TORONTO -- An Ontario man has been on a journey for more than five weeks, hiking the Bruce Trail from one end to the other.
“I’ll be hiking over 1,000 kilometres,” Tyler Gibson says. “I’m trying to learn to pace my physical side that wants to run a marathon every day to balance it with my mental fatigue.”
Gibson, formerly a resident of Toronto, left the Niagara area in September and has been trekking toward Tobermory ever since. It has been a grueling adventure at times, especially with changeable weather conditions, but Gibson says he’s enjoying it.
“Once I start moving, everything’s just so calm and relaxed,” he says. “I can take nature in and find clarity.”
Clarity is something Gibson had been seeking for a long time. He was diagnosed with an acquired brain injury four years ago, but had been suffering, undiagnosed, for twenty years.
Gibson says his injury led to frustration in many aspects of his life.
“It’s hard to explain something that doesn’t make sense, or that you’re embarrassed about,” he says. “Some of my best concussions were from skiing. I felt seizures. Two months of memory loss my first year of university and my bell never really stopped ringing, really, from that one.”
In an effort to support others going through something similar, Gibson is using his thru-hike of the Bruce Trail to raise funds and awareness for the Ontario Brain Injury Association.
“It is absolutely amazing what Tyler has decided to do,” Ruth Wilcox, executive director of the Ontario Brain Injury Association, says. “He said, ‘for people living with brain injury- their hike never ends’. Brain injuries last a lifetime, so it is important that we support people in their journey.”
For Gibson, that journey is about finding inner peace, while proving to himself and others that he can still do great things.
“For all those times I wanted to fill in paperwork, hand in a resume, call someone back, but then your brain gets locked up and you don’t know why,” he says. “I don’t want anyone to go through what I did, so that’s one of my biggest reasons for being out on the trail.”
Gibson is expected to complete his hike in Tobermory on Saturday. You can find out more on how to support his fundraising efforts here.
With files from CTV London’s Scott Miller.
