Where the Trail Still Feels Like Home

During a recent Great Canadian Hike outing, Melanie Vogel returned to a section of the Trans Canada Trail she had wanted to revisit for years. 

The Dawson Overland Trail, just outside Whitehorse, Yukon, held happy memories of walking with Malo, the beloved dog who accompanied Mel for much of her five-year, 20,000-plus-kilometre Trans Canada Trail journey across Canada. This time, another dog was running ahead of her: Nova, Mel’s new adventure companion. 

As Mel watched Nova explore the wilderness trail with joyful abandon, memories of Malo came flooding back. 

“I had a moment where I walked the trail and teared up,” she says. “It brought back so many memories of walking this trail with Malo and of how happy we were here.” 

The experience captured what this year’s Great Canadian Hike means to Mel. She is participating in Malo’s memory while also celebrating the beginning of a new chapter with Nova. Their team, WAG NATION, invites dog lovers—and anyone inspired by a dog’s enthusiasm for the outdoors—to join them. 

Photo credit: Mel Vogel

Finding her way 

In November 2022, Mel became the first woman to complete a coast-to-coast-to-coast journey on the Trans Canada Trail’s land routes. She had spent five years walking more than 20,000 kilometres and reaching the Atlantic, Arctic and Pacific oceans. 

Finishing brought an enormous sense of accomplishment, but returning to a settled life was not easy. 

“For five years, my life on the Trail was very simple,” she says. “I woke up, and I knew the direction I was going. The Trail gave me my purpose for those five years.” Her heart and mind, she says, remained somewhere out on the trails.  

Mel eventually returned to the Yukon, where she had lived for more than a year while pandemic travel restrictions interrupted her journey to the Arctic Ocean. Its wilderness, open spaces and close connection to nature offered something she knew she needed in a home. 

Today, trails remain part of her daily life. Sometimes Mel and Nova head out for a longer hike. Other times, they simply walk among the trees, listen to birds and watch the seasons unfold. 

Mel’s relationship with the Trail has changed, however. During her cross-country journey, she felt she was living as part of it. Now, she describes herself as a visitor and that brings a different opportunity. Rather than continually moving forward, Mel can spend more time exploring a particular place. She can follow a side trail, step into the bush or simply linger. 

“I can connect with sections of the Trail a little deeper and hang out there a little longer,” she says. 

Adventuring with a buddy 

Malo joined Mel in Manitoba and became much more than a dog who happened to come along. 

“He grew into my adventure buddy. He grew into my rock,” she says. “There was so much uncertainty on the Trail every day and he gave me stability in this life of constantly moving on.” 

Mel still has Malo’s ashes and plans, when she is ready, to scatter them among the trees—the place where they were happiest. 

With Nova, Mel is building a different kind of partnership. Nova is agile, sensitive and energetic. While Malo shared a life in which the boundary between indoors and outdoors was as thin as the walls of their tent, Nova helps draw Mel away from the routines of a more settled life. She will gently poke Mel as if to say it is time to take a break and go outside. 

“I needed exactly Malo’s attitude when I was on that cross-country journey,” Mel says. “And I need exactly Nova’s attitude now.” 

Photo credit: Mel Vogel

Experiencing connection and contentment in nature 

Mel joined the Great Canadian Hike this year because she wants to encourage more people to experience the connection and contentment she discovered in nature. 

Her approach is deliberately uncomplicated. She and Nova go out rain or shine, sometimes for 20 minutes and sometimes for an entire day. Although Mel has set herself a goal of 75 kilometres, she says the experience is not really about distance. 

“There is no competition, no judgment and no comparison,” she says. “It’s about making time for yourself, going outside and moving however you would like to move.” 

Collectively, individual outings like those contribute to the Great Canadian Hike’s national goal. Participants can hike, bike, paddle or roll, adding their kilometres to those logged by people across the country. 

Mel hopes the experience will also inspire habits that continue after the Great Canadian Hike concludes at the end of September.   

Dogs already understand that feeling of wanting to be outside in nature, she says. Mention a walk and they are soon waiting excitedly at the door. 

“We should be the same way,” Mel says. “We should think, ‘Let’s go for a walk,’ step outside and really enjoy the outdoors like dogs do.” 

Through her WAG NATION fundraising team in this year’s Great Canadian Hike, she is inviting others to share that excitement and to take whatever first step feels right for them. 

Join WAG NATION: https://www.greatcanadianhike.ca/fundraisers/WAGNATION  

Photo credit: Mel Vogel

Ready to see where the Trans Canada Trail can take you? Join the Great Canadian Hike this September and hike, bike, paddle or roll your way through the challenge — on your own or with your own team of friends. 

Feature photo credit: Mel Vogel