The Gentle Art of Wandering – BionicOldGui

I enjoyed this book by David Ryan. He lives in New Mexico and does volunteer work finding archaeological sites for the US Bureau of Land Management. So it’s not surprising that the book opens with stories of his wanderings in his local area, finding important sites and artifacts, including the 10,000-year-old Folsom Man arrowhead. By the end of the chapter I was convinced that his rambling ideas would be great in a fascinating area like this.

But what about a more urban area? He answers this in the next chapter by describing a trip to Los Angeles, better known for highways than wandering on foot. But during his visit he finds a theme there. Before cars were king, the LA area was served by an intercity transit system nicknamed “the big red cars.” It turns out that many stairs are installed in hilly areas to provide access to transit stations. The transit system is gone, many lines are buried under city streets. But many steps remain. So he set himself the task of finding as many pedestrians as possible during his visit, and he found not only stairs but also many interesting places near them. The book continues like this, describing different areas across the US. And it’s not all on foot, he also shows how to spice up your car journey this way.

It always helps to have a theme for an adventure. Obviously it would be for me railway tracks. In the US, we’ve turned thousands of miles of abandoned railroad tracks into trail systems that function like linear parks and are great for walking and biking. I’ve visited all of the ones in my local area, but there are many further out in California that might increase interest in visiting other cities. And I would definitely want to make this a priority when visiting other parts of the US.

David also has a website with resources and stories about his recent adventures.