Pilgrimage : 6 days 170 kilometres - Attempt 2 of 2 - in 4 days 111 kilometres were completed - with a 50 to 55 lb. backpack !

Solo - Monday, September 23rd, to Thursday, September 26th, 2024 !

Monday, September 23rd, 2024 - 31.62 kilometres = 31.62 kilometres Total to date !

7:30 am at St. John the Baptist, then by walking and transit to South Common Centre, lunch, and walking from 11:06am to 10:13pm, all with a 50 lb. backpack, and drinking about two litres of BioSteel and Mio electrolyte water.

Tuesday, September 24th, 2024 - 28 kilometres + 31.62 = 59.62 kilometres Total to date !

Began walking at 7:53 am at Caledon Brick Works, walking the Caledon Rail Trail to Inglewood, for coffee and 2 butter tarts at Coywolf Coffee, then to dinner in Caledon East at Tom's Family Restaurant from 3pm to 4pm, then walking to Albion Hills Conservation Area for setting up camp at 6:42pm, all with a 50 lb. backpack, and drinking about two litres of BioSteel and Mio electrolyte water. Most of the day was rain, and a Severe Rainfall Warning was issued for Tuesday night, and it did really rain overnight !!!  I gave out three cards on the trail and one at the restaurant this day !

Wednesday, September 25th, 2024 - 31.85 kilometres + 59.62 = 91.47 kilometres Total to date !

The morning began with rain, but just as I was to begin packing up the shelter, the rain stopped for the day, and cleared up around 11am, more or less. The night before was a Severe Rainfall Warning issued for Tuesday night, and it did really rain overnight !!! Nothing got wet from the rain though, albeit everything was already wet with sweat if not rain from walking Tuesday ! Began walking at 8:12 am at Albion Hills Conservation Area Campground, walking Highway 50 - Airport Road, to Palgrave, stopping after Highway 9 for a refill of electrolyte, daily readings posting, and a protein bar. Around 12:30 I stopped for an hour to charge, and ate a handfull or more of raisins and almonds. Around 3pm I stopped at an address driveway, and refilled the drinkng bottle with electrolyte for what I thought would be the last time before Alliston Freshco, about 15 kilometres away !!! Then behind my back a truck pulled in the driveway as I was turned away putting up the pack, and asked "Everything O.K.?" That turned out to be the refilling of all three litres ! As I thanked the young man and left, I thought to take a picture to record the address, turned around to walk, and another truck pulled up who's driver I had talked to about 2 hours earlier, and he had water too!!! Later that day a white truck heading north stopped and asked "Are you the same guy I saw in Palgrave on my way to work this morning?" I gave him a card, making it three cards handed out for that day !

I went to Freshco in Alliston for food for the night and the next night,  consisting of 4 apples, 400 grams cheese, a 600 gram kielbasa,  five plum tomatoes, a 700ml Coke Zero, a Brio, 1 litre 2% milk. I drank the milk, ate an apple and two tomatoes at Freshco before jaunting off to the gate house for Earl Rowe Provincial Part. The young woman asked, so I told the story and gave her a fourth card for the day.  Arrived to set up camp in the dark at 7:25pm, ate anothe apple and drank the Brio. This day was all with a 50 lb. backpack, and drinking about five litres of BioSteel and Mio electrolyte water. 

Thursday, September 26th, 2024 - 20.29 kilometres + 91.47 = 111.76 kilometres Total to date !

Up before dawn to drink a 700ml Coke Zero and eat the daily can of tuna, daylight arrived around 7am for me to pack up and leave at 8:16am, having to do a loop south and back to get out of the Earl Rowe Provincial Park, before a classic big hill. I chose to go north then east as Google Maps claims there to be less hills that preferred way. It was better than east before north, as that route runs across gullies on the east side of the valley.

I was carrying an additional 4 or 5 pounds, of a 600gm kielbasa, 400gms of cheese, three apples of about 1.5 pounds or 700gms, about 600 gms of roma tomatoes, and a full load of 3 litres of water to replenish the 750ml water bottle with electrolyte. That extra food alone was 2.3 kg amounting to about 5 pounds. So I was back up to that pesky 55 lbs that did me in on August 6th in the rain.

So the day was sunny, dry, breezy and cool - all day.  I drank about 4 litres the day before, in the heat and humidity, but this day, Thursday, I did not replenish the 750ml water bottle until after 2 pm break ! But in 8 hours and 35 minutes of being on the road, I was only moving, walking, 4 hours and 45 minutes, maintaining only a speed of 2.4 kph including breaks. In that time I covered only 20 kilometers.

So when I crossed the river east of Baxter, and found a good spot, I took yet another rest to reconsider.

Since morning a pesky comment on FaceBook pestered me all day. Some Russian priest was known for saying and praying "Lord have Mercy" for every step he took.  So that implies and assumes suffering. So if I screw up I will be relieved of such "suffering" permanently, and that is not any potential outcome to play around with.

With 8 to 10 kilometres to go at 4:30pm, I considered that would take about 4 hours, at current rate, and possibly longer as fatigue would set in. That would only make my arrival at the overnight to be in the dark around 8pm, after being on the road 12 hours. In my addled brain I considered I walked 11 hours on Monday, but confused that with starting at 11am on Monday, whereas I started at 8:16 this day, Thursday.

Still it was only to be 4 hours and arriving at 8:30 or 9pm. Monday I arrived at 10pm. Yet there were more unknowns on this overnight site, so there was a risk.

Furthermore, there would be no water at all until the end of the day Friday, so I would be committed on the Nottawasaga Rail Trail with no chance to replenish water! Possible, but unknown. Food wise I would be ok, but I still had to carry that extra 5 pounds of food.  But only maybe The Fry Guy would be open.

And my phone is not charging every so often, starting today. . . . .

Hmm . . .. .

So in light of all the condemnation I chose to cave in and try again next year. You would be surprised how many people skip past calling me nuts and outright say such a pilgrimage can't be done, even as I am doing it.

God Bless !!!

Epilogue --- Friday, September 27th, 2024  -- 55 lb. backpack concluding 111.76 kilometres Total to date !

Having waited from the 4:45pm phone call, until 7:30pm for the ride back to the world, and eaten the kielbasa, and two apples, I contacted family to let them know I was safe off the road.

Their response was often that I had come back to my senses. This is a problem - the problem of people saying it can't be done, even as it is being done.

This to me is why the pilgrimage is a good way to pray for forgiveness for abortion on behalf of everyone, as well as everything else.

Being told that I cannot do this pilgrimage in this way, without chase vehicles, trucks, large tents, and a large group, is to me the same as saying to any young or old person that they must have an abortion because they do not have the means to provide and raise a child - it cannot be done.

Furthermore, my own perspective, is that there is JOY in the Gospel that succeeds and surmounts any suffering therein !!!

I walked this pilgrimage in JOY, and I did not consider it any hardship. The stuff I saw and the JOY of the experience surmounted any so called suffering.

Only when it became clear that the Opposition to this pilgrimage would have a chance to shut it down, did I consider not completing it. As for me, I did not concern myself with whether it could be done or not, but rather enJOYed doing it. I know it can be done. 

Next year, anyone who may demonstrate they can carry a 40 lb. backpack 30 kilometres in 9 hours, camp, and return the next day, is extremely welcome to join this pilgrimage !!! If we have 12 pilgrims, we qualify to have paid campgrounds all the way on private or municipal property !! Please declare your intention by mid June 2025 !

I have written permission from my healthcare that I may attempt this pilgrimage, and I will do so again next year.

I have encountered implied opposition to completing this pilgrimage. Be warned. It will be completed.

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The next day, Friday, I weighed my pack to find it was 54 lb.s as shown in the two photographs of the scale . 250 -196 = 54  This was after eating the kielbasa and the apples. So I was carrying at least 55 lb.s the last day, Thursday, that I walked the pilgrimage, covering about 20 kilometres in about 8 hours. In four more hours I could have completed the remaining 10 or so kilometres, by about 9 pm.

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Why Pilgrimage ? The Novena to the Canadian Martyrs and more information about them. . . 

The only reason I still have healthcare, endorsed by my healthcare, who provided written permission for this backpacking pilgrimage, is because when people claim I am crazy, out of my senses, I like to have a professional opinion.

Tuesday, August 6th, 2024 - Caledon Brick Works to Coywolf Cafe, Inglewood, via the Caledon Rail Trail -- in light rain !

3rd Training Walk - Solo - Second Overnight - Day 02 - of two !

Wednesday, July 24th, 2024 .

Sunny and warm. 7:45 am at Flamboro Valley Camping on Reg. Rd. 97, Flamboro, fo St. John the Baptist Parish Church on Brant Street arriving at 4:50 pm.

About 30 kilometres each way.

44 lb.s pack with 4 litres of water.

3rd Training Walk - Solo - Second Overnight - Day 01 - of two !

Tuesday, July 23rd, 2024 .

Sunny and warm. 7:25 am at St. John the Baptist Parish Church on Brant Street, to Flamboro Valley Camping on Reg. Rd. 97, Flamboro, arriving at 4:30 pm.

About 30 kilometres each way.

44 lb.s pack with 4 litres of water.

2nd Training Walk - First Overnight - Day 02 - of Two !

Wednesday, July 17th, 2024 . 

Sunny and warm.

Bronte Creek Provincial Park down Bronte Road to Rebecca Street, and west to Appleby Line and New Street, about 12 kilometres one way.

From there we took transit the rest of the way. Paul's back was sore from sleeping on the ground.

David's pack was about 50 lb.s and carried 4 litres of water. Paul's pack was about 40 lb.s and carried 4.2 litres of water.

2nd Training Walk - First Overnight - Day 01 - of Two !

Tuesday, July 16th, 2024 . 

Heavy rain until Tremaine Road at noon, beginning shortly after starting just after 8 am.

Flooding throughout the GTA that day. Flooding at Bronte Creek Provincial Park campsites and roadway, as shown. It was a once-in-a-hundred-year storm, that flooded out docks in Oakville Harbour, detaching them and pushing them downstream toward the lake.

Downtown Burlington to Bronte Creek Provincial Park .. . . through north Burlington and via Dundas Highway, about 17 kilometres one way.

David's pack was about 50 lb.s and carried 4 litres of water. Paul's pack was about 40 lb.s and carried 4.2 litres of water.

1st Training Walk - DAY 01 - of One !

Wednesday, June 26th, 2024 . 

No rain until after completion at the Pub, then rain on the way home by transit. Downtown Burlington to Palermo Pub.. . . about 16 kilometres one way.

Just day packs. Paul and David.

Video !!!