The gentle art of wandering

I enjoyed this book by David Ryan. He lives in New Mexico and volunteers to search for archaeological sites for the U.S. Bureau of Land Management. So it’s not surprising that the book begins with stories of his wanderings around his area, finding important sites and artifacts, including a Folsom Man arrowhead that’s 10,000 years old. By the end of the chapter I was convinced that his ideas about wandering would be great in a fascinating area like this.

But what about a more urban area? He answers that in the next chapter by describing a trip to Los Angeles, better known for its freeways than for wandering on foot. But during a visit there he finds a theme. Before cars were king, the LA area was served by an intercity transit system nicknamed “the big red cars.” It appears that in hilly areas, many stairs have been constructed to provide access to the transit stops. Public transport has disappeared, many of the lines buried under the city streets. But many of the stairs remain. So he made it his mission to find as many people as possible on foot during a visit, and found not only the stairs, but also a lot of interesting places nearby. The book continues like this and describes different areas in the US. And it’s not just on foot, he also shows how you can make road trips in the car even more fun this way.

It always helps to have a theme for the adventure. An obvious one would be for me rail trails. In the US, we have converted thousands of miles of abandoned railways into trails that function as linear parks and are ideal for walking and cycling. I’ve visited all of them in my area, but there are many further afield in California that could make visiting other cities more interesting. And I would definitely make this a priority when I visit other parts of the US.

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