West Kelowna man, 92, says walking and his dog keep him going after wife passes – West Kelowna News
Walks, dog keep him young
Photo: Dudley Booth
Dudley Booth and his dog Loki have walked nearly 7,000 kilometres together.
A West Kelowna man and his dog are still walking their way across Canada, virtually of course.
Dudley Booth turned 92 this past January and despite losing his wife Wilda in December of 2023 he hasn’t stopped walking.
“She would have been 88 in the middle of April, yeah, a whole new life situation but walking with the pup we have conversations along the way, he’s great.”
Booth says his daughter lives just ten minutes away so he sees her and her husband and children a few times a week but his dog, Loki, is his main companion now.
Booth and the 13-year-old dog get out for a walk almost every day and are now just 30 kilometres short of reaching 7,000 kilometres walked.
Booth says he started walking when he first got Loki as a puppy many years ago.
“Every day that we go for a walk, I create a new map showing how far we’ve gone.”
Booth says he began pretending years ago that he was walking east on the Trans-Canada Highway and he made it as as far Truro Nova Scotia.
Since then he’s started pretending that he is walking west towards Vancouver. He’s made it that far and is now closing in on Port Hardy, “it’s a continuation of how the phone keeps track of how far I walk and so I’m just 40 kilometres from Port Hardy and so I got about 32 kilometres to go to get the 7000.”
Booth says he thinks staying active, having goals and a walking buddy have helped him live a long and healthy life.
“I love to do that and it might encourage some old timers to get out walking,” says Booth.
He studies every place he stops and has learned a great deal about Canada by doing his virtual tours. His next goal is to take the ferry to Prince Rupert and then follow Highway 16 to see what he can see.
“I’ll do the Prince Rupert route digitally needless to say, there’s only one road that goes east on Highway 16 and we’re gonna follow that and see how far we get,” Booth says.
