Two men are taking a long walk across Canada for very different reasons, but both have passed through the Boundary Region with the same glowing reviews of the people and landscape.
Rakesh Kumar and Tyson Stevens have been walking together for the past week, despite their own journeys starting at different times and places.
Kumar is on a very personal journey of healing, as well as spreading the message of ending the stigma against Borderline Personality Disorder (BPD), which he has and is managing through meditation and spending time in the wilderness. His journey started in Vancouver about two weeks ago and his goal is to get to Toronto by the fall.
He explained he came to Canada in 2019 from India as an international student. After about six months his mental health began to deteriorate with emotional breakdowns, spiralling mood swings, trust issues and suicidal thoughts. He’d had issues with his mental health for most of his life, he said, but being away from family made it worse.
Because of the stigma around mental health in his home country, neither he nor his family had any idea what was happening to his mind.
“They would do things like take me to priests because they thought it was evil spirits,” he said. “I ran away from home a lot and struggled silently because of the lack of mental health help in my country.”
While in Canada, he would be frequently sent to hospitals and misdiagnosed with depression, PTSD and schizophrenia.
It wasn’t until he was sent to the Centre for Addiction and Mental Health Hospital in Toronto in 2023 that he was formally diagnosed with PBD. At that point, his life had collapsed and he was coping through addiction and self-harming.
“I was honestly trying to kill myself while living in Vancouver, then I thought if you really want to die, just walk until you do,” he said.
However, he began to find structure and guidance when he turned to the Sikh religion, which has a core tenet of nature being a healer. Through meditating and long hikes in the wilderness, he found the focus he needed to manage his condition.
“Having BPD means the mind is either in the past, or the future, but seldom in the present,” he said. “Through spending time in nature and focusing on the flowers, trees and rivers, it grounds me and helps my mind stay in the present.”
In the past four months, he hasn’t had an emotional breakdown or suicidal thought, he said.
Another teaching is reconnecting with the natural world. Kumar found long walks and hiking took him away from distractions and stress, settling his mind and bringing him a sense of peace.
While being away from the distractions and stress of modern life has helped, Kumar is walking along the country’s major highways to show people what mental illness looks like.
“No one would know I have a mental illness by looking at me, I want people to see me because I want to show them people like me struggle in silence,” he said. “There are people everywhere like me who have an illness that can’t be seen. This walk has become my life purpose and I want to tell people we can’t be struggling all the time, there is a way to get out of it and live a happy life.”
This isn’t just about teaching others, it’s also about connecting and seeing people’s humanity. Along the way, Kumar has met many friendly and generous people who have offered him everything from free food, clothing and cash donations.
Grand Forks was no exception.
He was planning on staying for just one day but chose to stay for two because he grew to like the town.
“I was camping here and at Sunshine Laundry talking to the owner about my journey. He ordered a pizza for me and gave me money,” said Kumar. “He told me what I’m doing is good and I just have to keep moving. Really, it’s the people and nature that are moving me along on this journey.”
About a week ago, He met Stevens, who is on his own much longer hike across Canada.
Stevens is out to re-discover his home country after serving for 10 years in the Canadian Navy.
“I’ve been all over the world, but I haven’t seen much of my country beyond the coast,” he said. “I ended my service April 30 and thought I’d do this while I still can with the money I saved up.”
Originally from Halifax, he started his journey on the Trans Canada Trail on Vancouver Island May 2, before coming to the mainland and heading west.
There haven’t been any serious problems, he said, but he’s still amazed at how vast the country is.
“I’ve been travelling the trail for more than two months and I’m still in B.C.,” he said. “It’s sometimes a challenge staying engaged knowing I’ll be looking at the same landscape and mountain ranges for days, but I want to take it all in.”
He admitted that while he was planning his hike, he had tentative dates set for locations and cities, but once he got on the trail, he realized it was going to take a minimum of two-and-a-half months just for B.C. He is only doing the southern leg of the trail. There are two northern arms that start in Edmonton and either head to Yellowknife, N.W.T., or through northern B.C. to Dawson, Yukon. Both end in Tuktoyaktuk, N.W.T.
Another realization is how geographically diverse B.C. really is. Advertising makes it look like it’s all rainforest and high-peaked mountains, he said, so he was a little surprised to find the southern interior consisting of plateaus and grasslands.
Whenever he stops in a community, he tries to take in the uniqueness and culture of each.
The other highlight is his time in Hope, where he discovered the tourism focused on it being where First Blood was filmed. He spent about eight hours just looking at filming locations and statues.
After traversing B.C., Stevens said he’s looking forward to the relatively flat and straight geography of Alberta, Saskatchewan and Manitoba. His hope is to make it to southern Ontario by at least late fall to spend Christmas and part of the winter with family. After that, he will continue heading east on the trail to St. John’s, Newfoundland and Labrador with a tentative date of August 2026.
“This journey will take me around two years total, but it’s an experience I’m looking forward to,” he said.
You can follow Kumar’s journey on Instagram @healingwitheverystep, email at healingwitheverystep@gmail.com. He also welcomes people to walk with him when he is in a community.
