Urban Walking

Posted by Kara

I had planned on hiking today, but got sidetracked, as sometimes happened. Instead I enjoyed some tea while my sister ate breakfast, after which we went shopping (crazy, I know, I usually avoid anything to do with after Thanksgiving sales), and finished the afternoon with a small lunch with my sister with whom I don't get to spend nearly as much time as I'd like to. Tomorrow is  supposed to be even nicer weather than today, so I think tomorrow will be my hiking day (today was nearly 55 degrees, tomorrow will be around 65, if anyone can believe it on November 27th). But I wanted to take my hiking boots on a walk... wearing them around the apartment hadn't really been doing any good, so I guess now that they've been outside I'm keeping them. My arch pushes against the top a little if I lace it too tight, but I think with some more breaking in, they should do just fine.

Walking in the city is a very different feeling than what I usually do, but I actually kind of like it. I have a route I usually walk, which I calculated at about 2.5 miles with MapMyRun.com which is really neat and useful. My route, you can see, is here: Neighborhood 2.5 mile walk . I would like to try to expand it to about 3 miles if possible sometime, and it only takes me about 40 minutes to walk, which seems strange since a 2.5 mile hike might take me a great deal longer than that. Most of it sticks to the sidewalks except the beginning in the back neighborhoods, I cross over an interstate on a bridge twice which is kind of dizzying, and there is only one brief section where I have to wait for a crosswalk. I kind of enjoy the neighborhood walking, whether in daylight or at night, it is relaxing in it's own strange way. I usually need music to block out the cars, but I can set a good pace and really get into the rhythm fairly easily.

To say the least, it's not nearly the same as a peaceful walk out in the woods all alone somewhere far out. But on the days that I can't drive somewhere to take a hike, a walk seems like a nice alternative way to stay active (especially after Thanksgiving week!) that I can do almost every day. Sometimes my roommate and I will do much shorter 10/15 minute version of this walk in the back neighborhoods just to get some fresh air after dinner. The tree-filled neighborhoods are nice scenery for a walk, and right now despite being near the end of November, there are still flowers here and there that don't seem to know what season it is. Next time I do the full walk, I'll try to take a few pictures, but it's nothing too impressive or unique.

Trying to figure out where to go tomorrow still, and with whom. The shoes and socks from REI performed well, I can't wait to try them out on more rugged ground!