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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.



Rails to trails: A discussion of historical connections to old rail beds





India-Lyucknow, Woman carrying bowl on her head
Lucknow, India.
February, 2004


 


montreal-mont-royal-misty path
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.

 

walk dudeVishwawalkingwalk dude

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


camino shoes





"W
alking, 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) it is extremely popular.

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Here are the five most walkable cities in Canada in 2020, according to one source.

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Some explanations:

The "Vishwawalks"  and "Parks, etc." 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 the 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, the "Celebrated Pedestrian."

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.)
Matt and Pete at vanderwater"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."

globe
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 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



Moira river, sunset
Sunset, Moira River, below Vanderwater Park. November 2008

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Ice grass beside Nesowadnehunk Stream



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Ice grass, Nesowadnehunk Stream,

            Appalachian Trail, Maine.
            November, 2008
Page created: February 3, 2009
Updated: March 17, 2021