Walking In Places

Forsyth Park, Savannah, Georgia

There was a time not so long ago when recreational walking was a popular pastime in the United States. The computer and its games, the focus on the automobile as transportation, an aging population, and other demographic and cultural variables have taken a big toll on this activity. Indeed, we've come a long way from the time Mom sent us out the door after a summer lunch and didn't expect to see us until the street lights came on.

OTR has lived somewhat outside this transition. A career in our national parks gave him some unforgettable experiences including multi-day treks across the Grand Canyon's Tonto Bench, over the woodland trails and beach of Cumberland Island, and almost all of the 184 miles of towpath on the C&O Canal. His job responsibilities kept him "in the traces" into his sixties as he walked hundreds of miles over hundreds of trails from the Mississippi River southeast to the U.S. Virgin Islands. No question, there is less walking in his retirement, much of it due to some minor though irritating disabilities.

Today, recreational trail use, even in the national parks, has dropped dramatically over the past twenty years. Park visitors don't walk nearly as much these days. And worse, on a national scale, our children don't go outside much either. Among park professionals and other outdoor enthusiasts, there is a serious concern that we are raising a generation of citizens who will no longer appreciate nature or preserve its resources into the future.

Tom Vanderbilt has a four-part essay at Slate examining the lost experience of walking in an urban setting. Readers will learn what we once had, why we lost it, and how it can be rediscovered. An appreciation of safe and satisfying walks in our urban settings puts us only a few steps away from enjoying the wilder places in our world.

H/T to Glenn Reynolds and Instapundit.