I walk - therefore I am

A walk last year in the Cascades of Oregon

During a rain soaked and cold field trial last weekend I sat at the keyboard of my laptop while in our RV and wrote the below "poem" to walking.

On a bright day after Thanksgiving, Bailey, Chloe and I took a walk in the hills above the suburban town of Walnut Creek that we call home.


There is a poetic essence to a walk on “Black Friday” where for two hours you see no one except for a few others off in the distance walking their dogs. “Happy Black Friday” the young man at the drive through espresso shop told me as I was heading to the “hills” at 7am. “Thanks, I’ll be enjoying the non-crowds.”


Walking in the hills has always been my passion. Give me a dirt trail and good weather and I am in heaven. This has been the case since I was 5.


A meadow north of Crater Lake Oregon



I started my morning on a two lane road out of my driveway and then on to a larger road to an even larger expressway that took me to smaller artery road that crossed the one lane road that went up the hill to where we park. All in all about a half hour drive. Once the Jeep was parked and the dogs were unloaded we started out on our two-hour walk.


Spring time in the Cascades



As Bailey and Chloe ran ahead and enjoyed the scents and textures of nature on a late November morning, I relished the enjoyment of the weather and surroundings. The well-worn East Bay Park District trail opened up to a huge bowl of brush and natural vegetation after about a mile.

 Bailey and Chloe enjoyed the warmth of the sun as they ran off the normal beaten path used by hundreds of local hikers. The temperature was under freezing (29 degrees) but the sun felt good on the skin and the winds were light out of the south.
Both dog’s tails were up at the extreme happy attitude angle.

My life's good and is missing nothing up here in the hills.


The established trail became an open field.  Out of the field a small cow trail headed up a valley.  At the head of the small valley the trail became just the side of a hill with no visible trial at all.

Both the dogs and I found this wild and undeveloped hilly terrain heaven on earth. We don’t need holiday store sales or specials. The warm sun bathing me and my happily running dogs out in nature is as close to heaven as I need to experience until I actually make that transition.


Poems and fancy worded prose can not describe a walk with free running hunting dogs in the open spaces that are scattered through the urban landscape of the San Francisco Bay Area.

Go out every day for a walk with your dogs.  Get addicted to walking.  You will feel a great longing if your feet miss walking across the earth for more than a day.  This happens once the true addiction takes hold.