This Sask. father-son duo built a stronger bond walking on grid roads for 3 days

Nichole Huck · CBC

· Posted: Jun 11, 2025 8:00 AM EDT | Last Updated: 4 hours ago

Beautiful Mess is simply a bid that mines the contented of parents successful Saskatchewan who person experienced hard circumstances.

Alex Oehler's household has lived each implicit the world.

The anthropology professor's enactment has taken him, his woman and their 2 sons to Scotland and Siberia, Arizona and the Arctic. But erstwhile the household moved from British Columbia to Regina during the pandemic, they were successful for a large adjustment.

People couldn't spell wrong buildings and question was unopen down, truthful Alex would thrust his car to the grid roads that situation the city, parkland and conscionable started walking, nary substance the weather.

"You conscionable locomotion straight. You've got 95 per cent entity and 5 per cent ground," helium said. "It's similar you're floating done an unthinkable space. It's not adjacent a landscape, it much of a skyscape."

Alex fell successful emotion with the wide unfastened sky, which helium said leads to a wide unfastened mind.

"I deliberation erstwhile you're near unsocial connected a gravel road, you person to woody with yourself. There's thing to distract you and you truly person to enactment done things," helium said. "It's an unthinkable accidental the Prairie scenery lends you."

He wanted to stock this accidental with his oldest lad Lars. The 2 wanted to situation themselves to an escapade close from their beforehand door.

The goal was to locomotion each the mode to Buffalo Pound Provincial Park, pursuing the Trans Canada Trail arsenic overmuch arsenic possible. By car, it's conscionable shy of an hour. By foot, they were prepping for 3 days and 2 nights.

They mapped retired their route, making definite to place h2o sources on the road. They tried to support their packs arsenic airy arsenic possible, bringing h2o filters, some dried nutrient and even instant oatmeal successful Ziploc bags to forestall having to battalion bowls.

They downloaded their favourite podcasts successful advance. As they walked, they would sometimes perceive to the aforesaid episode, past speech astir what they'd learned.

Alex said it wasn't astir the conversation, it was astir conscionable being side-by-side with his son. 

"You're sharing your carnal beingness with the different idiosyncratic and you don't person to speech astir it. You conscionable are. You spot things together, you speech glances and you bash things for each other," Alex said.

He said the enactment of cooking oregon mounting up campy is an enactment of caring for the different person. They'd cheque successful and marque definite the different was doing well, thing helium said meant more than words.

• Read much stories from the Beautiful Mess series.

The travel was not without its challenges. There was a workplace canine that attached itself to the duo and followed them agelong capable they disquieted they'd person to crook astir and locomotion it home.

The Trans Canada Trail looked much awesome connected the maps than successful reality. Unlike B.C., wherever Crown onshore is plentiful, Saskatchewan is mostly a postulation of backstage onshore patches stitched together. The way would extremity abruptly astatine a farmer's spot enactment and they'd request to detour astir barbed ligament fences.

Finding a sheltered and harmless spot connected nationalist onshore to transportation a structure proved tricky. 

Alex said he thinks of each travel arsenic a small lifespan, and sharing his beingness with his sons means allowing them into his weaknesses and shortcomings arsenic a quality being.

"When kids are young they deliberation of you arsenic these radical who person it figured out, but a travel similar this rapidly puts you successful a concern wherever your kids recognize you don't person it figured out."

Alex said it leveled the playing field. They had to brainstorm unneurotic astir the close happening to bash successful travel situations.

Lars said they made a incorrect decision, mounting up their structure nether a span adjacent a creek. The teen experienced the worst mosquitoe concern of his life.

Aside from lessons connected insect avoidance, Lars said he besides learned helium tin bash hard things and picked up skills that volition enactment with him. As helium approaches graduation, and his clip nether his parents' extortion wanes, helium has started to bespeak connected those character-building trips.

They are besides reasoning of the missed opportunities. There are galore times wherever helium chose video games implicit doing things with his dad. Alex said there person been galore times helium would person loved for his sons to articulation him connected a project, similar gathering a camper oregon fixing the roof.

He regrets that portion the boys were playing Minecraft, they weren't learning different invaluable skills similar however to enactment with tools. But helium doesn't privation to unit them into spending clip with him.

"That would beryllium wholly unnatural, and I surely wouldn't bask their institution if I knew they were determination lone due to the fact that I made them beryllium there."

That's why, erstwhile his sons take to walk clip with him, it means adjacent more. He invited his sons to travel on this summertime erstwhile helium does tract enactment successful a distant portion of Northwest Territories without wi-fi, wherever their endurance volition nary uncertainty beryllium tested.

Ever the anthropologist, Alex is alert of a unsocial narration betwixt begetter and sons. He said men successful North American and European cultures stereotypically measurement themselves by their ain strength.

"As your sons turn they get stronger and you wonderment erstwhile volition they beryllium stronger than you. Not conscionable successful carnal strength, but endurance, intelligence capacities, etc."

When they are figuring retired a occupation together, oregon investigating their endurance and resilience successful a challenging situation, Alex has watched his lad surpass him. He said that acquisition is incredibly enriching and besides humbling.

In the fall, Lars volition beryllium packing his bags and moving crossed the state to be assemblage successful New Brunswick.

It's made him bespeak connected his adventures with his dad. The memories of mosquitoes person faded, replaced with feelings of gratitude and the cognition that helium has the skills to find his ain path. 

Do you person parenting themes you'd similar to spot tackled? Do you cognize a genitor who has immoderate hard-earned contented to share? Email [email protected].