As far as the Alberta Trailnet Society is concerned, the Trans Canada Trail project is alive and well. Never mind that it’s years behind schedule and that nothing is going on in the sections east or west of Slave Lake.
“It’s not dead at all!” says Linda Strong-Watson of the Alberta Trailnet Society – the provincial organization looking after the Trans Canada Trail in this province That’s encouraging, but the local situation is not. The dream may be alive and well in Edmonton, Calgary and Ottawa, but Trans Canada Trail enthusiasts there are powerless to make anything happen in Slave Lake and other outposts where large sections of the trail remain only an idea on paper.
Here’s how it works. The trail, in concept, stretches from the east to the west coasts, and from Calgary north to the Arctic Ocean. That northern spur follows (more or less) historical fur trade routes, which brings it from Athabasca through Smith to Slave Lake and over to Grouard along the north shore of Lesser Slave Lake.
The trail is built and maintained – or not – in sections by local people organized into local trail-building committees. The one in Athabasca has been doing good work in building a trail from there part way to Smith along the north side of the Athabasca River. There’s a group in Smith, Strong-Watson says, that is working on building and maintaining trail from Moose Portage to Smith. And that’s where the effort peters out.
“From Smith to Slave Lake is a missing piece,” she says.
From Slave Lake to Marten Beach is in good shape, thanks mainly to the provincial park people. But from Marten Beach west along the north shore doesn’t really exist, and nobody’s doing much about it. There is apparently a rough ATV trail there that could be converted into a trail that could bear the Trans Canada Trail designation, but it would take a lot of work.
At the other end of the lake it’s a different story. There’s an active group over there, working on a section of trail from around Hilliard’s Bay all the way to Peace River.
“They’re actually building in there,” says Strong-Watson. “There’s a huge amount of trail they’re working on.”
That is encouraging news for anyone who cares about the idea. But you can’t have a trail with 50-kilometre gaps in it.
The challenge, Strong-Watson says, “is not a money one. Forestry companies and others are prepared to assist. “We need local people with a passion for trails.”
There is, or was, a local committee that did a fair amount of planning work on the Slave Lake sections. Strong-Watson says she was talking to the remnants of it recently, and found that the principals want to “pass the torch.”
Whether anyone will step up to the plate and get something done is an open question.
Strong-Watson says she’s confident it will happen. In the meantime, the trail remains a nice idea.

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