I’ve only walked on multi-day trips in Europe, from one bed-and-breakfast to another, or from one albergue to another. It’s different in North America. Here, if you want to go on a walking trip, you need to carry everything with you. Food, shelter, everything. I’ve never travelled that way, and I thought I might try it. So here I am, walking the Rideau Trail from Kingston to Ottawa, a trek of some 300 kilometres.
It’s quite different from the Camino or the Cotswold Way, mostly because my pack is twice as heavy as it was on those trips. The extra weight makes the walking much harder. I know it’ll get lighter as I go along and I eat the food I’ve brought. But even though I bought the lightest tent and pot and stove I could find, all that stuff adds up.
I walked almost 20 kilometres today, which took me out of Kingston. It wasn’t as far as I’d hoped to get, but I’m not used to the weight of my pack and I wasn’t convinced that there would be a source of water at the camp site I’d originally picked. So here I am at a KOA where there’s WiFi and a pool and a little store where I bought an ice-cold Coke to drink while I wrote this. Compared to what I was expecting, this is luxury.
At first, along the Kingston waterfront, I just followed the joggers using the waterfront path. Then, when I turned north, away from the lake, I saw fewer people, although for some reason they were more interested in me. One fellow who was walking his tiny dog looked at my pack and said, “That pack will ruin your back, do you know that? It’ll compress your spine.” I think he wanted me to take it off and leave it behind, because he wasn’t satisfied by my answer, that I’d only be carrying it a few days. I didn’t have the time or energy to discuss the health of my back, so I wished him a nice day and kept going.
Then I met a couple, who were also walking their dog, who immediately asked if I was walking to Ottawa on the Rideau Trail. “That’s so cool!” they said. “You’ll walk right past our family cabin.”
I stopped at a convenience store and bought a cold drink. They guy behind the counter said he walked 10 kilometres to school and 10 kilometres back every day when he was growing up in India. Only one kid at the school had a bike. Everybody else walked. “Now kids expect to be driven everywhere,” he sighed. “I miss the old days.”
The trail crosses the CN line at the VIA station. The cabbies waiting for fares outside told me they’d drive me to Ottawa if I liked. “It’ll only cost you a couple hundred dollars,” one said. “Of course, you’re probably doing it for the experience.”
That’s as good an explanation as any. Why else would I spend two weeks walking a distance you can drive in a few hours? It must be for the experience.
PS. I apologize for the lack of photos in this post–I left home with the wrong adaptor! I’ll try to get one in Ottawa and add photographs.
Well done Ken! Great first day. I could lend you the taxi fare then you’d have more time in Ottawa to take in the run-up to the election. Ya, well I think it’s probably much more enjoyable to walk. Carry on and have fun!