
Lucknow, India.
February,
2004

A Misty path on Mont Royal, Montreal, on a rainy day.
February 27, 2009
Cool
page: Talking Walking, a site that
highlights people who use walking to inspire them in
their work and in life.
Some other cool stuff:
Remember Laurie Anderson? Here's a YouTube of her spacy
song "Walking Falling."
Too out there? Try Robert Johnson from the 1920s playing
"Walking
Blues."
***
Of
course, no walking site is complete without a reference to Monty
Python's Ministry of Silly Walks skit. View it
here . Remember
to take notes.
***
The text of Thoreau's "Walking" is such a classic that I have
included the full text on this site.Check out my notes. They
are ongoing, but at this point the early sections are
extensive.
Credits:
One of the irritating aspects of the Internet is the
unacknowledged borrowing that goes on.
I try to acknowledge sources and provide appropriate
links. Unless clearly noted, all writing is original to this
site. Please, if you use any of this material, acknowledge
me (Peter R. Snell) or the credited writer if it is
not me, and vishwawalking.ca. Photos without credits were
taken by me.
Many thanks.
|
Vishwawalking
The
Peripatetic
Perambulations of Poncho Pete (and Other Diversions)
Some parts of this site will
forever be unfinished. Its pages are constructed as strolls,
which means some sections are not as easy to get at as
others.
Happy
vishwawalking! - Peter
R. Snell
"Walking, ideally is a state in which the mind, the
body and the world are aligned, as though they were three
characters finally in conversation together, three notes suddenly
making a chord. Walking allows us to be in our bodies and in the
world without being made busy by them." - Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust
(p. 5)
To access information on trails
I have described (mostly in southern Ontario), click on the
"Vishwawalks" or "Parks, etc." links on the toolbar.
From late April to mid-June,
2015, I walked the Camino de Santiago in Spain, including the
extended bits west of Santiago to Finisterre and Muxia and
the sea, about 900 kilometres of trail in all.
It's cross-country skiing time in my neck of the woods in
Central Ontario, Canada. The conditions are now perfect
(February, 2021). Left: a three-story apartment
for squirrels, insects and other residents of Vanderwater
Park south of Tweed.

Radical Walking
Every dedicated walker has sometimes felt that their
addiction was viewed as a crime. Taking a shortcut through
someone's private property one might meet with the outraged
"owner" of a large tract of land. I scare quote "owner"
because I lean to the native belief that no one can really own
land. We can be caretakers and as walkers we must
be caretakers of any land we walk upon.
If some of this sounds familiar, you're part of a tradition
that stretches back hundreds of years. "Whether in cities or the country,
we are now in effect poachers in privatised space," concludes
Donna Landry in an essay titled "Radical Walking."
She mentions 18th-century walker Foster Powell (right), who
walked 402 miles in fives days, amongst other feats.
A cartoon of Foster Powell.This
image is from a delightful collection of images of and writings about
quirky characters in The Book of Wonderful Characters,
published in 1869.
Finlo Rohr has written an excellent piece connecting
walking with thinking, wandering, getting lost (in a good
sense), writing, philosophy and the like. It's a BBC piece
called "The slow
death of purposeless walking" (May 1, 2014).
Algonquin Park, Ontario
I walked the Highlands
Backpacking Trail in one day on August 21, 2013. It's a
35-kilometre trail in Algonquin Park, but with the extensions it
ended up as a 40-kilometre walk for me. Read my report here. I have also posted my late September
walk in Algonquin's Eastern Pines Backpacking Trail.
In the spring of 2013, I walked the first 200 miles of the
southern section of the Appalachian
Trail, from Amicalola Falls State Park (the approach
trail at the south end) to the start of the trail on Springer
Mountain (both in Georgia), then on to to Clingmans Dome just
inside the border of Tennessee, with North Carolina to the
south. I've completed a description of the approach trail and
the first 60 miles. See here for my Appalachian
page
Some politics...
Here's a piece from the Knoxville Daily Sun
describing cutbacks to the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and
similar parks across the U.S.
 Of course Trump's legacy has only made matters worse. It's killing a thriving tourist
industry and depriving millions of Americans of a cheap and
healthy way to relax.
A view of the Blue Ridge Mountains from Rocky Bald on the
Appalachian trail (127.5
miles from Springer Mountain).
A photo cannot do justice to the breathtaking
splendour of these mountains. After hours of exhausting
trekking, the top of
a mountain is reached and there is an opening in the trail's
forest canopy. You
cannot fail to be awestruck by the grandeur of these ancient
hills. Photo: June 5, 2013
In Canada, the federal government and the Ontario
provincial government (and likely other provinces) slashed
programs around 20212 and budgets have never really recovered. (See this Globe and Mail report for federal park cuts and this Toronto Star article for Ontario park cuts back in 2012. )
Same end effect: a nasty jab at affordable recreation for the
middle and lower classes, a devastating kick at the livelihood of
tourist operators, and the elimination of hundreds of research
programs, youth programs and the like to generally lower our
standard of living. False thrift. Governments have backed off these cuts somewhat since then.

Camping in the air. This is from the Daily Mail. Slackwalking and now
camping on nets and ropes is definitely out there! Take a stroll
with nothing but 420 feet of air between you and the desert sand.
Camping
on nets and wires in Moab, Utah. The feat took
twelve daredevils to haul up the supporting ropes.
Daily mail photo by Andy Lewis

"But the slightest rise and fall in the road,- a mossy bank at
the side of a crag of chalk, with brambles overhanging it,- a
ripple over three or four stones in the stream by the
bridge,- above all, a wild bit of ferny ground under a fir or
two, looking as if, possibly, one might see a hill if one got
to the other side of the trees, will instantly give me intense
delight, because the shadow, or the hope, of hills is in them.
— John Ruskin, The Mountain
Glory
Study of Gneiss Rock, Glenfinlas, 1853, Ashmolean Museum,
Oxford, England. Pen and Ink and wash with Chinese ink on
paper. Photo: From John Ruskin Wikopedia page.
Vanderwater Park,
near Thomasburg, Ontario is my "home park." This ice and water pictorial essay of a little
seasonal falls and creek that flows in the park, eventually
pouring into the Moira River, describes one of my favourite
haunts.

This
might not technically be walking, but it's known as "wing walking." Pretty crazy stuff. A
professional wing walker died in late June 2013 when the plane
she was performing on crashed.
Photo:
from
the Daily Mail (see link above).

Nude Hiking
I can't have a front page
without regular news on nude hiking. (See Interesting
tales
for
past
stories concerning hikers who get a charge out of walking in
the buff in Germany and elsewhere.
You have to read the forums. Here's a sample: "I
left my house this morning wearing only my trusty loincloth/kilt and
my VFFs [Vibram
Five Fingers, a type of "barefoot" shoe]. The loin
cloth must be passing muster with my fellow Bostonians on my local
trails, as several people, men and women alike, pulled me aside
today and started chatting with me about my VFFs, how do I like?
etc."
They're embarrassed so they're looking at your feet,
Bud.
Stephen Gough trudged across
Britain starkers. In October, 2014,
the European Court of Human Rights rejected
his bid to get them to support his claim that his rights are
being transgressed.
 He has spent an incredible amount of
time in prison for his efforts. See this June 19, 2013 Guardian
article for details on his latest jailing.
In February, 2013, the courts ordered him to cover up, but
he obviously didn't abide.
Prudery, attention-getting, psychological warts and so on aside,
it's more about the right to be eccentric. The Brits, of all
nations are experts at that. After 2016, personal commitments have cut back Stephen's naked walnderings and he's dropped out of the news.
Stephen Gough hiking in Scotland. See the full Guardian (link to the
left) article for more. Photo from the Guardian site.
June 21 is naked hiking day in the United States. Think I'll pass. Just saying.
Of course, if you meet a naked hiker, depending upon your gender,
it could be unsettling. Here's a woman who has some advice if you
meet a naked hiker on the Appalachian, or any trail for that
matter: Six
safety tips a naked hiker taught me.
News
Texting
and
walking - not a good idea.
Texting and walking is more dangerous than listening to music or taking a call. In some provinces and states you can be ticketed for it.
.
Time
to walk faster. Some studies indicate that older people who walk slowly will die earlier than
those of the same age who walk faster. A 2012 report linked slower walking
with a greater chance of getting dementia in later years.
On the other hand, some claim that walking
slower burns more calories. Be careful here: an often-cited
University of Colorado report by Ray Browning actually makes a
more subtle point, which is that obese people who may like
walking at a more leisurely pace will make more strides within a
weight-loss management program than if they push themselves.
***

Some
explanations:
The
"Vishwawalks" and "Day walks" links to the left
will lead you to the walks I have chronicled so far.
The former are
generally long-distance trails (which I break down
into day walks) and the latter are parks and more
contained trails.
The trails
listed are mostly local to central Ontario where
I live. I trust this will expand with time.
Some parks are more
than day walks and some shorter trails can be
done in a day; check them both out.
For those who are a
little more daring, check out my "Get Lost" link to
the left. Follow the links and you'll find my
investigation of abandoned buildings and the like.
(These adventures are not for the timid.)
The
site map page has a standard index that may help. A list of
towns near trails and parks may also help.
"Funky places" will lead you to some great
not-so-mainstream places to wander around.
"Future walks" is an ongoing exercise in which I build up
information on walks I have not yet taken. In this section
I am presently checking out a 19th-century book by C.G.
Harper, tracking his travels through England and
adding more contemporary information.
***
Interesting
tales
Stories and links that have
graced the front page in the past can be
found here. Cool walking sites, mechanical
legs, naked hikers, we'll keep you posted.
World walkers: It seems that many world
walkers either weary of their walks or weary of the
business of updating their websites. A casual stroll
through several world-walker sites reveal bold plans,
but no clue as to whether they were completed. Still,
have a look at the sites of Hawk McGuinness, and Jean Beliveau as well as the walkers in the column
to the right. Amazing stuff.
|
World
walkers:
Karl
Bushby started walking around the world in November 1998. A year
ago he was on the border of Turkmesnistan and Iran. Not sure where he
is today. here is a description of his joys and woes, along with other world walkers.
Captain
Robert
Barclay-Allardice, 1779-1854, the Celebrated Pedestrian.
He once walked 1,000 miles in 1,000 hours — a walker
to be reckoned with. Peter Radford has a book about
him called The
Celebrated Captain Barclay, Headline Books
Publishing, London, 2001. Check out this Guardian Review of the book.
(Photo from the Wikipedia website: Photo by Robert Adamson
and
David Octavius Hill in
the National Galleries of Scotland. Check out the
Wikipedia links about the artists; they're a
fascinating pair.)
|
"I
have
met with
but one or two persons in the course of my life who
understood the art of Walking, that is, of taking
walks - who had a genius, so to speak, for sauntering,
which word is beautifully derived "from idle people
who roved about the country, in the Middle Ages, and
asked charity, under pretence of going a
la Sainte Terre,"
to
the Holy Land, till the children exclaimed, "There
goes a Sainte-Terrer,"
a
Saunterer, a Holy-Lander. They who never go to
the Holy Land in their walks, as they pretend, are
indeed mere idlers and vagabonds; but they who do go
there are saunterers in the good sense, such as I
mean."
— Henry
David
Thoreau
Left
to right: Matt Snell and Peter R. Snell,
Vanderwater Park, Ontario. Photo: Carol Snell,
October, 2008
|
Vishwa
(or vishva) is Hindi for "world."
Hence, "worldwalking."
This
site is a chronicle of rambles, both long and short.
There is a section on odd or out-of-the way sites of
interest. You will find various ruminations on the art of
walking and some practical information that will make
walks more fun. There's lots of impractical stuff too, to
keep things lively.
Vishwawalking is both the physical act of walking and the
mental act of dreaming an exotic walk. I make no apologies
for the wordiness here; this is not a find-it-fast
website.
The planned walks I have not
done outstrip the ones I have chronicled. It's a game: the
virtual trips unfold until there's nothing for it but to
attempt it in reality.
Both virtual and real trips are always works in progress.
Real walks need to be taken with a care for observation;
virtual walks are a meander through endless sources. They
too should never be rushed.
The larger dream: just as road maps connect highways and
backroads, so "vishwamaps" could connect walking routes in
a fantastic web across nations around the world. |
There
is
an opportunity here for those who are willing to take the
road less travelled to find attractions that are not
in many guidebooks.
Vishwawalking can be undertaken by anyone with a love for
walking, whether it be a quick half hour at lunch or four
months on the Appalachian Trail. Its more particular
meaning involves creating walking "threads," which I
describe here.
"We
should
go forth on the shortest walk, perchance, in the spirit
of adventure, never to return, — prepared to send back
our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate
kingdoms."
—Thoreau

Sunset, Moira
River, below Vanderwater Park. November 2008 |
Walter Benjamin, in
One-Way Street (1923-26):
"The
power of a country road when one is walking along it is
different from the power it has when one is flying over it by
airplane. In the same way, the power of a text when it is read
is different from the power it has when it is copied out.
"The airplane passenger sees only
how the road pushes through the landscape, how it unfolds
according to the same laws as the terrain surrounding it. Only
he who walks the road on foot learns the power it commands, and
of how, from the very scenery that for the flier is only the
unfurled plain, it calls forth distances, belvederes, clearings,
prospects at each of its turns like a commander deploying
soldiers at a front. Only the copied text thus commands the soul
to him who is occupied with it, whereas the mere reader never
discovers new aspects of his inner self that are opened by the
text, that road cut through the interior jungle forever closing
behind it: because the reader follows the movement of his mind
in the free flight of daydreaming, whereas the copier submits it
to command. The Chinese practice of copying books was thus an
incomparable guarantee of literary culture, and the transcript a
key to China's enigmas."
I am walking; it is enough.


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Ice grass, Nesowadnehunk Stream,
Appalachian Trail, Maine.
November, 2008
Page created:
February 3, 2009
Updated: February 25, 2021
|