If you’re an outdoors lover living in Atlantic Canada, chances are that you’ve heard the name Michael Haynes.
Michael is Canada’s most published author of trail guides and was a leading authority on trail development and active transportation. More than that, though, he was a passionate advocate for getting outdoors and enjoying all that nature has to offer and an inspiration for countless people to do just that.
“Michael’s enthusiasm for hiking, and for making it accessible to everyone, always shone through in his books and every conversation I had with him,” says Alan Sheppard, Goose Lane’s Managing Editor. “He was a real pleasure to work with, whether it was finessing the fine details on a map or hearing his trail reports after he’d been conducting fieldwork. I will miss him greatly.”
When we first met Michael through Hostelling Nova Scotia over 30 years ago, he was keeping his own notes on local hiking trails simply to share with family and friends. We encouraged him to share his expertise and observations with others, and together, in 1995, we published Hiking Trails of Nova Scotia, 7th Edition.
“Michael Haynes was one of kind – determined, ambitious, a perfectionist about the accuracy of the information, and a visionary who was intent on bringing improvements to each new book,” says Susanne Alexander, Publisher at Goose Lane Editions. “He hiked every trail that he included in his books and often took on multiple roles, particularly in the early days, as researcher, writer, cartographer, and photographer.”
Over the following decades, we worked closely with Michael as his love of hiking took him across every province, on countless adventures that led to more than sixteen guidebooks, resulting from hiking thousands of kilometers of trails. Michael also became a regular contributor to CBC Radio, where he talked about trails and the beauty of nature with such genuine passion that it was impossible not to catch.
Michael’s legacy looms large. His contributions to trail guide literature have been massive and his books have encouraged thousands to take the trails.
Michael was an icon in the world of outdoor recreation, but it was more than just his impressive accolades that made him so respected. He was kind, caring, and uniquely gifted with inspiring people to connect with nature.
“He was funny,” says Shauna Deathe, Goose Lane’s Publicity and Social Media Coordinator. “He was so, so funny. We would refer to our calls as ‘The Michael Haynes Show’; he had so many incredible stories about his adventures, from the beautiful places he’d been around the world to the chaos of some of his more poorly planned escapades.”
Michael Haynes will be dearly missed but his memory will forever live on in every trail he ventured down, every path he explored, and every outdoor enthusiast he inspired and will continue to inspire for generations to come.
