I meet two people crossing Canada by foot.
One is walking.
And one is running.
I meet Boyd about an hour’s walk east of Brandon, Manitoba.
He is the one all the cross-country cyclists have been telling me about.
Boyd is known as ‘The Canadian Forrest Gump’.
He carries a backpack instead of pushing a jogging stroller.
I thought I might miss him because I was walking along a divided highway.
But, as it turns out, it would have been tough to miss him because he’s walking with the traffic, not against it.
This is so that drivers can read the sign on his backpack –
Walking Across Canada Please Help with Food $.
What is amazing about Boyd is that this is his second time walking across Canada.
The first time, he did it to combat his depression after his marriage broke up.
Now he walks to bring attention to depression.
He works all winter and then walks all summer, starting where he left off the year prior.
He walks about 25 km per day at an easy pace.
He stealth camps at night and cooks most of his own food.
We share some stories, like when he was attacked by a wolf in Banff National Park.
I talk about the transport truck that almost got me when the driver was passing another transport.
Boyd wears ear phones and listens to music while walking with his back to the traffic.
He says, “If I get taken out, I don’t want to hear it coming.”
Boyd is as easy-going as a person can get.
He’s in no hurry.
This is his lifestyle, not a race.
He will finish when he finishes.
And after that, well, he’ll probably just do it all over again.
West of the Manitoba/Saskatchewan border, I meet Batista.
Batista is about sixty years old.
He arrived from his homeland in Italy to run across Canada.
We struggle to communicate because he speaks little English and I speak even less Italian.
It’s a lonely stretch of highway, and so we are happy to see one another.
A moment ago, just strangers.
And now, friends.
