Grant Beacock has been walking through the Yukon and British Columbia for close to half a year now.
The Chilliwack resident began his journey at the Alaska/Yukon border at Beaver Creek and has been walking every day carrying his food, pop-up tent, inflatable mattress and clothes in a hand-drawn wagon that weighs about 170 pounds. Along the way, he's seen the beauty of nature, encountered roaming bears and talked to dozens of people. It's been an incredibly rewarding experience.
"I've been telling people when they ask me about my support team that the people of the Yukon and British Columbia have been my support team all the way," Beacock said. "One of the questions I get all the time is why I walk? I tell them 'simply because I can't fly'. I try to have some fun with it."
Beacock embarked on his Encouragement Walk to raise awareness about senior loneliness and to advocate their inclusion in everyday life. Growing up in Ontario he said his parents put an ad on the local radio one Christmas for a grandfather for Beacock and his six siblings.
Before long their phone was ringing off the hook and they ended up adopting a man named Bob Gilroy as their grandfather that holiday season. Their example inspired 20 other families to do the same with other elders, welcoming them into their homes and lives. That experience stuck with Beacock for years until his own mother became a senior and was left lonely after his father passed away.
"If someone had come up and talked to mum they might have noticed she was sitting in a three-foot circle. Dad was gone and her social life had really tightened really quick," Beacock said. "If they'd just gone up and asked mum 'Mary, I need your help', Mum would have been there in a kitchen helping at a hot lunch program, would have loved teaching young kids after school how to read but she had to be approached."
Seniors and elders, at the end of the day, want to be wanted, Beacock said, as much as anyone else. His walk is meant to highlight that and encourage both elders and young people to reach out to one another and form connections.
To begin his journey, Beacock took a plane to Whitehorse and then hitchhiked his way across the Yukon to the border at Beaver Creek. After taking a few days to prepare himself mentally, Beacock began his walk one step at a time.
"What an experience. That first step you take, it hits you. I put my little copper plaque on a post, I turned around, grabbed my wagon and you take that very first step and boy do the emotions run through you," Beacock recalled. "I was scared, I was terrified but I was excited this was happening. All I had to do was put one foot in front of the other, that's what I told myself.'
When he first began his walk Beacock said he could only walk for about 20 feet before taking a rest on a chair he carries in his wagon. Now he can walk for well over a kilometre before needing a break.
Walking every day has by necessity improved his physical fitness with Beacock remarking he's both lost weight and seen his heart rate decrease. When he left Vancouver his blood pressure was 144 over 90 but by the time he got to Atlin, B.C. he was 129 over 70.
"The walk itself has done a great thing for me and my health. I've had four heart attacks (in the past) and broke my back twice. I went from 36 to 38 waist to a 32 waist, but if I didn't have my belt on my pants would be around my ankles right now," Beacock remarked.
Despite the fact he's comfortable sleeping on the side of the road, Beacock said people are still concerned for his welfare. Near the beginning of September, he recalled how he was camping out near 150 Mile House when he was woken up by sirens from an ambulance and fire truck. Apparently, a motorist had thought he had been struck by a car, despite his tent, wagon and sleeping bag.
"I appreciate the compassion from the people but really if it was me and I saw a body on the road the first thing I would do is stop and see if I could help. These people keep going and phoned it in," Beacock remarked wryly. "Because everyone who gets hit by a car is hit on a mat, in a sleeping bag, on a tarp with a big wagon with a sign saying I'm doing this walk. It happens all the time."
Beacock is remarkably sanguine about some of his adventures. He described three separate times when he encountered bears on his walk, including one time when a grizzly started bluffing in his direction. He described them as gorgeous animals that he was sure to show respect to.
While Beacock said he would like to walk the full remaining distance from 100 Mile House to Chilliwack, doing so will require him to go through the Fraser Canyon. Due to the narrowness of the road and lack of shoulders where he could camp out and sleep, he's decided to accept a ride through the canyon at Spences Bridge and resume his walk on the other side.
"I really don't want people to think you're just trying to get home early. My safety is number one on the road," Beacock said.
Beacock hopes to finish his trek by the end of September or the first week of October, arriving back in his home of Chilliwack. Once there he hopes to hold an event that will bring local seniors and young people together. He notes that if in the coming years, even if only one community takes his message to heart and begins ensuring its elders are looked after and included more in everyday life, he'll consider his walk a success.
"In my opinion (elders) are one of the most non-utilized resources available. It's the Baby Boomers who are retired now and many of them are in the situation my mum was in. They end up sitting in their three-foot circle waiting to pass," Beacock said. "My walk will be successful not necessarily by me reaching Chilliwack. If I can get one community in the next two years to try and put in place a mutual ground to bring elders, different community groups and students together, I will feel the 2,800 kilometres I've travelled will have been a success."
