Our Volunteers
Five decades on the trail:
Bill Snel’s volunteer journey with the Bruce Trail
In 1977, Bill Snel helped organize the Sydenham Club’s first end-to-end hike, a tradition he supports to this day
When Bill Snel moved to Owen Sound in 1974, he had no idea he would dedicate over five decades to building and sustaining one of Ontario’s most cherished hiking communities. Yet this volunteer has become one of the longest-serving members of Bruce Trail’s Sydenham group, shaping the club from its modest beginnings to its current prominence.
Snel’s volunteer journey began almost immediately after his arrival. A numbers person by training, having worked in banking and computers, he was a natural fit for the treasurer’s role on the Board of Directors. “I said I’d be willing to be treasurer,” he recalls. “It turned out I had to be secretary too.” What started as a straightforward administrative position evolved into something far more significant: a five-decade commitment to preserving and promoting the trail that has defined his life.
In the early days, the Sydenham Club was tiny—he estimates half to two-thirds of members lived in the Greater Toronto Area, supporting the club from afar. There was only one organized hike per month, usually coordinated with rented buses and a handful of dedicated volunteers. It was family-oriented hiking at its best: Bill and wife Audrey’s four young children would charge ahead on the trail while they kept a watchful eye, teaching them early to read the blazes and navigate with confidence.
The First End-to-End
One major accomplishment was in 1977, when Bill and the club’s executive made a decision to attempt an end-to-end hike of the Sydenham section of the Bruce Trail over Labour Day weekend. “We thought we could handle it in three days,” he explains. Without cell phones or modern communication, coordination was a challenge. But Snel was also a member of the CB radio club, which stepped in to arrange real-time communications between hikers and support checkpoints. That first end-to-end drew 39 people, he recalls. For the Thanksgiving weekend, they decided to hold another end-to-end for the eight volunteers who had managed the Labour Day event and had not been able to participate themselves.
What should have been a modest affair turned into a legendary tale of determination. Heavy rain poured all night before the hike, and most people withdrew. But three committed volunteers—including Bill—set out anyway. One dropped out after lunch with knee problems. Another was so stiff getting out of bed on Sunday morning that he couldn’t continue. That left Bill to hike the last two days of the weekend alone, through waterlogged trails.
“I ended up walking in water ankle-deep in places I’ve never seen water before or since,” he recalls. One treasured memory is of the two volunteers who met him at noon on Thanksgiving Monday with a card table, a chair, and a homemade Swiss steak dinner served by the trail.
Building Community
The end-to-end became an annual tradition, with Snel involved in managing logistics, records, and details. He and wife Audrey also organized a full Bruce Trail hike in 1983-1984, breaking it into weekend-long sections with their four children in tow. Those tenting hikes were enjoyed by all. Later, he stepped into the role of Sydenham club representative to the Bruce Trail Conservancy, attending meetings in Hamilton.
Through the 1980s—a turbulent period when the creation of the Niagara Escarpment Commission’s sparked landowner disputes—Snel kept things moving forward. He wrote the club newsletter and when computers became available, he applied his technical background, eventually computerizing the end-to-end records from 1977 to 2000.
After moving to Guelph for work in the early 2000s, Snel stepped back from active leadership but continued hiking when he could. Upon retiring in 2009, he returned to Owen Sound and quickly resumed his volunteer efforts, though he initially resisted being pulled back into formal positions. “I said I’d take a year or two to see how things work,” he recalls. But the pull of the trail and community proved irresistible.
An Enduring Legacy
Today, well into his senior years, Snel still leads or co-organizes multiple hikes each month. He maintains meticulous records—who participates, which sections are hiked, what challenges emerged. He recently organized the 2025 end-to-end event, which unexpectedly sold out in just seven minutes.
“I feel if I stop at my age, it’s very difficult to get started again,” he explains as his philosophy. “As long as I keep it up, things keep rolling along.” Many of the original volunteers from the early days have passed away.
He admits he’s “a bit of a badge hound” with 150 badges from the Bruce Trail and other trails displayed on two boards, and another 50 or so older badges not on display, because he can’t remember the year they were earned.
Bill Snel’s five decades of quiet, steady work— the organized hikes, the hiking community, his Board commitments — represent his legacy. Today, the Sydenham Club’s long network of trails, dozens of monthly guided hikes, and large local hiking community have built upon his efforts along with the support of his wife, Audrey and those other early volunteers. He showed up, offered his skills, and never really left.
That’s the real end-to-end: not a single trail covered in one weekend, but a lifetime invested in keeping the Bruce Trail alive for everyone who walks it.