Hiking, Walking, Hikes, Walks, Journeys, Pathways: Quotations, Poems, Sayings, Quips, Wisdom, Aphorisms, Epigrams, Quotes

"The ideal aerobic exercise is walking. Virtually everyone can do it, almost anywhere. You should have little difficulty elevating your heart rate into your training range on a sustained basis, and it does not put undue strain on any of your joints."
- Terry Grossman, M.D., Fantastic Voyage

"Compendium of Physical Activities: An Update of Activity Codes and MET Intensities," Medical Science Sports Exercise, 2000;32 (Suppl):S498-S516.

Calories burned per hour walking at 3 miles per hour nearly doubles with a 10% incline.

"The basic rule of thumb is to start a walk having had 16 oz. of water (a pint or half liter), then replenishing with a cup of water every 15-20 minutes. That is about a water bottle-full an hour, about a half liter or pint. End your walk with a big glass of water. That will prevent dehydration - losing too much fluid from your body. New guidelines in 2003 tell distance walkers and runners to drink as soon as thirsty."
- Wendy Bumgardner

"Put you hand before your eyes and remember, you that have walked, the places from which you have walked away, and the wilderness into which you manfully turned the steps of your abandonment ... It is your business to leave all that you have know altogether behind you, and no man has eyes at the back of his head - go forward."
- Hilaire Belloc, The Footpath Way

"Roads go ever ever on,
Over rock and under tree,
By caves where never sun has shone,
By streams that never find the sea;
Over snow by winter sown,
And through the merry flowers of June,
Over grass and over stone,
And under mountains of the moon.

Roads go ever ever one
Under cloud and under star
Yet feet that wandering have gone
Turn at last to home afar.
Eyes that fire and sword have seen
An horror in the halls of stone
Look at last on meadows green
And trees and hills they long have known."
- J. R. R. Tolkien, The Hobbit

"I dressed and went for a walk - determined not to return until I took in what Nature had to offer."
- Raymond Carver, This Morning

"To put yourself into a situation where a mistake cannot necessarily be recouped, where the life you lose may be your own, clears the head wonderfully. It puts domestic problems back into proportion and adds an element of seriousness to your drab, routine life. Perhaps this is one reason why climbing has become increasingly hard as society has become increasingly, disproportionately, coddling."
- A. Alvarez, The Games Climbers Play

"I will rise now, and go about the city in the streets, and in the broad ways I will seek him whom my soul loveth."
- Song of Solomon 3:2

"If you want to know if your brain is flabby, feel your legs."
- Bruce Barton

"In these divine pleasures permitted to me of walks in the June night under moon and stars, I can put my life as a fact before me and stand aloof from its honor and shame."
- Ralph Waldo Emerson, Journals

"If you look for the truth outside yourself,
It gets farther and farther away.
Today walking alone, I meet it everywhere I step.
It is the same as me, yet I am not it.
Only if you understand it in this way
Will you merge with the way things are."
- Tung-Shan

�Common sense and good nature will do a lot to make the pilgrimage of life not too difficult�
- William Somerset Maugham

"Give me the clear blue sky over my head, and the green turf beneath my feet, a winding road before me, and a three hours march to dinner - and then to thinking."
- William Hazlitt, On Going on a Journey

"The sum of the whole is this: walk and be happy, walk and be healthy. "The best of all ways to lengthen our days" is not, as Mr. Thomas Moore has it, "to steal a few hours from night, my love;" but, with leave be it spoken, to walk steadily and with a purpose. The wandering man knows of certain ancients, far gone in years, who have staved off infirmities and dissolution by earnest walking,--hale fellows close upon eighty and ninety, but brisk as boys."
- Charles Dickens

"The way of walking can also emphasize femininity, accenting a womanlike manner of moving, or masculinity, showing off power and discipline by military marching, so constructing an identity image, or a choreographic dance performance. Thus, between stamping goose steps and high heels wiggling, the act of stepping passes through the most colorful human spectrum. The combination of those 2 opposing concepts of moving, is a part of the magic in Argentinian tango. In the original tango mis en sc�ne, two skillful opponents come together in some sort of a direct confrontation, a struggle, a duelo between the compadron's military step marking and the girl's sexiness. Later on, as the setting changed from the brothel to the dance hall and the salon with its etiquette, a less suspicious dancing behavior was wanted. The struggle however, can still be seen in the tangofigures."
- Walking Seduction

"Isn't it really quite extraordinary to see that, since man took his first step, no one has asked himself why he walks, how he walks, if he has ever walked, if he could walk better, what he achieves in walking .. questions that are tied to all the philosophical, psychological, and political systems which preoccupy the world."
- Honor� de Balzac, Theorie de la Demarch�

"I, who cannot stay in my chamber for a single day without acquiring some rust, and when sometimes I have stolen forth for a walk at the eleventh hour of four o'clock in the afternoon, too late to redeem the day, when the shades of night were already beginning to be mingled with the daylight, have felt as if I had committed some sin to be atoned for."
- Henry David Thoreau

"No fear of forgetting the good-humoured faces that meet us in our walks each day."
- Mary Russell Mitford, Our Village

"A man's work is nothing but this slow trek to rediscover, through the detours of art, those two or three great and simple images in whose presence his heart first opened."
- Albert Camus

"Putting facts by the thousands,
into the world, the toes take off
with an appealing squeak which the thumping heel
follows confidentially, the way men greet men.
Sometimes walking is just such elated
pumping."
- Lyn Hejinian, Determination

"Our way is not soft grass, it's a mountain path with lots of rocks. But it goes upward, forward, toward the sun."
- Ruth Westheimer

"I once started out
to walk around the world
but ended up on Brooklyn.
That Bridge was too much for me."
- Lawrence Ferlinghetti, Autobiography

"If you are for a merry jaunt, I will try, for once, who can foot it farthest."
- John Dryden

"Every day, in the morning or evening, or both, take a walk in a safe and peaceful environment for less than an hour. The can be a great fountain of youth. Choose a place to walk that has no kind of disturbance. Walking done in a work environment and when your mind is busy is different; it is not as nutritious as the walking you do for yourself in the morning or evening in a quiet, peaceful, and safe place."
- Master Hua-Ching Ni, Entering the Tao, 1997, p. 135

"Climb the mountains and get their good tidings. Nature's peace will flow into you as sunshine flows into trees. The winds will blow their freshness into you, and the storms their energy, while cares will drop off like falling leaves."
- John Muir

"Let us walk where reeds are growing,
by the alders in the mead;
Where the crystal streams are flowing,
In whose waves the fishes feed.

Do not dread us, timid fishes,
We have neither net nor hook,
Wanderers we, whose only wishes
Are to read in nature's book."
- Charlotte Smith, A Walk by the Water

Sierra Nevada, CA 1984
Rock Creek Basin, Mt. Starr (12,870')
The walker in all photos on this webpage is Mike Garofalo

"Walking is the natural recreation for a man who desires not absolutely to suppress his intellect but to turn it out to play for a season."
- Leslie Stephen

"Gardening is a long road, with many detours and way stations, and here we all are at one point or another. It's not a question of superior or inferior taste, merely a question of which detour we are on at the moment. Getting there (as they say) is not important; the wandering about in the wilderness or in the olive groves or in the bayous is the whole point."
- Henry Mitchell, Gardening Is a Long Road, 1998

"I'm the walkingest girl around. I like to work at it - really get my heart pounding."
- Amy Yasbeck

"Above all do not lose your desire to walk. Everyday I walk myself into a state of well being and walk away from every illness. I have walked myself into my best thoughts and I know of no thought so burdensome that one cannot walk away from it. But by sitting still, and the more one sits still, the closer one comes to feeling ill ... if one keeps on walking everything will be alright."
- Soren Kierkegaard.

"It's when you are safe at home that you're having an adventure. When you're having an adventure you wish you were safe at home."
- Thorton Wilder

"I can only meditate when I am walking. When I stop, I cease to think; my mind works only with my legs."
- Jean Jacques Rousseau, Confessions

"Who will tell whether one happy moment of love or the joy of breathing or walking on a bright morning and smelling the fresh air, is not worth all the suffering and effort which life implies."
- Eric Fromm

"You may also want to bring the practice of wogging into your life. Half slow walking (going uphill) and freely surrendered, speedy jogging (going downhill), it may become your preferred meditation posture or form of dance. The goal of the practice is not to condition the body aerobically; that happens as a natural byproduct. The goal of the practice is to open to and merge with the breath, letting your natural, surrendered breath determine how fast or slow your body moves, to stay as loose and relaxed as possible, to let every part of the body move as fluidly as possible, to surrender to the sensation and energies of the body as you keep playing with balance, to keep emptying the mind and staying in clear perception of vision and sound. Full-bodied breath comes easier during a wog than during any other activity. Sensations can be felt through the entire body. Vision can become very clear, and the mind can stay very empty."
- Will Johnson, Yoga of the Mahamudra

"Two roads diverged in a yellow wood,
And sorry I could not travel both
And be one traveler, long I stood
And looked down one as far as I could
To where it bent in the undergrowth."
- Robert Frost, Two Roads

"We all want progress, but if you're on the wrong road, progress means doing an about-turn and walking back to the right road; in that case, the man who turns back soonest is the most progressive."
- C. S. Lewis

"If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, and looks like a duck, it must be a duck."
- Popular American saying

�As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives.�
- Henry David Thoreau

"There is this to be said for walking: It's the one mode of human locomotion by which a man proceeds on his own two feet, upright, erect, as a man should be, not squatting on his rear haunches like a frog."
- Edward Abbey

"You never climb the same mountain twice, not even in memory. Memory rebuilds the mountain, changes the weather, retells the jokes, remakes all the moves."
- Lito Tejada Flores

"Sauntering is a verb to describe a style of walking; it is not a sashay, prance, trot, or lollygag. Simply it is to walk slowly preferably with a joyful disposition. Sauntering has been spoken of most notably by many of the natuaralist writers in history including Henry David Thoreau and John Burroughs. The World Sauntering Day is on June 19th. World Sauntering Day is an annual holiday celebrated on the 19th of June each year. The purpose is to remind us to take it easy, smell the roses,to slow down and enjoy life as opposed to rushing through it. It is also sometimes referred to as International Sauntering Day."
- World Sauntering Day

"Walking is a gentle, low-impact exercise that can ease you into a higher level of fitness and health. Walking is a form of exercise accessible to just about everybody. It's safe, simple and doesn't require practice. And the health benefits are many. Here's more about why walking is good for you, and how to get started with a walking program. Walking, like other exercise, can help you achieve a number of important health benefits. Walking can help you:

All it takes to reap these benefits is a routine of brisk walking. It doesn't get much simpler than that. And you can forget the "no pain, no gain" talk. Research shows that regular, brisk walking can reduce the risk of heart attack by the same amount as more vigorous exercise, such as jogging."
- The Mayo Clinic, 2012

"What shall I do with this absurdity �
O heart, O troubled heart � this caricature,
Decrepit age that has been tied to me
As to a dog�s tail?
Never had I more
Excited, passionate, fantastical
Imagination, nor an ear and eye
That more expected the impossible �
No, not in boyhood when with rod and fly,
Or the humbler worm, I climbed Ben Bulben�s back
And had the livelong summer day to spend."
- W. B. Yeats, The Tower

"Somewhere between the bottom of the climb and the summit is the answer to the mystery why we climb."
- Greg Child

"If you're walking down the right path and you're willing to keep walking, eventually you'll make progress."
- Barack Obama

"I remember perfectly that during my brief moment of prosperity these same solitary walks which are so delightful for me today were insipid and boring. When I was at someone's house in the country, the need to get some exercise and to breathe fresh air often made me go out alone; and sneaking away like a thief, I would go walk about the park or the countryside. But far from finding the happy calm I savor there today, I took along the disturbance of the vain ideas which had preoccupied me in the drawing room. Memory of the company I had left followed me into solitude. The fumes of self-love and the tumult of the world made the freshness of the groves seem dull and troubled the peace of the retreat. I fled deep into the woods in vain; an importunate crowd followed me everywhere and veiled all of nature to me. It is only after having detached myself from social passions and their sad retinue that I have again found nature with all its charms."
- Jean-Jacques Rosseau, The Reveries Of The Solitary Walker

"If I could not walk far and fast, I think I should just explode and perish." 4
- Charles Dickens

"The modern world is fast, complex, competitive, and always concerned with what happens next. There is always more to do than there is time. The landscape and even the light are mostly artificial. This can be exciting, but all too often it is frustrating, stressful, and exhausting. In contrast, hiking for weeks or months at a time in an unspoiled natural environment is a simple, repetitive activity that leads to calmness and psychological well-being, a feeling of wholeness, of being a complete person. Each day follows the same pattern, linking in with natural rhythms�walk in the light, sleep in the dark, eat when hungry, take shelter from storms. Only the details are different. I get a great pleasure from this simplicity, from the basic pattern of walk and camp, walk and camp. It is good to escape the rush of the modern world and for a period of time to live a quieter, more basic life. Problems and worries subside as the days go by; they are put into perspective by the elemental activity of putting one foot in front of the other hour after hour, day after day. And on returning from the wilds, restored and revitalized by the experience, I find civilization can be much easier to deal with; indeed, aspects of it can seem very desirable." 4
- Chris Towsend, The Advanced Backpacker

"The aim of the mountaineer, if he wishes to be an artist in the full sense of word, is neither escape nor "the search for the absolute" as some have claimed, but rather seek that place where "the mystic remains silent and the poets start to speak towards men."
- Bernard Amy

"Pilgrimage, the journey to a distant sacred goal, is found in all the great religions of the world. It is a journey both outwards, to new, strange, dangerous places, and inwards, to spiritual improvement, whether through increased self-knowledge or through the braving of physical dangers."
- Richard Barber, Pilgrimages

�We are not human beings having a spiritual experience. We are spiritual beings having a human experience.�
- Teilhard de Chardin

"We are here on the planet only once, and might as well get a feel for the place."
- Annie Dillard

"Hiroshi Nose, M.D., Ph.D, a professor of sports medical sciences at Sinshu University Graduate School of Medicine in Japan, who has enrolled thousands of older Japanese citizens in an innovative, five-month-long program of brisk, interval-style walking (three minutes of fast walking followed by three minutes of slower walking, repeated 10 times). The results have been striking. Dr. Nose reported that "Physical fitness ― maximal aerobic power and thigh muscle strength ― increased by about 20 percent, which is sure to make you feel about 10 years younger than before training. The walker's symptoms of lifestyle related diseases (hypertension, hyperglycemia and obesity) decreased by about 20 percent, while their depression scores dropped by half."
- Reported by Gretchen Reynolds, New York Times Magazine, "What's the Single Best Exercise?", 2011

"Doubly happy, however, is the man to whom lofty mountain tops are within reach."
- John Muir

"You cannot stay on the summit forever; you have to come down again. So why bother in the first place ? Just this: What is above knows what is below, but what is below does not know what is above. One climbs, one sees. One descends, one sees no longer, but one has seen. There is an art of conducting oneself in the lower regions by the memory of what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know."
- Rene Daumal

"Reading and sauntering and lounging and dosing, which I call thinking, is my supreme happiness."
- David Hume

"Wandering re-establishes the original harmony which once existed between man and the universe."
- Anatole France

"The interior solitude, along with the steady rhythm of walking mile after mile, served as a catalyst for deeper awareness. The solitude I found and savored on the Camino had an amazing effect on me. The busyness of my life slowly settled down as the miles went on. For a good portion of my life I had longed for a fuller experience of contemplation, that peaceful prayer of the heart in which one is able to look intently and see each piece of life as sacred. Ten days into the journey, totally unforeseen, the grace of seeing the world with startling lucidity came to me. My eyes took in everything with wonder. The experience was like looking through the lens of an inner camera � my heart was the photographer. Colors and shapes took on nuances and depths never before noticed. Each piece of beauty appeared to be framed: weeds along roadsides, hillsides of harvested fields with yellow and green stripes, layers of mountains with lines of thick mist stretching along their middle section, clumps of ripe grapes on healthy green vines, red berries on bushes, roses and vegetable gardens. Everything revealed itself as something marvelous to behold. Each was a work of art. I noticed more and more details of light and shadow, lines and edges, shapes, softness, and texture. I easily observed missed details on the path before me � skinny worms, worn pebbles, tiny flowers of various colors and shapes, black beetles, snails, and fat, grey slugs. I became aware of the texture of everything under my feet � stones, slate, gravel, cement, dirt, sand, grass. I responded with wonder and amazement. Like the poet Tagore, I felt that everything �harsh and dissonant in my life� was melting into �one sweet harmony�."
- Joyce Rupp

"There have been joys too great to be described in words, and there have been griefs upon which I have not dared to dwell, and with these in mind I say, climb if you will, but remember that courage and strength are naught without prudence, and that a momentary negligence may destroy the happiness of a lifetime. Do nothing in haste, look well to each step, and from the beginning think what may be the end."
- Edward Whymper

"The bizarre trend in mountaineers is not the risk they take, but the large degree to which they value life. They are not crazy because they don't dare, they're crazy because they do. These people tend to enjoy life to the fullest, laugh the hardest, travel the most, and work the least."
- Lisa Morgan

"The silence of landscape conceals vast presence. Place is not simply location. A place is a profound individuality. With complete attention, landscape celebrates the liturgy of the seasons, giving itself unreservedly to the passion of the goddess. The shape of a landscape is an ancient and silent form of consciousness. Mountains are huge contemplatives. Rivers and streams offer voice; they are the tears of the earth's joy and despair. The earth is full of soul �.. Civilization has tamed place. Left to itself, the curvature of the landscape invites presence and the loyalty of stillness." 4
- John O'Donohue, Anam Cara

"Peregrination charms our senses with such unspeakable and sweet variety that some count him that never traveled--a kind of prisoner, and pity his case: that, from his cradle to his old age, he beholds the same still, still, - still, the same, the same." 4
- Robert Burton

Here is my walking path. It is a .35 mile, asphalt paved, cul-de-sac, Kilkenny Lane, in Red Bluff, California. Kilkenny Lane moves in an east-west direction from the front of my home to Highway 99 West. I practice Tai Chi Chuan and Qigong in the circular area in front of my house shown the foreground of this picture. I rarely encounter a car on Kilkenny Lane.

"Getting to the top is optional. Getting down is mandatory."
- Ed Viesturs, No Shortcuts to the Top

"In a world of constant change and flux where being in the moment seems increasingly harder to attain, there is also something about the notion of traveling along a pathway�under our own power�that reconnects us, and indeed binds together all humanity�"
- Robert Searns

"If the Camino doesn�t live up to your expectations, it�s your fault � not the Camino.
The Camino is what it is, what it always has been.
The Camino is unchanging � only pilgrims change.
The Camino doesn�t belong to you.
Not everyone will have the same experience on the Camino.
Don�t try to walk someone else�s Camino.
Walk your own Camino."
- Amawalker, Expectations

�If a walker is indeed an individualist there is nowhere he can't go at dawn and not many places he can't go at noon. But just as it demeans life to live alongside a great river you can no longer swim in or drink from, to be crowded into safer areas and hours takes much of the gloss off walking - one sport you shouldn't have to reserve a time and a court for.� 4
- Edward Hoagland

"Allow walking to occupy a place of stature equal with all the other important activities in your life. As difficult as that might seem, here's how to do it. Make it a practice. That's right. Turn your walking into a vehicle for personal growth as well as for fitness. This will add a higher level of integrity and intention to your approach because you will find that it is a way to deepen and upgrade your relationship to your body. Instead of merely giving your legs and a good workout, you'll be practicing to relax more, to breathe better, to expand your vision, to open up your range of motion, to increase your energy, to feel and sense your body. The list is exciting - and endless. With all of this to look forward to, your walking program will take its place alongside everything in your life you value most, and you'll be amazed at how easy it is to schedule time for something you really love to do."
- Katherine Dreyer, Chi Walking 4

My Hiker's Backpack and Equipment for Hiking in the Summer Months in Northern California Includes:

1. Water in secure water bottles.
2. Extra food.
3. Maps and/or guides and compass
4. Extra clothing
5. Flashlight
6. Sunscreen, Sunglasses
7. First Aid kit
8. Pocketknife - Multifunctional
9. Matches (waterproof) and candle
10. Emergency blanket
11. Signaling device (mirror & whistle)
12. Book to read
13. Water purification tablets
14. Personal medications
15. Wallet with identification and money and car keys
16. Paper, pen, pencil
17. Binocular and magnifying glass
18. Walkman and earphones
19. Digital camera
20. I prefer long pants and long-sleeve shirts to protect from sunburn.
21. Study shoes and extra socks and footcare supplies
22. My walking staff
23. Extra change of clothes left in my van

"Backpacking forces one, by necessity, to walk the balance line, the edge of the sword, between disciplined deprivation and hedonistic gratification: a tiring, sweat-soaking day ends with a plunge into a cool stream; an arduous, lung-bursting climb is followed by a magnificent panoramic sweeping view; and there is the continuous contrast between life on the trail and civilized pleasures�a warm meal, a hot shower, clean dry clothes. It is by walking this line between sacrifice and satisfaction that one finds fulfillment." 4
- Robert Browne, The Appalachian Trail

"The central role of walking in Wordsworth's life suggests a number of interesting questions, but I will focus here only on those related to the theme of this conference, work and leisure. Obviously, much of Wordsworth's walking could be classed as leisure-time activity. There was probably no compelling reason for Wordsworth and Dorothy to walk twice to the Black Swan or for Wordsworth and Mary to circumambulate the lakes. Indeed, the reasons given for some of the walks--mousetrap buying and letter fetching--seem a bit contrived, as if almost any excuse would do for the sake of a good walk. Yet at the same time, Wordsworth was a poet adept at picking up poetic materials from those walks--a beggar, a leech gatherer, a field of flowers. Moreover, Wordsworth used walking as a compositional device, as he composed and revised his verses. In other words, for Wordsworth, walking was also a form of work, both a process for extracting raw materials from the world and a manufacturing method for shaping or refining those materials." 4
- Malcolm Hayward

"Once in a lifetime, perhaps, one escapes the actual confines of the flesh. Once in a lifetime, if one is lucky, one so merges with sunlight and air and running water that whole eons, the eons that mountains and deserts know, might pass in a single afternoon without discomfort." 4
- Loren Eisley, The Immense Journey

"In the American Southwest, I began a lifelong love affair with a pile of rock."
- Edward Abbey

"It has been said that there are landscapes one can walk through, landscapes which can be gazed upon,
landscapes in which one may dwell ... Those fit for walking through or being gazed upon are not equal
to those in which one may dwell or ramble." 4
- Kuo Hsi

�I learned that the richness of life is found in adventure. . . . It develops self-reliance and independence. Life then teems with excitement. There is stagnation only in security.� 4
- William Orville Douglas

"Your possessions should set you free like a boat or a pair of hiking boots. If you work for your possessions and they don't set you free, what are you working for?" 4
- Billy Harris

"Few people know how to take a walk. The qualifications are endurance, plain clothes, old shoes, an eye for nature, good humor, vast curiosity, good speech, good silence and nothing too much.�
- Ralph Waldo Emerson

"To find the universal elements enough; to find the air and the water exhilarating; to be refreshed by a morning walk or an evening saunter; to be thrilled by the stars at night; to be elated over a bird�s nest or a wildflower in spring � these are some of the rewards of the simple life." 4
� John Burroughs

"The contented person enjoys the scenery of a detour."
"Don't let people drive you crazy when you know it's in walking distance." 4
– Authors Unknown

"In mountaineering, if we look for private experience rather than public history, even getting to the top becomes an optional narrative rather than the main point, and those who only wander in high places become part of the story."
- Rebecca Sonit, Wanderlust

"Me thinks that the moment my legs begin to move, my thoughts begin to flow." 4
- Henry David Thoreau

"In its outward manifestation, meditation appears to involve either stopping, by parking the body in a stillness that suspends activity, or giving oneself over to flowing movement. In either case, it is an embodiment of wise attention, an inward gesture undertaken for the most part in silence, a shift from doing to simply being. It is an act that may at first seem artificial but that we soon discover, if we keep at it, is ultimately one of pure love for the life unfolding within us and around us."
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Coming To Our Senses

"Walking takes longer... than any other known form of locomotion except crawling. Thus it stretches time and prolongs life. Life is already too short to waste on speed."
- Edward Abbey

�Before you criticize someone, you should walk a mile in their shoes. That way, when you criticize them, you are a mile away from them and you have their shoes.� 4
- Jack Handey

"Slow down and enjoy life. It's not only the scenery you miss by going to fast - you also miss the sense of where you are going and why." 4
- Eddie Cantor

"Climbing is one of the few sports in which the arena (the cliffs, the mountains and their specific routes) acquire a notoriety that outpopulates, outshines and outlives the actual athletes."
- Jonathan Waterman

"I was the world in which I walked." 4
- Wallace Stevens, Tea at the Palaz of Hoon

"The body's habituation to walking as normal stems from the good old days. It was the bourgeois form of locomotion: physical demythologization, free of the spell of hieratic pacing, roofless wandering, breathless flight. Human dignity insisted on the right to walk, a rhythm not extorted from the body by command or terror. The walk, the stroll, were private ways of passing time, the heritage of the feudal promenade in the nineteenth century."
- Theodor W. Adorno

"Walking is the exercise that needs no gym. It is the prescription without medicine, the weight control without diet, the cosmetic that is sold in no drugstore. It is the tranquilizer without a pill, the therapy without a psychoanalyst, the fountain of youth that is no legend. A walk is the vacation that does not cost a cent." 4

"The English literary movement at the end of the 18th century was obviously due in great part, if not mainly, to the renewed practice of walking." 4
- Leslie Stephen, The Art of Walking

"It's amazing how much time one can spend in a garden doing nothing at all. I sometimes think, in fact, that the nicest part of gardening is walking around in a daze, idly deadheading the odd dahlia, wondering where on earth to squeeze in yet another impulse buy, debating whether to move the recalcitrant artemisia one more time, or daydreaming about where to put the pergola." 4
- Jane Garmey, A Writer in the Garden

"People travel to wonder at the height of the mountains, at the huge waves of the seas, at the long course of the rivers, at the vast compass of the ocean, at the circular motion of the stars, and yet they pass by themselves without wondering." 4
- St. Augustine

"Many years ago, I climbed the mountains, even thought it is forbidden. Things are not as they teach us; the world is hollow, and I have touched the sky."
- Star Trek episode

"All my writing is about the recognition that there is no single reality. But the beauty of it is that you nevertheless go on, walking towards utopia, which may not exist, on a bridge which might end before you reach the other side."
- Marguerite Young

"A traveler on foot in this country (England) seems to be considered as a sort of wild man, or an out-of-the-way being, who is stared at, pitied, suspected, and shunned by everybody that meets him."
- Carl Moritz in 1872

"Some do not walk at all; others walk in the highways; a few walk across lots." 4
- Henry David Thoreau, Walking

"Walking is the great adventure, the first meditation, a practice of heartiness and soul primary to humankind. Walking is the exact balance between spirit and humility." 4
- Gary Snyder, The Practice of the Wild

"One does not climb to attain enlightenment, rather one climbs because he is enlightened."
- Zen Master Futomaki

"And they discovered something very interesting: when it comes to walking, most of the ant's thinking and decision-making is not in its brain at all. It's distributed. It's in its legs."
- Kevin Kelly

"There are countless physical activities out there, but walking has the lowest dropout rate of them all! It's the simplest positive change you can make to effectively improve your heart health. Research has shown that the benefits of walking and moderate physical activity for at least 30 minutes a day can help you:

"It's a wonderful feeling to push even a tiny piece of the planet down beneath one's feet. If it's overhanging plastic, it's going to pump your arms like bloated sausages; if it's a steep snow-slope at 27000 feet it's going to deaden the legs and make the lungs like overworked bellows. Either way, the challenges are obvious."
- Adrian Burgess

�.� the brisk exercise imparts elasticity to the muscles, fresh and healthy blood circulates through the brain, the mind works well, the eye is clear, the step is firm, and a day's exertion always makes the evening's repose thoroughly enjoyable.� 4

"Every morning, like clockwork, he [Wallace Stevens] used to walk down Terry Road about nine o�clock, just about the time I was standing by my kitchen sink. I�d always get a thrill. I the afternoon, he�d walk back, this very slow stride of his. Usually, if it was summer or good weather, I�d be outdoors with some of the neighbors� children. I�d make them stop and look at him, and I�d say, "I want you to remember this is a great poet." 4
- Florence Berkman

"Now shall I walk
or shall I ride?
"Ride," Pleasure said:
"Walk," Joy replied." 4
- W.H. Davies

�Our wretched species is so made that those who walk on the well-trodden path always throw stones at those who are showing a new road� 4
- Voltaire

"Walks: The body advances, while the mind flutters around it like a bird." 4
- Jules Renard

"It's always further than it looks.
It's always taller than it looks.
And it's always harder than it looks."
- The Three Rules of Mountaineering

"The trail has taught me much. I know now the varied voices of the coyote � the wizard of the mesa. I know the solemn call of herons and the mocking cry of the loon. I remember a hundred lovely lakes, and recall the fragrant breath of pine and fir and cedar and poplar trees. The trail has strung upon it, as upon a thread of silk, opalescent dawns and saffron sunsets. It has given me blessed release from care and worry and the troubled thinking of our modern day. It has been a return to the primitive and the peaceful. Whenever the pressure of our complex city life thins my blood and benumbs my brain, I seek relief in the trail; and when I hear a coyote wailing to the yellow dawn, my cares fall from me � I am happy." 4
- Hamlin Garland, 1899

"Let no one be deluded that a knowledge of the path can substitute for putting one foot in front of the other." 4
- M. C. Richards

�The heights charm us, but the steps do not; with the mountain in our view we love to walk the plains.� 4
- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe

"When we practice meditation, we are really acknowledging that in this moment, we are on the road of life. The path unfolds in this moment and in every moment while we are alive. Meditation is more rightly thought of as a 'Way' than as a technique. It is a Way of being, a Way of living, a Way of listening, a Way of walking along the path of life and being in harmony with things as they are. This means in part acknowledging that sometimes, often at very crucial times, you really have no idea where you are going or even where the path lies. At the same time, you can very well know something about where you are now (even if it is knowing that you are lost, confused, enraged, or without hope). On the other hand, it often happens that we can become trapped into believing too strongly that we do know where we are going, especially if we are driven by self-serving ambition and we want certain things very badly. There is a blindness that comes from self-furthering agendas that leaves us thinking we know, when actually we don't know as much as we think."
- Jon Kabat-Zinn, Wherever You Go, There You Are

"When you ride your bike, you're working your legs, but your mind is on a treadmill. When you play chess, your mind is clicking along, but your body is stagnating. Climbing brings it together in a beautiful, magical way. The adrenaline is flowing, and it's flowing all the time."
- Pat Ament

"It is good to have an end to journey towards; but it is the journey that matters in the end." 4
- Ursula K. LeGui

"For me the greatest rewards of walking are its spiritual ones. Sure, walking can tone and toughen the body, soothe the mind, calm our neuroses, reduce our stress levels, provoke our sense of curiosity and wonder. But without a greater framework - you can call it a symbolic, metaphorical, metaphysical, artistic, imaginative, religious or spiritual one, I don't think it matters - a long walk may simply be just that: a long walk. It seems to be a human need and necessity to impart some kind of personal myth or 'guiding fiction' to our lives (read Loren Webster's excellent post on this here), and a long walk is an ideal method of doing this. We can layer our walk with a myriad of meanings and significances. When recounting our walk-story to others we may raise it to the level of a myth or a fable. Funny how we exaggerate some bits but leave out other bits, isn't it? (It's interesting to ponder on what parts we include, what parts we discount, what parts we embellish, and why we do this.) Perhaps we interpret our walk as a quest, a pilgrimage, a labyrinth, a metaphorical path bristling with symbols, a trip through Dante's 'dark wood', soul-wanderings, or Stations of the Cross. Whatever our interpretations, it's a fact that both our inner and outer journeys tend to become entwined, and feed into and enrich one other."
- The Solitary Walker, The Spiritual Nature of Walking

"Why are there trees I never walk under but large and melodious thoughts descend upon me?" 4
- Walt Whitman

"Walking gets the feet moving, the blood moving, the mind moving. And movement is life." 4
- Carrie Latet

"When one walks, one is brought into touch first of all with the essential relations between one's physical powers and the character of the country; one is compelled to see it as its natives do. Then every man one meets is an individual." 4
- Aleister Crowley

"If adventure has a final and all-embracing motive, it is surely this: we go out because it is our nature to go out, to climb mountains, and to paddle rivers, to fly to the planets and plunge into the depths of the oceans... When man ceases to do these things, he is no longer man."
- Wilfrid Noyce

"I stroll along serenely, with my eyes, my shoes,
my rage, forgetting everything." 4
- Pablo Neruda

"My hut lies in the middle of a dense forest;
Every year the green ivy grows longer.
No news of the affairs of men,
Only the occasional song of a woodcutter.
The sun shines and I mend my robe.
When the moon comes out, I read Buddhist poems.
I have nothing to report, my friends.
If you want to find the meaning, stop chasing after so many things."
- Ryokan

"I can remember walking as a child. It was not customary to say you were fatigued. It was customary to complete the goal of the expedition." 4
- Katherine Hepburn

"Walking - the most ancient exercise and still the best modern exercise." 4
- Carrie Latet

"Climbing is the lazy man's way to enlightenment. It forces you to pay attention, because if you don't, you won't succeed, which is minor � or you may get hurt, which is major. Instead of years of meditation, you have this activity that forces you to relax and monitor your breathing and tread that line between living and dying. When you climb, you always are confronted with the edge. Hey, if it was just like climbing a ladder, we all would have quit a long time ago."
- Duncan Ferguson

"Make the commitment to gradually improve both your exercise performance and your eating habits. Take your time, what's the hurry? View it as a journey to improve yourself. Although this is difficult, focus on the journey, not the end result." 4
- Bob Greene

"My eyes already touch the sunny hill.
going far ahead of the road I have begun.
So we are grasped by what we cannot grasp;
it has inner light, even from a distance-

and charges us, even if we do not reach it,
into something else, which, hardly sensing it,
we already are; a gesture waves us on
answering our own wave...
but what we feel is the wind in our faces."
- Rainer Maria Rilke, A Walk, Translated by Robert Bly

"In the mountains there are only two grades: You can either do it, or you can't."
- Rusty Baille

"What is it that makes it so hard sometimes to determine whither we will walk? I believe that there is a subtle magnetism in Nature, which, if we unconsciously yield to it, will direct us aright. It is not indifferent to us which way we walk. There is a right way; but we are very liable from heedlessness and stupidity to take the wrong one. We would fain take that walk, never yet taken by us through this actual world, which is perfectly symbolical of the path which we love to travel in the interior and ideal world; and sometimes, no doubt, we find it difficult to choose our direction, because it does not yet exist distinctly in our idea." 4
- Henry David Thoreau

"One thing that you find out when you have been practicing mindfulness for a while is that nothing is quite as simple as it appears. This is as true for walking as it is for anything else. For one thing, we carry our mind around with us when we walk, so we are usually absorbed in our own thoughts to one extent or another. We are hardly ever just walking, even when we are just going out for a walk. Walking meditation involves intentionally attending to the experience of walking itself. This brings your attention to the actual experience of walking as you are doing it, focusing on the sensations in your feet and legs, feeling your whole body moving. You can also integrate awareness of your breathing with the experience." 4
- John Kabat-Zinn

"The journey is never over. Only travelers come to an end. The end of one journey is simply the start of another. You have to see what you missed the first time, see again what you already saw, see in springtime what you saw in summer, in daylight what you saw at night, see the sun shining where you saw the rain falling, see the crops growing, the fruit ripen, the stone which has moved, the shadow that was not there before. You have to go back to the footsteps already taken, to go over them again or add fresh ones alongside them. You have to start the journey anew. Always. The traveller sets out once more."
- Jose Saramago

"The mere thought of walking outdoors on a brilliant golden-blue day causes fire-works of delight to go off in most people�s psyche. It gives one an instant feeling of happiness and that is meditation! We are not
only in touch, at that moment, with the physical splendour of nature, but also with the beauty of merging our own spiritual nature with it." 4
- Karen Zebroff

�May you always walk in sunshine.
May you never want for more.
May Irish angels rest their wings right beside your door.� 4
- Irish Blessing

"We should go forth on the shortest walk, perchance in the spirit of undying adventure, never to return - sending back our embalmed hearts only as relics to our desolate kingdoms." 4
- Henry David Thoreau

"On this proud and beautiful mountain we have lived hours of fraternal, warm and exalting nobility. Here for a few days we have ceased to be slaves and have really been men. It is hard to return to servitude."
- Lionel Terray

"Long distance hiking is not a vacation, it�s too long for that. It�s not recreation, too much toil and pain involved. It is, we decide, a way of life, a very simplified Spartan way of living � life on the move � heavy packs, sweating brow; they make you appreciate warm sunshine, companionship, cool water. The best way to appreciate these things that are precious and important in life it is take them away." 4
- Cindy Ross, Journey on the Crest

"Part of the challenge in taking up Zen training is appreciating that formal study is focused and dedicated, but also in a certain sense contrived. Each step in kinhin is a wondrous linking of breath and mind and sangha and self, and is obviously also walking in circles really slowly in a cramped room. It�s a device, and it�s mysteriously right. It�s very ordinary, and it�s as extraordinary as the universe itself." 4
- Bonnie Myotai Treace, Moonlit Window

"'Walking' [by H.D. Thoreau] is a lyrical, meandering essay on the value of sauntering and on the preservation of what is wild in the world. It is an amazing, impassioned work, especially considering it was published well before the automobile came to define the limits of our experience of place. It is a call to participation in the world, for living among that which is untamed." 4
- Zane Parker

"In a sense everything that is exists to climb. All evolution is a climbing towards a higher form. Climbing for life as it reaches towards the consciousness, towards the spirit. We have always honored the high places because we sense them to be the homes of gods. In the mountains there is the promise of... something unexplainable. A higher place of awareness, a spirit that soars. So we climb... and in climbing there is more than a metaphor; there is a means of discovery."
- Rob Parker

"I grew up in New Hampshire. My closest neighbor was a mile away. The deer and the raccoons were my friends. So I would spend time walking through the woods, looking for the most beautiful tropical thing that can survive the winter in the woods in New Hampshire."
- Steven Tyler

"There's some end at last for the man who follows a path: mere rambling is indeterminable."
- Seneca

"Many of the Anglican meditation manuals used by Druids in the early years of the Revival gave special instructions for meditating while walking in a garden or some other quiet area. To meditate while walking, choose a route over level ground where you won't have to bend, climb stairs, duck around trees, or do anything else that will interrupt your thoughts. A paved or gravel path in a garden is ideal. It should lead in a circle, so that you can keep walking as long as necessary. Walk slowly and smoothly, taking relatively small steps at a steady rhythm. As with the seated posture, you spine should be straight without being stiff, the crown of your head level, and your eyes lowered. Let your arms move easily and naturally at your sides."
- John Michael Greer, The Druidry Handbook: Spiritual Practice Rooted in the Living Earth

"Remember that time spent on a rock climb isn't subtracted from your life span."
- Will Niccolls

"Poetry is a vocation. It is not a career but a calling. For as long as I can remember, I have associated that calling, my life's work, with walking. I love the leisurely amplitude, the spaciousness, of taking a walk, of heading somewhere, anywhere, on foot. I love the sheer adventure of it, setting out and taking off. You cross a threshold and you're on your way. Time is suspended. Writing poetry is such an intense experience that it helps to start the process in a casual or wayward frame of mind. Poetry is written from the body as well as the mind, and the rhythm and pace of a walk can get you going and keep you grounded. It's a kind of light meditation. Daydreaming is one of the key sources of poetry -- a poem often starts as a daydream that finds its way into language -- and walking seems to bring a different sort of alertness, an associative kind of thinking, a drifting state of mind."
- Robert Hirsch, Walking with His Muse, A Poet Becomes His Own Destination

Red Bluff, Tehama County, North Sacramento Valley, Northern Central California, U.S.A.
Cities in the area: Oroville, Paradise, Durham, Chico, Hamilton City, Orland, Willows, Corning,
Rancho Tehama, Los Molinos, Tehama, Proberta, Gerber, Manton, Cottonwood,
Anderson, Shasta Lake, Palo Cedro, and Redding, CA, California.

This website was first published on the Internet WWW in April, 2008.
Much of the content in the website was first published on the Internet WWW in 2000 at the Spirit of Gardening website.

Walking, Walks, Walkabouts, Walker, Hiker, Hike, Hikes, Trails
Sauntering, Meandering, Strolling, Wander, Wandering, Saunter
Promenade, Ambulate, Shuffle, Fast Walking, Competitive Walking
Gait, Stride, Limp, Pace, March, Quick Step, Browse, Window Shopping, Sight Seeing
Walking Medicine, Exercisewalking, Walking Workouts, Sportwalking, Travelwalking
Walking Meditation, Contemplative Walks, Kinhin, Pilgrimages, Stroll, Tramping
Labyrinths, Sacred Circles, Meditative Contemplative Walking, Pilgrims
Marching, Parading, Circumnavigation, Hobble, Sleepwalk, Stagger
Plod, Plodding, Strut, Strutting, Toddle, Dash, Scramble, Trudge, Scurry
Journey, Journeys, Trailwalks, Trailhikes
Path, Pathway, Trail, Sidewalk, Road, Circumambulating
Walking Spirituality, Religion, Pilgrimages, Walks, Pilgrims, Spirit
Quotations, Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Aphorisms, Quips, Epigrams, Cliches
Bibliography, Links, Resources, Guides, Commentary, Notes, Journal
Ba Gua Zhang, Pa Kua Chang, Circle Walking, Walking Martial Arts
Hiking, Trekking, Mountaineering
Promenade, Marche, Fl�nez, Fl�nerie, Hausse, Alpinisme
Wandern, Wanderung, Weg, Gehen, Schlendern Sie, Saunter, Bergsteigen
Caminata, El Caminar, Alza, El Ir de Excursion, Mountaineering
Camminata, Camminare, Aumento, Passeggi,
Прогулка, Гулять, Погуляйте,

Hiking in Tehama, Shasta, Butte, Glenn County Counties California CA America USA

Red Bluff, Tehama County, North Sacramento Valley, Northern California, U.S.A.
Cities and small towns in the area: Oroville, Paradise, Durham, Chico, Hamilton City,
Corning, Rancho Tehama, Los Molinos, Vina, Tehama, Proberta, Gerber,
Manton, Cottonwood, Olinda, Cloverdale, Dairyville, Bend, Centerville, Summit City
Anderson, Shasta Lake, Palo Cedro, Igo, Ono, Redding, Shasta, Colusa, Willows,
Richfield, Fall River, Montgomery Creek, Alturas, McCloud, Dunsmuir, Yreka, Happy Camp,
Shingletown, Burney, Mt. Shasta City, Weaverville, Williams, Chester, Orland,
Susanville, Weed, Gridley, Marysville, Yuba City, NorCalifia, CA, California.

Quotations, Quotes, Sayings, Poems, Aphorisms, Quips, Epigrams, Cliches
Analogies, Similies, Metaphors, Symbolism
Bibliography, Links, Resources, Guides, Commentary, Notes, Journal

"If you have men who will exclude any of God's creatures from the shelter of compassion and pity, you will have men who will deal likewise with their fellow men."
- St. Francis of Assisi

Bodyweight Pounds	Speed of Walking in Miles Per Hour on a Level Surface
Bodyweight Pounds	2.0	2.5	3.0	3.5	4.0	4.5	5.0
100	57	55	53	52	57	64	73
120	68	65	64	62	68	76	87
140	80	76	74	73	80	89	102
160	91	87	85	83	91	102	116
180	102	98	95	94	102	115	131
200	114	109	106	104	114	127	145
220	125	120	117	114	125	140	160
250	142	136	133	130	142	159	182
275	156	150	146	143	156	175	200
300	170	164	159	156	170	191	218

Bodyweight Pounds	Speed of Walking in Miles Per Hour on a Level Surface
Bodyweight Pounds	2.0	2.5	3.0	3.5	4.0	4.5	5.0
100	114	138	159	182	228	288	365
120	136	163	192	217	272	342	435
140	160	190	222	255	320	400	510
160	182	218	255	290	364	459	580
180	204	245	285	329	408	518	655
200	228	273	318	364	456	572	725
220	150	300	351	399	500	630	800
250	284	340	399	455	568	715	910
275	312	375	438	500	624	788	1000
300	340	410	477	546	680	860	1090

Months and Seasons Quotes, Poems, Sayings, Verses, Lore, Myths, Holidays Celebrations, Folklore, Reading, Links, Quotations Information, Weather, Gardening Chores Compiled by Mike Garofalo
Winter	Spring	Summer	Fall
January	April	July	October
February	May	August	November
March	June	September	December

The Ways of Walking
Strolling, Sauntering, Meandering, Hiking, Wandering, Walks, Hikes, Trekking, Tramping
Quotations 5

Quotations, Poems, Lore, Quips, Wisdom, Sayings

Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Ways of Walking Strolling, Sauntering, Meandering, Hiking, Wandering, Walks, Hikes, Trekking, Tramping Quotations 5

Quotations, Poems, Lore, Quips, Wisdom, Sayings

Research by Michael P. Garofalo

The Ways of Walking
Strolling, Sauntering, Meandering, Hiking, Wandering, Walks, Hikes, Trekking, Tramping
Quotations 5