Category Day Walks

For a long time I thought a walk had to be substantial to count, which meant most weeks I did nothing. Cutting my standard down to two miles is the change that actually got me out the door.

I walked one four mile farm loop through a full year. The distance never changed and almost everything else did, from how long it took to whether I could see where I was going at all.

Four or five times a year I abandon a route partway through. I used to treat that as a failure and push on anyway. Turning back earlier has made my walking better, and here is how I decide.

I go out on my own most weeks and with a friend maybe twice a month. The two are not versions of the same activity, and I got into trouble the year I tried to treat them as interchangeable.

I walked the same three mile loop at six in the morning and at four in the afternoon for most of a summer. It was not the same walk. Here is what the hour actually changes, and what it does not.

After a few years of scouting dirt lanes and field edges near home, I have a rough system for telling a route that will be worth the morning from one that just looks good on a map screen.