Philosophy of Walking and Backpacking I

Physical and psychological benefits of walking

• Walking, in the Company of Dogs

Not too long ago I was in habit the taking a whole group of border collie's on a several mile walk over the top of a mountain a few miles from my home. Some of the borders were mine, some were dogs I used to take backpacking with me, but no longer lived with me.

After the hard climb up the mountainside I would stop the dogs at a spring where they could cool off and drink Then I would sit them down and pass out beef jerky treats I had brought along in my pockets. After eating their treats the dogs would survey the empty mountaintop landscape and smell what came drifting in on the breeze (usually scent from the large deer herds up there). The dogs and I would sit for a long time in the silence and solitude before continuing our walk across the mountain and down its far side and back home.

That sounds so simple, and probably so incredibly boring, but those treks up the mountain and sitting on its top with my dog buddies has become my favorite memory from that period of my life.

Perhaps I enjoy the company of dogs so much because they are simple (minded) like me, and love nothing more then heading up a fresh trail in the morning for a several hour walk.

It also may be that my human walking companions all found better things to do, which is just what happens as kids grow up and people change. (My younger daughter Amy used to walk with me and my border collie and her shelty on our local greenbelt quite often; I can't think of anything more romantic than those days when my wife accompanied me on the same greenbelt, when we would walk for hours along the river and cottonwood woodlands and talk about our common interests and our hopes.)

I see walking as a means of getting out of the hectic pace of life I often find myself in, to slow to a pace where it is easy and natural to contemplate things like my place in this world, where I am headed, what is important and right and what is not. I get unhappy when I fill my life with so many things and so much movement that I feel like time is passing but I am not living a rich life.. Walking helps me to shed what is transitory and I move myself closer to what I see as a spiritual and authentic life.