With around 5,000 kilometres under his kilt, Michael Yellowlees is on his third pair of shoes.
His dog Luna trotting at his side, Yellowlees has been pushing his improvised cart along the shoulder of the Trans-Canada highway since March.
“We’rewalking 40 or 50 kilometres every day,” Yellowlees said. “But we’re living an adventure of a lifetime. Canada is such a beautiful country in so many ways.”
Man and dog are walking west to east, from Tofino, B.C., to Cape Spear, N.L., which they hope to reach sometime in December.
Their journey is to raise money for Trees for Life, a charity based in Scotland dedicated to “rewilding” the Scottish Highlands. According to the charity, only 2 per cent of the original forests in the highlands of Scotland remain.
“If you ever go to Scotland, you walk in the Highlands and you’ll see it’s a very barren landscape,” Yellowlees said. “I’ve always found it a very sad landscape, walking through it. And then you find out it should be forested from coast to coast and be bursting with life, and you start to go, ‘OK, well, we need to fix this.'”
Yellowlees hopes to do exactly that, and so far he’s collected more than $25,000 on his walk.
WATCH | The feature about Michael Yellowlees’ long walk, Sunday Oct. 3 on The National at 9 p.m. ET on CBC News Network and 10 p.m. local time on your CBC television station. You can also catch The National online on CBC Gem.
Why Canada?
Yellowlees, who turned 32 on the road and celebrated with a steak each for him and Luna, got the idea for the walk last year when he was working at a sled dog company on the west coast.
That was also when he met Luna — a seven-year-old Alaskan husky and former lead dog of a sled team.
“This is a kind of retirement for her,” Yellowlees said with a smile.
Yellowlees and Luna walk along a trail beside the Trans-Canada highway near Petawawa, Ont. Man and dog left Tofino, B.C., last March and hope to reach Cape Spear, N.L., some time this winter. (Nick Purdon/CBC)
Yellowlees says the reason he decided to walk across Canada is pretty simple.
“You’ve got wilderness here, and that we don’t have in Scotland anymore,” he said. “We’ve lost it over the last few hundred years. The ecology in Scotland has been eroded and we’re kind of left with the bare bones.”
His eyes light up as he explains one of the greatest experiences he’s had to date on the walk.
“Just the other night I’m hearing wolves howling, and for me that’s like a bucket-list moment. That was spine-tingling and something that I really hope that Scotland will have in the future.”
Rock star on the road
The journey is striking a chord with people across Canada.
Theresa-Jane Snyder drove a couple of hundred kilometres down the highway to take a care package to Yellowlees and Luna after she found out about them online.
“I think it’s just brilliant,” Snyder said. “I’m just inspired by him, by choosing Canada to walk across!”
WATCH: Michael Yellowlees meets Theresa-Jane Snyder on the highway near Deep River, Ont:
Kindness of strangers supports Michael Yellowlees on his cross-Canada journey
3 days ago
Theresa-Jane Snyder stopped her car on the Trans-Canada highway near Deep River, Ont., to hand Michael Yellowlees a bag with supplies to help him on his cross-Canada walk for charity. 0:44
This is the effect Yellowlees has. All day long people honk and holler and stop to offer him food or water.
“People have just been glorious — right from the get go,” Yellowlees said.
“The amount of times they’ve just lifted us up in our spirit — it’s totally just carried us along.”
Darla Stewart recently spent the day peeking out her windows and watching the road from her home in Point Alexander, Ont., so as not to miss Yellowlees and Luna.
When she finally caught sight of them she waved them across the highway to her house.
Yellowlees chats with Darla Stewart on her driveway in Point Alexander, Ont. Stewart found out about Yellowlees and Luna online and spent the day waiting for them to pass her house. (Nick Purdon/CBC)
As they chat, Stewart fills Luna’s bowl three times with water.
“This is what we do. This is the Ottawa Valley,” Stewart said. “We call people in. We feed them. We put them on their way. That’s what people do here.”
Stewart invites Yellowlees for a meal, but he declines as he has already fallen a little behind schedule. He and Luna have to keep walking.
Stewart waves from her driveway — smiling.
“He’s had long days, hard days, hot days, cold nights, and it’s going to get worse before he gets where he’s going. It’s just uplifting,” Stewart said. “I’m like a mom. You want to make sure they’re safe along the way and they’re not hungry.”
Yellowlees continues on his way, and as the sun begins to set he turns down another stranger’s offer — this time a place to stay.
Yellowlees speaks with Peter Selander, a.k.a. Bicycle Pete, in Deep River, Ont. Dozens of Canadians stop to chat and bring food and water to Yellowlees and Luna every day. ‘I knew this would be a trip of human kindness,’ Yellowlees said. (Nick Purdon/CBC)
Still, after only a few more kilometres Yellowlees and Luna are exhausted.
It’s anything but glamorous, but Yellowlees turns his cart away from the highway and finds a secluded spot of grass just behind a gas station. He pulls out his sleeping pad and lies down under the stars.
He calls Luna over and she lies down next to him.
“You think of giving up all the time you know — all the way across,” he said before shutting his eyes.
“You have moments of going, ‘Oh, I don’t know if I can do this,’ especially early on when you have such a long road ahead of you,” he said. “There’s always these doubts. So you dream about giving up.”
Four-legged inspiration
After only a few hours of rest, Yellowlees is awake. Each morning he carefully wraps Luna’s front paws and slips on the booties she’s started to wear to protect her from the hard pavement.
Then they’re back on the road committed to walking another 40 to 50 km.
On days like this when he’s tired, Yellowlees says with a smirk that he tries to convince himself that he’s just taking his dog for a walk — a very very long walk.
In the end, Yellowlees says it’s Luna who keeps him going.
“She’s the motivator in all of this. She’s the one pulling us along,” Yellowlees said.
“The mornings where I’m laying in bed just sort of wanting to give up, she’s the one licking me in the face and telling me, ‘Hey, come on, let’s get. Let’s get moving.'”
WATCH: Michael Yellowlees talks about Luna’s central role in his journey:
Michael Yellowlees inspired on his journey by his dog Luna
3 days ago
Michael Yellowlees explains how his dog Luna has helped him keep going through the hard times during his walk across Canada to raise money for a tree-planting charity. 0:45
There have been lots of highs and beautiful moments on the road, but Yellowlees is clear about when he hit rock bottom.
He was on remote stretch of road east of Fort Frances, Ont., and Luna ran off. Yellowlees searched for days in the deep bush but he couldn’t find her.
“It was the worst week of my life,” he said.
“I was grieving her. I thought I’d lost her. And I’ve got to be honest, I was a mess.”
Yellowlees says he never gave up hope that he’d be reunited with his companion, and he put the word out on social media.
Finally, on the seventh day, someone found Luna and they were reunited.
“I just got the most beautiful, beautiful hug from her. She came over, just gave me the most beautiful hug,” remembers Yellowlees. “Then she fell asleep, fell asleep in my arms. What an amazing dog, you know?”
Luna is an Alaskan husky Yellowlees met in Tofino, B.C., where he worked for a dog-sledding operation last winter. ‘Luna is absolutely everything to me,’ he said, ‘she’s been a superstar through it all.’ (Nick Purdon/CBC)
Luna was in rough shape when she returned — thin, exhausted and dehydrated. She was still wearing her leash and Yellowlees wonders if she got it snagged somewhere in the forest and that was why she didn’t come back.
What is it that people say about absence and the heart?
“I just couldn’t imagine life without her now. My life wouldn’t be the same going forward,” Yellowlees said.
He plans to take Luna back to Scotland with him when he finally returns.
State of the planet
Yellowlees has had plenty of time to think on his journey, and he says his thoughts often turn to climate change and the state of the planet.
He says there’s a parallel between his journey and the work that needs to be done to solve the issue.
“We’ve got a long road ahead of us to get things back in balance,” he said.
Yellowlees says he is part dreamer and part realist. He understands that raising money by walking across Canada won’t solve the climate crisis, and so he tries to raise awareness of the issue with the people he meets on the road.
Yellowlees shakes hands with a couple who brought him a care package along Highway 17 near Pembroke, Ont. ‘People have just been glorious – right from the get go,’ said Yellowlees. (Nick Purdon/CBC)
Nancy Rose read about Yellowlees’ journey online and drove out to find him.
On the side of the highway they chat about Scotland and the Canadian wilderness, and then Yellowlees nudges the discussion toward climate change.
“With the climate crisis maybe we can blame the government, we can blame whomever,” Yellowlees said. “But until we start to say ‘we need to change this,’ nothing will really happen.”
Rose nods her head. “You are just an amazing person,” she said. “I think there should be more Michaels and Lunas in the world!”
While Yellowlees has raised more than $25,000 for a charity called Trees for Life, he also hopes his walk will raise awareness about climate change. ‘We’ve got a long road ahead of us to fix things and get things back in balance,’ he said. ‘We can’t give up.’ (Nick Purdon/CBC)
Soon enough, dog and redhead are back on the road heading east, one step at a time.
Yellowlees says he feels blessed to have witnessed the beauty of Canada from a unique perspective, and he has a message for Canadians about our wilderness.
“Look after what you have here. It’s so, so precious and so important, and not only just look after it. Give back to it as well, be proactive in restoring it and looking after it.
“We can’t give up. This is the future of the planet, so we can’t give up.”
WATCH | A Scotsman and his dog aim to cross the country on foot:
The Scotsman and his husky aiming to walk across Canada
4 hours ago
Michael Yellowlees of Scotland, and his Alaskan husky Luna of Canada, are walking across Canada. They left Tofino, B.C., last March and have finally reached Ontario. While they hope to reach the eastern tip of Newfoundland sometime in December, their real goal is to raise money for a Scottish charity called Trees for Life. 6:25
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Montreal Alouettes wide receiver Tyson Philpot has announced he will be out for the rest of the CFL season.
The Delta, B.C., native posted the news on his Instagram page Thursday.
“To Be Continued. Shoutout my team, the fans of the CFL and the whole city of Montreal! I can’t wait to be back healthy and write this next chapter in 2025,” the statement read.
Philpot, 24, injured his foot in a 33-23 win over the Hamilton Tiger-Cats on Aug. 10 and was placed on the six-game injured list the next week.
The six-foot-one, 195-pound receiver had 58 receptions, 779 yards and five touchdowns in nine games for the league-leading Alouettes in his third season.
Philpot scored the game-winning touchdown in Montreal’s Grey Cup win last season to punctuate a six-reception, 63-yard performance.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published Sept. 12, 2024.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Miami Dolphins quarterback Tua Tagovailoa sustained a concussion for the third time in his NFL career, leaving his team’s game Thursday night against Buffalo after running into defensive back Damar Hamlin and hitting the back of his head against the turf.
Tagovailoa remained down for about two minutes before getting to his feet and walking to the sideline after the play in the third quarter. He made his way to the tunnel not long afterward, looking into the stands before smiling and departing toward the locker room.
The Dolphins needed almost no time before announcing it was a concussion. The team said he had two during the 2022 season, and Tagovailoa was diagnosed with another concussion when he was a college player at Alabama.
Dolphins coach Mike McDaniel said Tagovailoa would get “proper procedural evaluation” and “appropriate care” on Friday.
“The furthest thing from my mind is, ‘What is the timeline?’ We just need to evaluate and just worry about my teammate, like the rest of the guys are,” McDaniel said. “We’ll get more information tomorrow and take it day by day from here.”
Some players saw Tagovailoa in the locker room after the game and said they were encouraged. Tagovailoa spoke with some players and then went home after the game, McDaniel said.
“I have a lot of love for Tua, built a great relationship with him,” said quarterback Skylar Thompson, who replaced Tagovailoa after the injury. “You care about the person more than the player and everybody in the organization would say the same thing. Just really praying for Tua and hopefully everything will come out all right.”
Tagovailoa signed a four-year, $212 million extension before this season — a deal that makes him one of the highest-paid players in the NFL — and was the NFL’s leading passer in Week 1 this season. Tagovailoa left with the Dolphins trailing 31-10, and that was the final score.
“If you know Tua outside of football, you can’t help but feel for him,” Bills quarterback Josh Allen said on Amazon following the game. “He’s a great football player but he’s an even greater human being. He’s one of the best humans on the planet. I’ve got a lot of love for him and I’m just praying for him and his family, hoping everything’s OK. But it’s tough, man. This game of football that we play, it’s got its highs and it’s got its lows — and this is one of the lows.”
Tagovailoa’s college years and first three NFL seasons were marred by injury, though he positioned himself for a big pay bump with an injury-free and productive 2023 as he led the Dolphins into the playoffs. He threw for 29 touchdowns and a league-best 4,624 yards last year.
When, or if, he can come back this season is anyone’s guess. Tagovailoa said in April 2023 that the concussions he had in the 2022 season left him contemplating his playing future. “I think I considered it for a time,” he said then, when asked if he considered stepping away from the game to protect himself.
McDaniel said it’s not his place to say if Tagovailoa should return to football. “He’ll be evaluated and we’ll have conversations and progress as appropriate,” McDaniel said.
Tagovailoa was hurt Thursday on a fourth-down keeper with about 4:30 left in the third. He went straight ahead into Hamlin and did not slide, leading with his right shoulder instead.
Hamlin was the player who suffered a cardiac arrest after making a tackle during a Monday night game in January 2023 at Cincinnati, causing the NFL to suspend a pivotal game that quickly lost significance in the aftermath of a scary scene that unfolded in front of a national television audience.
Tagovailoa wound up on his back, both his hands in the air and Bills players immediately pointed at him as if to suggest there was an injury. Dolphins center Aaron Brewer quickly did the same, waving to the sideline.
Tagovailoa appeared to be making a fist with his right hand as he lay on the ground. It was movement consistent with something that is referred to as the “fencing response,” which can be common after a traumatic brain injury.
Tagovailoa eventually got to his feet. McDaniel grabbed the side of his quarterback’s head and gave him a kiss on the cheek as Tagovailoa departed. Thompson came into the game to take Tagovailoa’s spot.
“I love Tua on and off the football field,” Bills edge Von Miller said. “I’m a huge fan of him. I can empathize and sympathize with him because I’ve been there. I wish him the best.”
Tagovailoa’s history with concussions — and how he has since worked to avoid them — is a huge part of the story of his career, and now comes to the forefront once again.
He had at least two concussions during the 2022 season. He was hurt in a Week 3 game against Buffalo and cleared concussion protocol, though he appeared disoriented on that play but returned to the game.
The NFL later changed its concussion protocol to mandate that if a player shows possible concussion symptoms — including a lack of balance or stability — he must sit out the rest of the game.
Less than a week later, in a Thursday night game at Cincinnati, Tagovailoa was concussed on a scary hit that briefly knocked him unconscious and led to him being taken off the field on a stretcher.
His second known concussion of that season came in a December game against Green Bay, and he didn’t play for the rest of the 2022 season. After that, Tagovailoa began studying ways where he may be able to fall more safely and protect himself against further injury — including studying jiu-jitsu.
“I’m not worried about anything that’s out of my hands,” McDaniel said. “I’m just worried about the human being.”
NEW YORK (AP) — When her husband turns on the television to hear news about the upcoming presidential election, that’s often a signal for Lori Johnson Malveaux to leave the room.
It can get to be too much. Often, she’ll go to a TV in another room to watch a movie on the Hallmark Channel or BET. She craves something comforting and entertaining. And in that, she has company.
While about half of Americans say they are following political news “extremely” or “very” closely, about 6 in 10 say they need to limit how much information they consume about the government and politics to avoid feeling overloaded or fatigued, according to a new survey from the Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research and USAFacts.
Make no mistake: Malveaux plans to vote. She always does. “I just get to the point where I don’t want to hear the rhetoric,” she said.
The 54-year-old Democrat said she’s most bothered when she hears people on the news telling her that something she saw with her own eyes — like the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol — didn’t really happen.
“I feel like I’m being gaslit. That’s the way to put it,” she said.
Sometimes it feels like ‘a bombardment’
Caleb Pack, 23, a Republican from Ardmore, Oklahoma, who works in IT, tries to keep informed through the news feeds on his phone, which is stocked with a variety of sources, including CNN, Fox News, The Wall Street Journal and The Associated Press.
Yet sometimes, Pack says, it seems like a bombardment.
“It’s good to know what’s going on, but both sides are pulling a little bit extreme,” he said. “It just feels like it’s a conversation piece everywhere, and it’s hard to escape it.”
Media fatigue isn’t a new phenomenon. A Pew Research Center survey conducted in late 2019 found roughly two in three Americans felt worn out by the amount of news there is, about the same as in a poll taken in early 2018. During the 2016 presidential campaign, about 6 in 10 people felt overloaded by campaign news.
But it can be particularly acute with news related to politics. The AP-NORC/USAFacts poll found that half of Americans feel a need to limit their consumption of information related to crime or overseas conflicts, while only about 4 in 10 are limiting news about the economy and jobs.
It’s easy to understand, with television outlets like CNN, Fox News Channel and MSNBC full of political talk and a wide array of political news online, sometimes complicated by disinformation.
“There’s a glut of information,” said Richard Coffin, director of research and advocacy for USAFacts, “and people are having a hard time figuring out what is true or not.”
Women are more likely to feel they need to limit media
In the AP-NORC poll, about 6 in 10 men said they follow news about elections and politics at least “very” closely, compared to about half of women. For all types of news, not just politics, women are more likely than men to report the need to limit their media consumption, the survey found.
White adults are also more likely than Black or Hispanic adults to say they need to limit media consumption on politics, the poll found.
Kaleb Aravzo, 19, a Democrat, gets a baseline of news by listening to National Public Radio in the morning at home in Logan, Utah. Too much politics, particularly when he’s on social media sites like TikTok and Instagram, can trigger anxiety and depression.
“If it pops up on my page when I’m on social media,” he said, “I’ll just scroll past it.”
___
Sanders reported from Washington. David Bauder writes about media for the AP. Follow him at http://x.com/dbauder.
The AP poll of 1,019 adults was conducted July 29-August 8, 2024, using a sample drawn from NORC’s probability-based AmeriSpeak Panel, which is designed to be representative of the U.S. population. The margin of sampling error for all respondents is plus or minus 4.0 percentage points.
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