I came across the oldest road in the US, the Camino Real, the sign says. It hails back to the 1500s. I’ve been thinking about walking as I walk and hike to prepare for a 5-day backpacking trip. How is it that in our society we’ve lost the most natural, rudimentary way of moving? Would you expect your car to start up and go after letting it sit for months on end?
The ability to walk on two legs, one of the earliest defining human traits, evolved over 4 million years ago. Anatomically modern Homo sapiens evolved around 300,000 years ago. We became bipeds, walking upright with 2 legs and feet.
Despite using carts and horses in pre-industrial times, most people walked when they needed to go somewhere. People continued to walk as a mode of transportation until the motorcar was created. In less than a century, we have become a car-centric society, with cars available to most people. People stopped walking to do their daily errands and became sitters. With it came a host of ‘dis’-eases.
I must train to walk five days with a load. Hunter gatherers walked, days at a time, to find food. Nobody “trained” unless you consider walking every day in and around the village training.
I grew up in a family that didn’t own a car. In my large family of 38 aunts and uncles, one uncle had a car he used for his business. We walked, bicycled and took a bus or ferry to get around. Necessity trained me to be a walker. I walked to school, a 20-minute walk, often twice a day as we walked home for lunch, our warm meal of the day, and back to school for an afternoon session. By the time I was 6, and my parents’ bicycle rack needed to hold a younger sibling, I biked to the next town 20 km away, to visit grandparents. When I was back in Holland in 2009 for a family reunion with my siblings, nieces and nephews I realized no-one thought twice about my 6-year-old niece bicycling with us around the island where we were born, a 25 km route along places we had lived, vacationed and spent our youth. Living in the US, I couldn’t imagine parents expecting their children to do this and think nothing of it.
We are what we think. We become what we do. If we think walking and bicycling distances is normal, we will do these things and expect our children to fall in line. And they will.
In the USA, we’ve lost our natural ability, our birthright, of being able to walk distances. We ride in cars, we fly in planes, to traverse the land. We’ve lost our most innate mode of transportation.
I wonder why I choose, at my age (77), to do another backpacking trip, another all-day hike. Nature and exercise provide me with many benefits, but it’s not just that. I tap into a self I will forget if I don’t claim my birthright to walk. I know myself by seeing the land I walk through while finding things along the way, by knowing my place with my feet on the ground, my eyes scanning, my ears hearing, my nose smelling and taking in my environment at a pace my brain can process. Each time I walk more than my neighborhood, I make myself whole. I make my brain use its ancient hunter-gatherer skills of path-finding, navigating and trusting the place will provide. I don’t need to go out and gather my food to survive, but I do need to wake up my brain to gather up the DNA inbred skills of maneuvering on foot, not barefoot but still balancing and traversing on uneven, sometimes rocky, sometimes slippery terrain. The fine motor skills my body remembers and uses that make me whole and keep me healthy. Aging is unavoidable. Aging in place while sitting in a chair, is preventable. I keep my wits by walking. I keep my brain and body healthy by moving my feet and navigating the land.
People are returning to walking, at least for exercise. It’s a start. We need a “soft” revolution to heal our nation. Walking is part of that healing. Walking will heal your brain, your body, your outlook on life. When we choose a president who values her body, her brain and her innate ability to walk, we move our society in a direction away from destroying itself with exhaust, illness and addiction. Although I may not witness the revolution’s outcome during my lifetime, I can experience its essence by going on a 5-day walkabout with friends in the remaining wild places of our nation.
If you enjoy my writing and want to read more about walking and walking in faraway places, check out my books on my website, https://www.transformation-travel.com/store.html or at Amazon
And it is my humble opinion you keep walking to help those of us who read your newsletter inspired to do the same. (And thank you!) I love this line: "Aging is unavoidable. Aging in place while sitting in a chair, is preventable. I keep my wits by walking. I keep my brain and body healthy by moving my feet and navigating the land." INDEED.
I never thought about why I like walking/hiking so much. Now after reading this article, I know it comes from my experience growing up in small town USA in the 50-60’s. We walked or biked everywhere, there was no other option and we didn’t think twice about it. I’m thankful to have grownup this way. I’m now 70 and walking is part of my daily routine, and how I like to spend my vacations. Thanks for sharing your thoughts with us!