Catherine Schaap

Cathy Schaap lives on beautiful Prince Edward Island and currently represents PE Island Trails on the Boards of Directors of both Hike Canada en Marche and the Canadian Trails Federation.  She has been on the Board of Island Trails in various roles since about 2012.

PE Island Trails began in the early ‘90s as a rails to trails organization that lobbied for the transformation of former rail beds to trails. The resultant over 400 km Confederation Trail is now part of the Trans Canada Trail system.  More recently Island Trails (www.islandtrails.ca) has been the provincial advocate for non-motorized trail use and has developed, or been instrumental in the development of, 10 woodland trails and the Island Walk (a 700 km route around PEI https://theislandwalk.ca). 

Hiking or “walking in the bush” was part of Cathy’s childhood and has continued to be an important activity for her.  She enjoys hiking on trails, beaches, rural roads, mountain meadows and undeveloped routes – sometimes known as “bushwhacking”.  At times hiking morphs into back packing, snow shoeing or skiing!  Her favourite hiking occurs in the mountains above the tree line.