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Towns Along the Way
An index of some towns near trails and parks that I've described.
My Interesting Tales page has old front page items. Dated but still interesting.
About Us
Vishwawalking explained
Ratings ExplainedVishwawalks
Parks, etc.
Funky Places
Future walks
Food
Gear and Health
Get Lost
Good reads
Links
Plants - Animals
Right to Ramble
Site map
Contact us
Towns Along the Way
An index of some towns near trails and parks that I've described.
My Interesting Tales page has old front page items. Dated but still interesting.
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)
To access information on trails I have described (mostly in southern Ontario), click on the "Vishwawalks" or "Parks, etc." links on the toolbar.This site uses ancient technology. That's just the way it is.
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)
On the Camino de Santiago, Spain, May, 2015.
The main trail is 900 kilometres from the start in France
to the sea.
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. Vanderwater Park has been underused for many years. Today, in the midst of the pandemic (March, 2021) is is extremely popular.
|
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. 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."
 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 impossible 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 |
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Ice grass, Nesowadnehunk Stream,
Appalachian Trail, Maine.
November, 2008
November, 2008
Page created:
February 3, 2009
Updated: March 17, 2021
Updated: March 17, 2021