10 million steps: P.E.I. man recalls walking across Canada 50 years ago

Not many people can say their old leather boots are on display in the local museum but that's where the shoes John Henry "Hank" Gallant wore on his walk across Canada are kept.

Gallant, now 74, of Nail Pond, P.E.I., hasn't worn the boots since he hung them up 50 years ago after his nine-month walk across Canada in 1967 to mark the 100th anniversary of Confederation.

"These are tailor-made boots. Every 200 miles I had to put a new sole on them," said Gallant.

For Gallant, walking across the country to mark the centennial was an act of patriotism.

10 million steps: A 74-year-old P.E.I. man recalls his walk across Canada 50 years ago

7 years ago

Duration 0:56

10 million steps: A 74-year-old P.E.I. man recalls his walk across Canada 50 years ago

"I love Canada from coast to coast and I felt very patriotic, but also I wanted to do an adventure, something that would be different,"said Gallant, who was 24 when he started his walk.

'They just laughed at me'

Gallant had been dreaming about doing something big since he was six, but it wasn't until he hit his late teens that he told his friends about his plan.

"They just laughed at me, so I never told anybody around here, never spoke about that at all."

Gallant later moved out to B.C. and landed a construction job and he started planning his big 7,000 km adventure.

"Six years before the walk, I trained hard," said Gallant. "I did a lot of jogging and running and mountain climbing."

Gallant began his cross-country journey on a cold February morning in Victoria, B.C, dipping his toes into the Pacific Ocean.

"I tried to walk an average of 23 miles a day with a 50-pound pack," he recalled.

'The mental journey was the hardest one of all'

His backpack was loaded down with a pup tent, tarp, a couple of changes of clothes, 12 pairs of woolen socks, rain gear and two days worth of dehydrated meals.

He had to constantly focus on not givingup.

"The mental journey was the hardest one of all because I had to make sure that I would not allow any negative stuff like that to go in my mind."

'Wegottamake another 23 miles today'

He was often tested.

"I used to get up in the morning and it didn't look that good outside the tent, maybe a couple of feet of snow, 40 below."

"So I would say, 'Well, we gotta make another 23 miles today, we gotta push it.'"

The kindness of Canadians helped Gallant trudge on.

"I was served meals on the side of the road in Saskatchewan and it was 40 below and some young man cooked me a breakfast brought it out to the side of the road," he said.

But there were many times where Gallant walked without seeing anyone.

"You do get lonely. I'm a talker and I loved meeting people, so a lot of times I was alone for days," said Gallant.

"Only once a week, I went I took a cheap room a bath, so I could have a bath or a shower. The rest of the week, six days, I slept outside."

'I knew I would be supper if I tripped'

Of course, you can't hike across Canada without running into wildlife, including bears in Northern Ontario and a cougar that stalked him in B.C.

"He followed me for about three hours," Gallant said of the cougar. "Maybe about 100 feet from me. I was nervous, because I knew I would be supper if I tripped or fell or made a stumble."

Fortunately, Gallant ducked into a small hotel where he learned the cougar had been seen stalking children on their way home from school.

The next morning, a group of men hunted down the cougar and shot it.

As Gallant neared the end of his journey in Newfoundland, he became a minor celebrity, doing interviews in local newspapers.

'They held me up in their hands, lifted me up'

By the time he reached St John's on Nov. 13, 1967 his 25th birthday a large crowd was waiting for him at mile zero of the Trans Canada Highway.

"It was a holiday for the school kids and there were about 1,500 or more elementary kids that met me," said Gallant.

"They held me up in their hands, lifted me up while I signed the big map of Canada."

And then it was time for the final act of his journey.

"I went down to the harbour and like I had done in the Pacific, I took my boot off and I put my toes in the cold Atlantic Ocean," he said.

'It's a good memory'

Gallant 's heart is full of pride when he thinks back to what he accomplished 50 years ago.

"It's a good memory. But sometimes I find that it's hard for me to believe that I tried an average of 23 miles a day with a 50 pound pack," he said.

"I'm walking now two miles a day and I have a very difficult time to do two miles."

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