The Passionate Hiker: The Settlers Trek

Sun. 15 May to Fri. 20 May: The Settlers Trek

Now an official route

Note: click on pictures for full size view.

This time machine really worked. I’ve just returned from a visit to 1816. It’s true!

My name was Thomas Barber, and I joined a group of other settlers from Scotland on a hundred kilometre trek through the wilderness to our new home somewhere near the Perth military settlement, far inland from Brockville on the St. Lawrence River. My incentive was 100 acres of free land. I knew that the trek was just the start. I now had to clear the forest and build a home before the land was mine to keep.

For six days a train of wagons, horses and walkers threaded its way through the green springtime countryside to reach our destination. There were some stretches of busy highway where we would follow the flashing lights of our police escort, waving cheerily at the wide-eyed truck drivers. But most of our journey was along the quieter byways.

Each evening we would gather for the night at a welcoming community where we were given hearty meals and a camping site. Lyn, Athens, Delta, Portland, Rideau Ferry: villages which had embraced the spirit of the trek and which made us proud to be Canadians. And arriving in Perth we found a town full to the brim to welcome the weary travellers. Here we were given our location tickets.

For us this was the end of a special experience, and now we could head for a hot bath and a comfy bed. For the real settlers two hundred years ago, this was just the start of a gruelling life – but one of freedom and ownership of their own land – something they might only have dreamed about back in Scotland.

Over just six days, the trekkers and their horse-drawn companions had bonded into a tight group. It was with regret that we stepped out of our time machine and returned to the real world. Now we know this device works, no doubt we’ll be keen to take some more trips in it.

Postscript: Thanks to the Perth Military Settlement Historical Mapping Project, rolled out this year as part of the Perth 200 celebrations, I was able to discover that Thomas Barber was a Military Emigrant from Dumfries and that he travelled on the first ship, the Atlas. By coincidence, the author’s own ancestor, George Williamson, was also from Dumfries-shire. He had embarked on his own trek, marching south with Bonnie Prince Charlie on the fateful invasion of England in 1745, which had ended disastrously at Culloden the following year. George had sensibly deserted while passing through Lancashire. In 1757 he married a farm-girl, Hannah Matthew. They were happily married for 54 years and had nine children.

Note: The Passionate Hiker was not taking many pictures because he knew that a professional photographer was accompanying the settlers in their time machine. So these are just a few of the quick snaps I took as we walked.