[Hyack]

The Olympic Flame will travel more than 45,000 kilometres across Canada — some by land, air and water; and some by other means. During its journey towards Vancouver, the Olympic Flame will pass by some of the most pristine and stunning landscapes in the world. And at each turn and twist in the path to the Olympic Games, excited Canadians and visitors will gather to share in the experience. It is here, at the heart of Canadian communities, that our nation will celebrate the 2010 Olympic Winter Games with glowing hearts.

The national relay route will link together over 1,000 communities and places of interest. In order to share the experience with as many Canadians as possible, and to include as many communities as possible, the Olympic Flame will be carried by torchbearers in the more populous centres and transported between communities.

Follow the flame’s journey across Canada on an interactive map featuring daily coverage, profiles, photos and videos:

Olympic Torch Relay Interactive Map

Simon Whitfield and Catriona Le May Doan start 2010 Olympic torch relay

[Hyack]

2010 Olympic torch relay's 45,000-km route



The relay will spend a total of 27 days on the West Coast and will include stops in picturesque Tofino, the Kootenay Pass —where it will reach its highest point, at 1,770 metres.

Following its start in Victoria, the torch relay will head to the Far North, to within 900 kilometres of the North Pole. It will then make its way to North America's eastern tip, at Cape Spear near St. John's, and then head westward, across Canada.

The torch will also pass through former Olympic host cities Calgary and Montreal. It will travel 1,000 kilometres by water, 18,000 kilometres by air and 26,000 kilometres on land.

It will eventually end up in Vancouver in February 2010, and be lit in the Olympic Cauldron during the opening ceremony.

[Canadaka]

It is a pretty crazy route, a good showcase of all regions of Canada.
Thats awesome its going all the away to Alert, heh

[QBC]

It's here in Grande Prairie on November 6th. It's going to run around town a bit, 9 runners I think, then a big celebration in Muskoseepi Park.

[coltsrmint2]

The people in Alert, all 56 of them or so are going to have a great time that night...Lucky bastards.....

[QBC]

Canadaka Canadaka:

It is a pretty crazy route, a good showcase of all regions of Canada.
Thats awesome its going all the away to Alert, heh

I looked on Google Earth at Alert, looks like they've opened a Walmart up there, They'll go anywhere....

[Alta_redneck]

We have to wait until Jan 16, it'll probably be -30

[coltsrmint2]

It must be a pretty tough place to go, that walmart up there...Here is the door man....

[coltsrmint2]

Just to let you guys know. That is actually the mother of the pack of wolves in Alert. There were 13 total when I left there last summer (July 2008)

[Hyack]

Olympic torch relay gets Halloween treatment in Ladysmith, B.C.

$1:

LADYSMITH, B.C. - Hundreds of children and adults dressed as ghouls, goblins, anteaters and coal miners, all lit by a Halloween full moon, greeted Olympic torchbearers in this Vancouver Island community on Saturday.

Chanting "Go Canada Go" and singing "O'Canada," Ladysmith residents were in a festive mood as the relay for the 2010 Vancouver Olympics stopped in their town.

One mother said she put trick-or-treating on hold because her kids were more excited about the torch than Halloween.

Outside of a local Royal Canadian Legion branch, about 10 people were dressed up like coal miners to welcome the torch and party the night away.

"There's a whole shift of us," said Floyd Reynolds, his face painted black and wearing a hard hat complete with a miners light.

Ladysmith is known as one of Vancouver Island's historic coal mining towns.

The torch was scheduled to end its second day with a large community celebration in Nanaimo.

The relay ahead of the 2010 Vancouver Winter Olympics started in Victoria on Friday, beginning a 106-day relay that will visit more than a thousand communities by the time it arrives at the opening ceremonies on Feb. 12.

Earlier on Saturday, torchbearers ran, rolled and even flew through several Vancouver Island towns.

The flame visited the Fort Rodd Hill national historic site in Colwood, located west of Victoria, where it was welcomed by members of the Royal Canadian Legion, the 5th B.C. Field Regiment's brass band and spectators dressed in military period dress.

Jeff Hollands, one of 120 veterans carrying the torch, rode his wheelchair to Fort Rodd Hill, the site of a 19th-century coast artillery fort.

"What an honour to represent my country," said Hollands. "It was just an unbelievable experience."

Hollands said he trained for his leg on the relay by lifting milk jugs.

Sixteen-year-old Annie Ewart, an aspiring road racer who competed in the Canada Games in Prince Edward Island last summer, is one of several cyclists to carry the torch.

"It was really cool," she said. "It was awesome to be able to take the torch while riding my bike."

The torch won't just be carried by foot as it follows the winding relay route through all of Canada's provinces and territories and into the Far North, with relay organizers including several so-called "alternate modes of transportation."

The torch was paddled across a lake by a team of Olympic rowers on its first day, and later on Saturday it was flown by seaplane.

On Sunday, it will be carried on a skateboard and on a logging truck.

And as it travels through Canada's North, it will be pulled by dogsled, moved along the snow on a polar bear skin also pulled by a dog, and transported on an Inuit kayak.

In Duncan, about 60 kilometres north of Victoria, hundreds of people lined both sides of a street near the community's historic downtown train station to cheer on the Olympic torchbearers.

Virginia Szabo draped herself in a huge Canadian flag that looked like a cape as her brother Jared ran past her carrying the Olympic torch.

Jared's mother, Lori Robb-Szabo, said her son could barely contain his emotions.

"Hyped. Absolutely hyped," she said.

Robb-Szabo said her son is a sports nut who was chosen by his employer, B.C. Hydro, to carry the torch.

The Olympic flame arrived in Canada on Friday after it was lit in Greece and ran around that country for a week. It was ignited in the ruins of an ancient temple in Olympia and handed over to Canadians in Athens.

The relay route is 45,000 kilometres, making it the longest domestic relay in Olympic history, and it will be for many Canadians the only chance to experience the Games in person.

The first day of the relay was capped by a protest involving several hundred people in downtown Victoria on Friday night, forcing security officials to divert the route and cancel the runs of several torchbearers.

[Hyack]

Tofino surfers carry Olympic flame



I had to make sure this picture was included or TattoodGirl would never forgive me.....

[Hyack]

2010 Olympic torch relay warms up Yukon village



OLD CROW, Yukon - The 2010 Olympic torch warmed up this frigid Arctic community Wednesday as it was carried into a town celebration on a dogsled.

[Hyack]

The 2010 Olympic Torch Relay makes a stop in Dawson City, Yukon as crowd gather to greet and cheer the arrival of the flame

[Hyack]

Kuglutuk Elder at the Kuglutuk Airport.

[ridenrain]

Toronto party voters if I ever saw them.
Thanks for the Nothern postings.