It is my goal to drive across Canada in 2025, and I’m going to document this journey here on my blog. Be sure and subscribe for updates.

Where do I even begin? How do I give you the details that brought me here without boring the ever-living snot out of you? Let me touch on the highlights that lead up to now, briefly, then get to where I’m at with the current plan.

How I Got Here

The Car

Last August I bought a 2020 Subaru Forester Sport because I wanted something that wasn’t too big, but big enough where I could sleep in the back ala car camping. I’ve been an avid reader of /r/vanlife and /r/carcamping for years but never pulled the trigger. Originally I was convinced what I wanted was a camper, then I was convinced I wanted a van to convert and at the very last minute I chose this car over a Dodge Caravan because, for lack of anything concrete, it just felt right. I got behind the wheel to test drive it and fell in love.

After I brought her home, I threw together a rudimentary sleep conversion which included some window covers (which didn’t work very well), a plywood base and a mattress. Along with some other necessities like a power bank, and I was off to the races. I spent a night under the stars, with my moon roof giving me a glorious view of every satellite that passed overhead. It was a strange mix of anxiety and excitement. I had a list of things I knew I needed to fix and amend but it was a success. This little setup was going to save me upwards of a hundred dollars in hotels per night, and allow me to go farther, and for longer.

The Original Plan

So, version one-point-zero involved me going to the United States. I’ve always wanted to see Chicago and New York on the east coast and not to mention San Francisco, Utah and Nevada on the west.

Unfortunately, this is where I get a little political, but I’m sure you know what happened next. President Trump started bad mouthing Canada and launched a tariff war. I’m going to glaze over the details, mostly because we are bombarded with them every day but the bottom line is I decided that for now, my money needs to stay in Canada. I love my country and voting with our dollar is one of the most important messages we can send. Anyway, I’ll get off my soap box now.

The New Plan

At first I was less than thrilled to drive across Canada. I had “done it before” is what I told myself, and then I started to think really hard about what that actually meant.

I had been from Edmonton to Thunder Bay in the 1980s on Via Rail and by car, but didn’t get to see anything beyond a motel parking lot, or something that flew by the window.

And I had been across with an old friend promoting Comatose Rose Magazine in 2004, driving from Calgary to Montreal, but we were focused on the major cities and my USB stick containing ALL of my photos was promptly fried when I got back, giving almost nothing to show for it. Twenty years later and that still hurts.

So no, I hadn’t really been across Canada, not geographically and not thoroughly.

This won’t be quite from coast to coast though. I live in Calgary, but I will be going as far as St. John’s Newfoundland, with many stops along the way.

The Itinerary: Version 2.0
(1.0 being the trashed US idea)

Here is a breakdown of my planned route so far.

Regina, Saskatchewan
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Fort Frances, Ontario
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Iroquois Falls, Ontario
Ottawa, Ontario
Montreal, Quebec
Quebec City, Quebec
Fredericton, New Brunswick
Halifax, Nova Scotia
Stephenville, Newfoundland
St. John’s, Newfoundland
Port au Choix, Newfoundland
Goose Bay, Labrador
Labrador City, Labrador
Quebec City, Quebec
Toronto, Ontario
Sault St. Marie, Ontario
Thunder Bay, Ontario
Winnipeg, Manitoba
Saskatoon, Saskatchewan
Morinville, Alberta
Home to Calgary, Alberta

Something to note. There are repeats but I have done my best to create a route so I experience as much as possible. If I hit a town both ways it’s likely only a stop over for a good nights rest one of those ways. If the weather is bad heading east past Winnipeg for example, I’ll stay longer on my way back west and hope for the best.

I’ll get into the reasoning for some of my choices in a future blog but when I ran the numbers this route would take me no less than forty-nine days to complete based on how long I want to stay in each town and with leeway added, including sightseeing and potential delays, I bumped that up to sixty.

Sixty days on the road, holy shit! My estimated distance traveled is sixteen thousand kilometers. That’ll mean three or four oil changes and an additional inspection while on the road…costs I’ll have to factor into my budget.

As far as gas goes, I’m assuming the cost will be an average of $1.50 per liter. By the looks of it it’s in the one-twenties in Ontario, but one-seventies in Newfoundland. Given my fuel economy, I’ll be spending $1537.60 in gas alone.

That’s about where I’m at now. I know this blog has been a vomit of brainstorming and I promise the next one will be more structured, but I wanted to get this one out to make everything more…real.