
Giving back
Connecting to what matters along Canada’s Great Trail
(Above) Five-and-a-half years after taking her first step on Canada’s Great Trail, adventure filmmaker Dianne Whelan’s epic, 24,000-km journey continues, though the end is now in sight. PHOTO COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN
Dianne Whelan took her first step on an epic, 24,000-kilometre trek across Canada early on Tuesday July 1, 2015.
An adventure
Back then, she was confident she would finish the journey in two years. It’s why she titled the book and film she will create from the experience
Fate, and the force of Mother Nature, would have other plans.
Five-and-a-half years later, Whelan’s adventure continues, though the end is now in sight.
To date, the trail has taken her from St. John’s, Newfoundland all the way to Nunavut in the Canadian Arctic, across Quebec and Ontario, the Prairies, Territories, and now, into British Columbia. She has trekked up rocky mountainsides, bushwhacked through dense brush, forged through smoky wildfires and heavy snowfalls, navigated icy break-ups, and paddled thousands of kilometres over rivers and lakes without seeing another human soul. Along the way, she’s also survived uncomfortably close encounters with local wildlife, including a particularly aggressive black bear on the banks of the Mackenzie River.
The encounter ended peacefully, though a few rifle shots were fired over the animal’s head: “So it’s a story with a good ending,” says Whelan in a recent cell phone interview
from the trail near Banff, Alberta.
Digital lifeline
Over the next months, she will tackle the trail’s final 1,600 km to Victoria, the final official
destination in the journey. She expects to reach the final point by canoe this year.
“I am not coming off this year until I am done,” she vows.
TELUS continues to be with her every step of the way. With near-ubiquitous 4G LTE coverage available to 99.2 per cent of Canadians, the network has been a lifeline to Whelan, keeping her connected to friends and family from remote sites along the trail.
Over the next months, Whelan will tackle the trail’s final 1,600 km to Victoria, B.C., her final destination. She expects to reach the final point by canoe this year. PHOTO COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN
Whelan also relies on that world-leading speed, coverage and quality for business -- posting and editing photos and videos documenting her incredible journey to
up wherever she may be.
Reliable connection came in handy in July when her documentary series,
“I am basically running my life off of this phone,” Whelan says of the importance of the digital connection.
Critically, the network, along with satellite connection, has helped Whelan to stay safely on course through an
“There are times when I am literally cutting the trail and I rely on my phone to monitor the app and make sure that my little blue dot is staying close to the green line (marking
the trail),” she says.
And that connection is only growing. TELUS continues to increase both wireline and wireless Internet capacity even in the country’s
End in sight
As her trek now moves into its final stage, it hasn’t gotten easier. But Whelan is wiser.
When she left Newfoundland, she was determined to travel on her own. These days, she has changed that vision. For more than a year, she’s been joined by her girlfriend, Louisa Robinson. Together, the pair paddled 3,500 km across the Great Slave Lake, Mackenzie River, and other bodies of water to Tuktoyaktuk. Friends and strangers have also accompanied her along various stretches of the trek, keeping her company and helping to ease some of the physical challenges of the journey.
“When you are in nature everything is hard,” Whelan says. “But then there are moments of stillness and you just have to surrender to being fully present.” PHOTO COURTESY OF DIANNE WHELAN
Once, when she had lost her tent in bad weather and was facing the prospect of sleeping outside, exposed to the weather and ravenous mosquitoes, a man she’d never spoken to before showed up and, without speaking, handed her a new, 12-person tent. Whelan later learned the man had purchased the tent for his daughter, who died in an accident before she could use it. Heartbroken, he’d kept the box unopened until he heard of Whelan’s plight.
“His gesture of kindness was just so profoundly moving,” she says. “And that’s just one story. I probably have a hundred more just like that.”
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These days, Whelan strives to stay focused on the intense beauty she daily encounters, rather than look to what’s ahead. The finish line is in sight, but the time it takes to get there is not the yardstick by which she measures the experience. It’s the people she meets, the stories they share, an outline of wolf paw prints in the sand and the eagle feather reading the wind at the front of her canoe.
The artist in her is eager to share the journey in film and print. But the adventurer is content to be exactly here she is, grateful for every minute on the trail.
“When you are in nature everything is hard -- the wind, the waves, the rocks,” she says. “But then there are moments of stillness and you just have to surrender to being fully present.”
As an independent filmmaker, Whelan is partnering with the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society (CPAWS) on a fundraising campaign. To become a Mother of the Film, go to
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