A group of friends recently went viral after walking through the entire 26-kilometre-long stretch of the TTC’s Line 2, and now they are planning on taking their viewers with them on a community walk.
Michaela Purcell, Sebastian Karall, Hayden Chan, Sophia Franc and Katie Wang met while attending high school in Oakville. After moving to different parts of the world and pursuing different careers and lifepaths, the friends recently found an innovative way to spend time together: challenging themselves to take long walks across Toronto.
Recently, a video of the group taking an almost nine-hour-long journey through the path that stretches the length of the subway line gained attention online, with hundreds of people admiring their resilience in the comments.
The two-part video shows time-stamped moments of their walk, stopping in front of every Line 2 station, starting at 11:28 a.m. at Kipling and ending at 8 p.m. at Kennedy.
But this is not the first time the friends have done something like this.
They first went viral earlier this month after walking from Oakville to Toronto’s CN Tower. The 45-kilometre journey took them 12 hours to complete, with many stops along the way to grab a bite to eat, something to drink, or just to catch their breath.
The concept of the challenge first started years ago, when the friends were high school juniors and saw on Google Maps that a walk between the two cities would take about eight hours to complete.
“We were like, ‘That’s just one day of walking. And why not? It would be fine.’ But we never really had time to get around to it,” Wang told Now Toronto.
Besides pushing themselves to complete a challenge, the experience was also a way for them to reconnect and spend time together, as most of them now live far apart from one another.
“Whenever we’re in the same city…immediately our main goal is to see each other. So, the walk is more so [a way to hang out]. We would be in Hayden’s basement if we weren’t walking, we’re just, you know, moving it on the road,” Karall said.
“Adult friendships are hard. So, I mean, walking is a good way to give yourself an excuse to spend dedicated time with people and kind of wander, be bored, and make memories. That is a benefit of it.”
The idea became a concrete plan when the group got together at a cottage this August, and with resilience, backpacks and a drive to hang out, they finally took to the road.
Over 58 thousand steps later, and with their feet still hurting from the long walk, the group wanted more, and so the idea of taking other walks emerged.
“Right after Oakville to Toronto. We’re like, ‘What’s next? What other long, strange walks could we do?’ So, we chose Line 2 first, because Line 1 would be a two-day thing, but it’s on our list.”
According to the group, the biggest challenge of the intense walk involves the intense pain in their feet and holding onto the encouragement to keep pushing. After taking two of these walks, the friends advise those who plan on doing similar routes to wear good shoes that leave some room for their feet and to pack light for the trip.
“For the first one…we were very slow, taking a lot of breaks at the beginning. So, in the last bit, we had to really speed up. But for Line 2, we didn’t take any breaks at all; we just did the whole thing. And I think maybe that made it a little easier.”
Besides allowing the group to connect, they say the experience also led them to learning more about the city, and paying more attention to their surroundings as they moved from one point to another.
“I feel like people are pretty disconnected from where they live. I mean, I walk outside of my door, I put my headphones on, and I walk to school, and there’s places along my route to school that I don’t notice because I’m tuned out,” Chan said.
“But now, I’m on the GO train, and I’m looking out the window, and I’m like, ‘Oh my gosh, I remember I was standing right outside.’”
“Same with Line 2. I’ve taken the Line 2, the subway, really often, and I’ve passed by all of those stops, but most of them I’ve not gotten off at. So, it’s really cool to see the outside of all the stops, and now I know what all of those areas look like,” Franc added.
FRIENDS PLANNING A COMMUNITY WALK
The five friends are not the only ones to be exploring the city one walk at a time lately.
Last week, two Toronto girls also gained attention online after walking from Finch Station to Union Station and documenting their journey through photos.
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Meanwhile, the group of high school friends say that the videos documenting their journeys along Line 2 and from Toronto to Oakville have received support from people online, including some expressing their interest in taking on the same adventure, and even hoping to be included in future walks with the group.
The friends believe the trend has to do with Torontonians’ desire to learn more about the city and feel connected to the community.
“When we do these walks, I feel a lot more connected to the world around me. And I think that’s a hard thing to reach, especially post-COVID,” Purcell said.
“I don’t think we’ve ever really gone back to that place of existing externally [again], it’s very indoors, still very online. So, I think walking outside and proving to yourself that you are a part of the community and that you can do these things is the biggest thing, that’s what people want.”
Meanwhile, Karall explained that although dense, urban areas can often lead people to feeling isolated.
“We’re in a crowd, we’re moving out of the subway, we’re in these spaces that are designed to funnel people from one place to another. So, I think taking time to actually wander and just to exist in your environment makes you feel a lot more connected and grounded,” he said.
Responding to demand from their viewers, the friends say they are now planning to invite their viewers to take a community walk with them next month.
The group says the highly-awaited walk will take place on Oct. 25, and said they are still deciding on details, including which path they will take and whether they can use the event to raise funds for a local charity.
“It just seems like there’s a real yearning for community in people, and walking is a good excuse to go out there and spend dedicated time with people,” Karall said.
The group said they will soon be sharing more details about the walk in the near future.
