Monday, May 3, 2010

Walking is sexy too

 I love walking. I would walk everywhere if I could. Just me and my feet.No equipment needed. The benefits of walking are numerous.One of my favorite things to do is ride my bike to a park and then go for a hike. Being a carfree blog, most of the posts here tend to be about cycling for transportation, but walking is the easiest way to travel.

Walking is the slowest too. If you are not in a hurry it may be your ideal way to move. When I walk I usually carry a small backpack. I wear loose fitting comfortable clothes. The same shoes as I do when I bike for transportation-Keen sandals in the Spring, Summer, and Fall, and hiking boots in the Winter or when I am on hikes in the woods.

Thomas Jefferson, who suffered from depression, said he felt the best when he walked three hours a day. Walking is indeed the best medicine one can take.
Fun, free, simple. Walking is the most natural way to move.

My love of walking/ hiking stems from my first hiking trip in Colorado as a child. In my twenties, I picked up a book, The Complete Walker, by Colin Fletcher. If you have not read this book, actually it is more of a guide for hikers and the type of equipment that is best to use on a hiking trip, you should go out and buy it now! His style of writing is fun, humorous, direct, and wraps around a genuine love for walking. He died a few years ago, most believe his life was cut short after he was struck from behind  by a car while he was on a walk. He recovered, but was never the same because of the head injury sustained and died a few years later. Whether your a walker, hiker, bicycle tourist who camps, you will benefit from reading his book.

In my opinion life is best lived at the pace of the walker. Secondly as a touring cyclist. Lastly in mass transit. I feel I waste life/time if I am in a car.
                                                                 So, go for a walk.
There is nothing like walking to get the feel of a country. A fine landscape is like
a piece of music; it must be taken at the right tempo. Even a bicycle goes too fast.
- Paul Scott  Mower

I have two doctors, my left leg and my right.
- G. M. Trevelyan

All truly great thoughts are conceived by walking.
- Friedrich Nietzsche

Walking would teach people the quality that youngsters
find so hard to learn - patience.
- Edward P. Weston


Peace, Bill

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