https://cangeo-media-library.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-
public/images/web_articles/article_images/4519/transcanada_trail_final_04.jpg)

