Photo by Michael Haynes Cover of Michael Haynes, The Best of the Great Trail (Volume 1), 2018 Walter Volovsek photo, June 2020 Columbia and Western Trail, Lower Arrow Lake with Keenleyside Dam in distance, taken from the railway grade. Lower Arrow Lake with Shields Landing beach visible a fair distance below the Columbia & Western Trail. I fully appreciate the difficulty of distilling the magnificence of the Trans Canada Trail project into select glimpses of choice segments, and I think his process worked very well. In his introduction, Haynes goes to some length to explain his selection process, which was dependent on advice from trail stewardship groups, government organizations, and helpful trail users. Excellent photographs by the author provide a feast for the eye and the maps showing the trails are first rate. The trail descriptions are detailed and concise, and accompanied by informative tables of permitted uses. Haynes’s book focuses on a selection of thirty trails in the western region of Canada, that is, from British Columbia to Ontario. The Pup Creek valley takes the railway grade away from Lower Arrow Lake, allowing more elevation gain before it enters Bulldog Tunnel, which brings it out high above Dog Creek. The website is dedicated to the contemplative walker, and serves to provide the temporal pathways. As I say in my Trails in Time website, like Hayes I see the trails I built as having two-fold value: they are geographical features for healthy exercise, and they serve as pathways through time. That passage describes perfectly my own motivation for building enhanced walking trails for the Castlegar community. By allowing The Great Trail to dance with our imaginations, it becomes a network that symbolizes our country’s collective commitment to community. It also connects us to journeys of the heart and mind, and it can help us connect with each other. But the Trail is more than a geographic entity. The Great Trail is a monumental accomplishment that allows all of us to access Canada’s diverse and stunning beauty. A passage from the Foreword concerning the Trans Canada Trail resonated with me: The information within is well organized and tastefully presented. The Best of the Great Trail, Volume 2: Northern Ontario to British Columbia on the Trans Canada TrailĪs a trail builder and avid hiker, I was very impressed by Michael Haynes’s Volume 2 of The Best of the Great Trail, sent to me for this review.
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