Kerry Pakarinen and his dog, Preacher, were in Toronto yesterday on their walk across Canada. (Ernest Doroszuk, Sun Media)

Kerry Pakarinen has worn out 15 pairs of shoes in a walk across Canada with his dog Preacher.

The pair, who cover 40 km a day, are on the second leg of their cross-country journey to raise awareness of homelessness.

Pakarinen pushes a makeshift cart with about 300 pounds worth of supplies and his faithful friend follows alongside on a leash. They've mostly been travelling along the shoulder of the Trans-Canada Highway.

"A good buddy to have along on the trail for sure," Pakarinen said of Preacher yesterday during a stop in St. James Park at King and Church Sts. in downtown Toronto, where the two slept the night before in Pakarinen's tent.

After leaving Vancouver on July 23, 2008, Pakarinen and Preacher, a 16-month-old mastiff, arrived on Dec. 6, 2008, in Dryden, Ont. There, they took a break to stay with Pakarinen's mom to help on her farm. In September 2009, they resumed their journey.

On Friday night, man and dog arrived in Toronto and spent the night in the park before hitting the road again yesterday afternoon. The pair will be walking through the winter to the East Coast, a journey Pakarinen expects to take another two months.

"I make my own meals," Pakarinen said. "If I'm on the road, I like open doors. I'll make a nice warm fire, sit beside it, listen to the birds chirp or the people yelling, whatever."

Pakarinen spent 12 years on the streets of Vancouver after getting hooked on prescription painkillers after surgery to fix a sciatic nerve. Before that, he had a renovation and landscaping business in Winnipeg but drugs like oxycodone and morphine got in the way, and when he kicked those, depression set in before he ended up in Vancouver.

"I wandered out there and I shook my head and said, what am I depressed about?" Pakarinen said. "Because there are tons more people who go through hell and a half acre, you know -- everybody has their war stories."

Pakarinen was once married and has three grown kids, April, 26, Shannon, 24, and Christopher, 22. He said his kids support his walk across the country. "They're very intelligent people," he said.

Pakarinen, who grew up in Wabigoon, near Dryden, said he'll return there after he completes his walk. But for now he can't help but notice how cold the locals are in Toronto.

"Coming through the west, I found that more interesting. It's beautiful scenery and the people seem to be, I don't know, different. They were decent folks, the ones I came across. They could appreciate what I was doing. There would be folks along the highway bringing us supper, you know, or just sitting around a campfire having a talk," Pakarinen said. "Here it's 2.5 million people who don't want to know anybody."

BRETT.CLARKSON@SUNMEDIA.CA