Guelph to Goderich hike 'about finding home' for Kitchener author

The good news is after a 127-kilometre walk in the hot summer sun, Lynda and Doug Wilson were still speaking to each other.

The Kitchener couple decided to walk to Guelph to Goderich Trail in June 2014, before the rail trail was officially opened. Lynda has now written a book about their experience.

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"We didn't plan, so we chose the hottest week of the year," Doug said of their start from Guelph.

"And we were just walking … so how hard could it be," Lynda added.

For Lynda, the walk was more than just seeing more of southern Ontario – it was about finding a sense of home.

She is originally from Calgary and had lived in Ontario for 22 years. But when people asked her where she was from, she always found herself saying Calgary.

"I thought it might just place me in the province," she said of the walk.

Volunteers transform rail line to trail

The trail the couple walked was previously owned by Canadian Pacific Railway and was used mostly to transport grain from the Great Lakes to the eastern seaboard. It was abandoned in 1988.

The route starts either in Guelph or Goderich and goes through Elmira, Milverton, Blyth and McGaw. The trail goes through farmland and wooded areas, over streams and rivers.

In some of those ungroomed sections of trail, Lynda admitted there "was a lot of bushwhacking and cursing."

A group of volunteers has been working to make the Goderich to Guelph Rail Trail a reality for more than 25 years. The trail officially opened in 2015 for recreational use such as hiking or cycling, although there are still spots where users will need to take a detour.

Doug called the trail "a gem in our backyard" and one that, as it is completed, will bring more people to the area.

'Put one foot in front of the other'

The book, Walking Home, depicts both Lynda's internal journey along with the one she and Doug took along the trail.

In the book, she recalls one portion of the trail after Millbank as they headed west. It was ungroomed and they had to detour away from it at times.

"When we finally got back on the path, I felt such a sense of homecoming," Lynda wrote. "All you have to do is put one foot in front of the other, I thought. That's all I've probably ever had to do and just didn't know it."

Spending time on trail with her was exceptional, Doug said.

"No cellphones, nothing to bother us, no business, long talks, long periods of silence, a few tense moments," he said.

When they arrived back home, Doug said his sister asked if he and Lynda were still speaking to each other.

"Every day was a little bit different, but at the end of the day, our relationship got closer," he said.

For Lynda, some of those quiet periods walking alongside her husband were spent thinking about the idea of home, and what it meant to her.

The book is now for sale on Lynda Wilson's website. She will also be signing copies at the Waterloo Chapters on Saturday.