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Backpacking Light

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You are here: Home / News / Essays and Commentary / Why I Walk

Why I Walk

by Ben Kilbourne on September 15, 2020 Essays and Commentary, New Features

I pull my truck into a packed trailhead across the street from the Hogle Zoo in Salt Lake City, park, and again look at my phone. I check my messages, scroll briefly through Instagram again, and then turn it off and tuck it under the seat. It’s four-thirty in the afternoon and I’m feeling a sleepiness only caffeine, napping, or walking can fix. English tea time. Spanish siesta. Utah amble.

Why I walk : The Author on the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Salt Lake City

On a daily walk along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in Salt Lake City.

Phoneless, I exit the vehicle, check the doors, pocket the keys, and step slowly up a dry, rocky trail between scrub oak. I do this, or something like it almost every day—a ceremony of leaving everything behind except for my body and mind. But a part of me always protests. A part of me could keep working, checking messages and email perpetually, but it’s the slipperiness of this inclination that I don’t trust and which I have to make an effort to resist. So, I walk.

As my heart starts pumping and my breath becomes more labored, all the things I’ve been avoiding rush through me along with my quickened blood. The problem I’ve been unable to solve. The interpersonal interactions that could have been better. What I could have said, what I still can say, what I should have done, what I still can do. Planning, anger, rumination, grief. Those first thirty minutes are allocated for feeling these things. And then things (usually) quiet down. This is why I walk.

One foot falls in front of the other, falls in front of the other, falls in front of the other. The warm May sunlight and cool breeze together land on my skin, replacing some rumination over which I have no control. The burning in my calves as the trail steepens replaces the desire to finish a project that will be on hold for at least as long as I commit to walking through the hills. Buds are starting to emerge from the gamble oak, and the big yellow flowers of the arrowleaf balsamroot spring from the nothing of winter and carpet the round hills. The rhythm of my lungs filling and emptying, my heart beating, and the cadence of my feet produce what Rebecca Solnit in her book Wanderlust calls “a delicate balance between working and idling, being and doing. It is a bodily experience that produces nothing but thoughts, experiences, arrivals.”

But, while idling seems to replace working, and being seems to replace doing, I’m inadvertently becoming more productive as an internal sorting occurs. And not arbitrarily productive. Thoughts rinse through the rain of walking, sorting in the sieve of walking, and when the dust runs from them as mud and the gravel refuse falls on that tailing pile of ruminations, and the water falls away, I look down to find gems sitting there clear, shining, obvious. I’m giving myself the space to find what really matters.

Why is walking so effective in this regard, and for how long has it had this function?

Why I walk: Arrowleaf Balsamroot

Arrowleaf balsamroot along the Bonneville Shoreline Trail in the foothills of Salt Lake City.

There doesn’t seem to be much consensus on when or why early hominids started walking upright. The Savannah-based Theory points to a shift from forest to grasslands in Africa, a result of climate change, and the need for apes to stand up and see over the tall grass. Others say standing upright kept us cooler, with the sun striking less of our body as we scurried between trees. The (possibly sexist) provisioning model says that bipedalism was a result of the male being sent out to get food and bringing it back in his arms, becoming the sole provider for an essentially immobile female. Other theories suggest that walking upright is simply more efficient than moving on all fours, a theory that finds some favor in Prescott, Arizona’s Man Against Horse Race, where Nick Coury outran a horse over the course of 50 miles (80 kilometers) in 2019. The idea is that when we started hunting big game, one of the first methods was to simply run after them until they wore out. When we caught up to them, we used our newly-freed hands to bash them to death with some sort of club. Brutal. But also sensible.

In any case, biomechanical changes took place. The pelvis became more like a bowl. The out-turned legs shifted inwards and under the pelvis. The legs became longer. The spine obtained a curve to support the upright structure. The butt developed, allowing us to run. And of course, the hands were freed up to manipulate things. Tools could be made, carried, brandished. And then humans set out from Africa on foot, traveling out of curiosity, necessity, or maybe just because we could. Maybe just to see what’s around the next bend, over the next horizon, eventually spreading out to populate every corner of the Earth.

At some point, walking became more than its origins, developing into a cultural activity of simultaneous walking and thinking. Looking specifically at Europe, the Greek philosophers famously walked as they thought and thought as they walked. Rousseau, in the mid-1700s, was one of the first to promote walking as the ideal state of being. Man, he believed, reached his fullest potential “wandering in the forests, without industry… with no need of his fellow-men, likewise with no desire to harm them.” The walker was outside of society, in nature, relying on their own strength.

William Wordsworth supposedly walked about 180,000 miles (290,000 kilometers) in his life on his nobbly legs. According to Solnit, he “made walking central to his life and art to a degree almost unparalleled before or since.” His walking seems pretty similar to the type of walking I and people reading this article also engage with, a sort of backpacking, so it seems. In his early twenties, he set off on a 2,000-mile (~3,200 km) walk. Of course, I wonder if he used some sort of canvas rucksack, what he carried in it, where he slept, how he dealt with weather.

The pace of life today, the perpetual notifications popping up on ever-present screens threaten to hide experience from us. Memories and needs remain trapped in that unmined ore of unexamined life. Rousseau and Wordsworth would agree that backpacking pushes back against this fast-moving world. It urges us to slow down. As Solnit says, the mind probably works at the same pace as the feet, three miles per hour. Backpacking puts us back in that rhythm for extended periods of time. That’s probably why so many of us feel like every trip is a reset. Some of us need to hit that button more often than others. I need short daily resets, phoneless, and typically alone. But I need longer ones too, at least once a month—some quick overnighters in the mountains or deserts within a few hours’ drive of my home. And I know some people need even longer ones and so embark on the PCT, the AT, the AZT, the CDT. Some of us would prefer to linger in that place where the mind’s pace matches that of the feet, and nothing threatens to break that linked cadence.

There are other reasons for walking, too. Cheryl Strayed is interviewed on an episode of the Design Matters Podcast, saying “what happens on the outside, one foot in front of the other in front of the other, also happens on the inside.” She says that the body becomes the teacher, and the rest of us learns from it. When she hiked the PCT, she revisited every single moment of her life. The pain, the joy, all of it. It allowed her to emerge at the end as a person willing and capable and confident to reenter the world, something she would have had a hard time accessing otherwise. Walking allowed this.

 Why I walk: the author in the sage desert.

Nearing the end of a 17-mile (27 km) day of walking.

Walking is exploratory, walking is an escape, walking is exercise. We also walk to offer respect for timeframes we can’t perceive. We follow geological divisions like the Continental Divide Trail which splits the continent between water that drains into the Pacific Ocean from water that drains into the Gulf of Mexico. Or for comradery. To be one of many on national scenic trails like the AT and PCT. To proudly say “I did it too!” We also walk to trace old paths so that the act itself functions as a sort of ambulatory memory. Robert MacFarlane, for example, in his book The Old Ways, follows the Icknield Way, one of the oldest paths in the UK, possibly up to 6,000 years old. And Craig Childs, in his book House of Rain follows ghosts of the Ancestral Puebloans across the southwest.

Some also walk to imagine potential. John Davis’s Trek West expedition endeavored to imagine landscape connectivity from Mexico to the Yukon where animals once freely roamed, and could do so again. In 2019, I followed an individual mule deer from winter to summer ranges to see what I could learn from intelligences other than my own. It wasn’t a premier wilderness experience as I crossed highways and climbed over barbed wire fences, but it was a walk full of meaning, and it made me want to do more like it.

Why I walk: Worn out hiking shoes

Wearing out shoes on my daily walks/runs.

After nearly an hour ambling through the foothills above Salt Lake City, I start to make my descent to the car. The densest thoughts crack and break apart and fall away like dried mud from a shoe, leaving me with new clarity. In fact, I need to take some notes before I forget everything I just learned without trying to learn anything at all. So I pick up my pace. The rhythm of the body, the lungs, heart, become the teacher and teach me something I wouldn’t have known had I not gone on my daily walk.

Why do you walk?

Further Reading:

  • Wanderlust by Rebecca Solnit
  • The Old Ways by Robert MacFarlane
  • Man Against Horse Radiolab episode
  • Design Matters with Cheryl Strayed
  • Wild by Cheryl Strayed

More by Benjamin Kilbourne

  • Can Wilderness Include Humans?
  • Backpackers Should be Amateur Naturalists

DISCLOSURE (Updated November 7, 2019)

  • Some (but not all) of the links on this page may be “affiliate” links. If you click on one of these links and visit one of our affiliate partners (usually a retailer site), and subsequently place an order with that retailer, we receive a small commission. These commissions help us provide authors with honoraria, fund our editorial projects, podcasts, instructional webinars, and more, and we appreciate it a lot! Thank you for supporting Backpacking Light!

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  • Author
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  • Sep 15, 2020 at 4:48 pm #3676226
    Backpacking Light
    Admin

    @backpackinglight

    Locale: Rocky Mountains

    It’s four-thirty in the afternoon and I’m feeling a sleepiness only caffeine, napping, or walking can fix. English tea time. Utah amble.

    • Why I Walk
    Sep 15, 2020 at 11:04 pm #3676305
    Rex Sanders
    BPL Member

    @rex

    Locale: Central California Coast

    Beautiful.

    Just today, I (finally) took a break from the screens that dominate so much of my life and went for a walk. Ideas started pouring out, as they often do, and I’m glad I brought my pocket recorder this time. Plus I think I solved a problem that’s stumped me for days.

    These mental breaks are essential and soul-filling. Unfortunately, backpacking anywhere in or near California will be nearly impossible for quite some time. So shorter walks must do.

    Thank you for reminding us.

    — Rex

    Sep 16, 2020 at 8:25 am #3676329
    Paul Wagner
    BPL Member

    @balzaccom

    Locale: Wine Country

    As a friend of mine says (he’s a cyclist, not a hiker): when you get back from your ride you never remember why it was hard to get up off the sofa…

    Sep 16, 2020 at 11:32 pm #3676473
    Doug Coe
    BPL Member

    @sierradoug

    Locale: Bay Area, CA, USA

    you never remember why it was hard to get up off the sofa

    Man, so true. I need to just kick myself out the door sometimes. I mean, now that the air around here is breathable again (East Bay, CA).

    Sep 18, 2020 at 6:24 am #3676643
    Alex H
    BPL Member

    @abhitt

    Locale: southern appalachians or desert SW

    Nice piece Ben.  Of course many of know that in The Complete Walker, Colin Fletcher has many quotes about walking in the back of the book but one of my favorites is one of his

    “I find that the three truly great times for thinking thoughts are when I am standing in the shower, sitting on the john, or walking.  And the greatest, by far, is walking”

    Sep 18, 2020 at 7:38 am #3676651
    HkNewman
    BPL Member

    @hknewman

    Locale: Western US

    Nice reminder to get off the couch.  Living in a walkable neighborhood or safe bike trails helps in this regard especially as age conspires to slow down our metabolism.

    Sep 18, 2020 at 9:18 am #3676666
    Jon Solomon
    BPL Member

    @areality

    Locale: Lyon/Taipei

    Great article.
    Walking is definitely therapeutic.
    I combine walking with mantra practice.
    When the skies are clear it is also helpful to direct the gaze to the empty sky.

    Sep 18, 2020 at 9:56 am #3676668
    obx hiker
    BPL Member

    @obxer

    Really nice piece, almost lyrical. You mentioned several great reads for walkers and centered the article to a degree around “Wanderlust”. It’s a really interesting book and highly recommend. The origin of the term or verb saunter as described in “Wanderlust” is one of those little gems or flickers of light that bubbles up into consciousness with some regularity; sort of filling out or adding some history to the often spiritual nature of walking. You also mentioned McFarlane and his body of work might also tie in or help folks with becoming better observers while walking and thus better ‘amateur naturalists’

    One you didn’t mention that certainly applies to all of us that follow trails or even make our own is “On Trails”.

    It’s a great big wonderful world out there even if it’s confined to a small familiar space. I walk therefore I am. To walk is human to forgive divine. Think I’ll take a walk!

    BTW Solnit is generally credited with coming up with the phrase ‘mansplaining’ (and there I did it didn’t I?)

    Sep 18, 2020 at 1:00 pm #3676681
    jscott
    BPL Member

    @book

    Locale: Northern California

    Yes, Wanderlust is a great read; Solnit is a really fine stylist. I find it interesting that she didn’t mention Rimbaud in this book. Rimbaud was one of the great walkers of literature and ended wandering through Africa and writing reports for the Geographic Society.

    Sep 18, 2020 at 1:39 pm #3676688
    Dave Heiss
    BPL Member

    @daveheiss

    Locale: Pacific Northwest

    We are made to move, which I think is why it feels so good to get up and take a walk.

    Sep 18, 2020 at 1:56 pm #3676693
    rubmybelly!
    BPL Member

    @sleeping

    Locale: The Cascades

    “We are made to move, which I think is why it feels so good to get up and take a walk.”

    I agree, even when we can’t walk.

    Sep 18, 2020 at 2:16 pm #3676695
    d k
    BPL Member

    @dkramalc

    OMG, Doug, that article, and especially the video.  Thanks a lot for making me cry ;-)

    Sep 19, 2020 at 5:41 pm #3676820
    Tom K
    BPL Member

    @tom-kirchneraol-com-2

    It is what we were designed to do, and we forsake it at our peril.

    https://www.artofmanliness.com/articles/solvitur-ambulando-it-is-solved-by-walking/

    Sep 19, 2020 at 8:33 pm #3676828
    bjc
    BPL Member

    @bj-clark-2-2

    Locale: Colorado

    Tom K, a great read, many thanks for that!

    Sep 24, 2020 at 9:22 am #3677286
    Tipi Walter
    BPL Member

    @tipiwalter

    To me, it’s not walking that is important as nearly everyone walks—in towns, thru Malls, in Walmarts ETC ETC.  What’s important is doing my walking in the great outdoors or what’s left of it—in wilderness for example.  I better hike in it now before it’s all gone due to sprawl and human development—the Vanishing American Landscape.

    And to me there’s a vast difference between “mere” Dayhiking and multi-day Backpacking.  I see the first as torture and the second as fulfilling; torturous because dayhikers don’t spend the night—and what’s the point of reaching a pristine area if you can’t sleep with Miss Nature???  But that’s just me.

     

    Sep 24, 2020 at 10:53 pm #3677384
    Karen
    BPL Member

    @granolagirlak

    These writings are all great, thank you for sharing. I try to walk to work many days, or walk home if I can get a ride in. Sometimes I walk both ways, but that’s a lot of time. I’m 5.5 miles from work. I love walking home, the first 1/2 mile I’m still “working,” brain won’t stop. Then suddenly I notice I’m not thinking any more. I’m just walking. I’m aware of everything, smell, sights, small critters, reflection of light on water, I can sense when someone is behind me, even quite a ways behind me. I walk the next 4.5 miles without thinking, just being, on paths in the woods. The last half mile I come to the busy highway and have to cross, so I’m back to thinking again. Sometimes the drivers honk at me, or throw something out the window (not often, fortunately but it has happened more than once). Sometimes it’s catcalls or the creepy psychopath who lives in my neighborhood is on the road and I have to watch my back. I have to watch for moose too, because I go through a tunnel of brush. When I arrive home, work is far away, and worries are nonexistent. I love walking. I wish I had more time for it. And I wish it didn’t hurt. But everything hurts these days, c’est la vie.

    Sep 24, 2020 at 11:33 pm #3677388
    David Gardner
    BPL Member

    @gearmaker

    Locale: Northern California

    Walking. If you had to choose only one, the single best exercise for longevity. And forest bathing makes it even better.

    Oct 8, 2020 at 5:02 pm #3678863
    Ben Kilbourne
    BPL Member

    @benkilbourne

    Locale: Utah

    @rex I love the idea of taking a pocket recorder. Better than taking a phone and the temptations inherent therein.


    @abhitt
    Thanks for the Fletcher recommendation. I’ll check it out.


    @areality
    I’d like to hear more about the combination of walking with mantra practice. I’m curious also about vipassana meditation retreats, how even walking to and from the bathroom is supposed to be a continuation of practice. I’ve only read about this, I have no personal experience.

    @obxcola Thanks for the “On Trails” recommendation. From Wikipedia: “In 2018, during a lecture at Moe’s Books in Berkeley, California, Solnit said, “I’m falsely credited with coining the term ‘mansplaining’. It was a 2010 New York Times word of the year. I did not actually coin it. I was a bit ambivalent about the word because it seems a little bit more condemnatory of the male of the species than I ever wanted it to be.””


    @book
    Good call on Rimbaud. One of Patti Smith’s heroes.

    @doug-i Thanks for sharing this. A good reminder that everyone needs to get out, including people who don’t walk.


    @bj-clark-2-2
    Thanks!


    @tipiwalter
    Certainly my preference too. Unfortunately, it’s not realistic for a lot of people to make it into the backcountry. For many, especially lower-income folks, neighborhoods and local parks will have to suffice.


    @gearmaker
    Thanks for pointing us towards forest bathing, I love the idea.


    @granolagirlak
    Thanks for sharing. I love hearing others’ experiences with walking and the transformation that takes place. And with regards to “everything hurts these days,” I hear you. Personal physical pain, yes, but when I read those words I thought immediately of the state of the world today, where uncertainty is pain. It’s been interesting to see how walking during this troubling time has become such a life-giving ceremony for so many people.

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