walkabout come home
May. 26th, 2020 06:06 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
jkatkinaToday I went on a walkabout. It's been years since I'd been on one -- since last time I was jobless with no need to job hunt, actually, which was in Calgary almost a decade ago, so I hadn't done one proper in Vancouver yet. Wanders, sure, long ones, sure, but a walkabout has several basic components that should be considered:
You need at least three of these for a proper walkabout. The objective is to let your feet and curiosity lead and the rest of you follow, and then find your way home from there. Cities are good for walkabouts, as you can get lost in a city and find your way again more safely than you can in the wilderness (unless you know that wilderness well).
A bus depot technically in another city. We live near the boundary between Vancouver and one of its satellite communities, although functionally they have merged together into one larger metropolis, and I wandered around outside a huge area with lots of busses just... parked.
The housing co-op nearest us. It's old, looks like it's from the 70s, but it's right next to this huge park that was moderately full of people being very respectful about social distancing.
A tall, long road leading down, down towards the ocean, looking across the way at the mountains. I walked this road for a long time, marvelling at the view.
A park at the bottom of that hill, surrounded by one of those older Vancouver neighbourhoods, where the houses are a little farther apart and the trees and shrubbery are so thick you begin to feel as if you are no longer in a city.
A trail in that park.
A smaller trail off that main one, that was obviously trodden often by human feet but also very clearly not supposed to be. It started out wide-ish and quickly got narrower and narrower, till I was sliding down a muddy incline next to a big old KEEP OUT NO TRESPASSING fence. It ended in a sharp turn into blackberry brambles and a severe incline, which in turn ended in the train tracks; I would have needed better shoes to brave that grade, as well as clothes I didn't mind getting incredibly muddy. A good trail, though, all told, 10/10 for mystery and benign transgression.
The bigger trail I mentioned before was either part of, or merged onto, the Trans-Canada Trail, which had more people on it than I was fully comfortable with, but was beautiful.
Also. Someone had build a full-on TREE FORT right off of the side of the trail at a point. It was full of teens and very high up. I got about three rungs up before I chickened out, friend, and though they were wide rungs I am a bit ashamed. I have marked the place to back to with TL so we can goad each other into bravery.
This was the end of my discoveries proper, as the Trail brought me back around to ground I had tread before (but not before a 'closed for construction' block-off that literally everyone was blatantly ignoring, which was funny as hell). There was a ton of good graffiti I saw, and some beautiful little nooks and crannies in the woods, which came as a surprise during a city walkabout.
My feet hurt, my calves hurt, my thighs hurt, my butt muscles hurt, and I am happy.
- You must have no plan for where you are going
- You must pack water and snacks and prepare for the elements
- You must have music
- You must not have a time at which you need to be home
- You must go somewhere you have never been before
You need at least three of these for a proper walkabout. The objective is to let your feet and curiosity lead and the rest of you follow, and then find your way home from there. Cities are good for walkabouts, as you can get lost in a city and find your way again more safely than you can in the wilderness (unless you know that wilderness well).
A bus depot technically in another city. We live near the boundary between Vancouver and one of its satellite communities, although functionally they have merged together into one larger metropolis, and I wandered around outside a huge area with lots of busses just... parked.
The housing co-op nearest us. It's old, looks like it's from the 70s, but it's right next to this huge park that was moderately full of people being very respectful about social distancing.
A tall, long road leading down, down towards the ocean, looking across the way at the mountains. I walked this road for a long time, marvelling at the view.
A park at the bottom of that hill, surrounded by one of those older Vancouver neighbourhoods, where the houses are a little farther apart and the trees and shrubbery are so thick you begin to feel as if you are no longer in a city.
A trail in that park.
A smaller trail off that main one, that was obviously trodden often by human feet but also very clearly not supposed to be. It started out wide-ish and quickly got narrower and narrower, till I was sliding down a muddy incline next to a big old KEEP OUT NO TRESPASSING fence. It ended in a sharp turn into blackberry brambles and a severe incline, which in turn ended in the train tracks; I would have needed better shoes to brave that grade, as well as clothes I didn't mind getting incredibly muddy. A good trail, though, all told, 10/10 for mystery and benign transgression.
The bigger trail I mentioned before was either part of, or merged onto, the Trans-Canada Trail, which had more people on it than I was fully comfortable with, but was beautiful.
Also. Someone had build a full-on TREE FORT right off of the side of the trail at a point. It was full of teens and very high up. I got about three rungs up before I chickened out, friend, and though they were wide rungs I am a bit ashamed. I have marked the place to back to with TL so we can goad each other into bravery.
This was the end of my discoveries proper, as the Trail brought me back around to ground I had tread before (but not before a 'closed for construction' block-off that literally everyone was blatantly ignoring, which was funny as hell). There was a ton of good graffiti I saw, and some beautiful little nooks and crannies in the woods, which came as a surprise during a city walkabout.
My feet hurt, my calves hurt, my thighs hurt, my butt muscles hurt, and I am happy.
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Date: 2020-05-27 04:23 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-29 07:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-27 03:35 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-29 07:30 pm (UTC)lol. we live in an apocalypse and that's weird. That sentence up there feels fake, but there it is.
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Date: 2020-05-31 11:32 pm (UTC)--Mori
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Date: 2020-06-01 04:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-29 03:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2020-05-29 07:30 pm (UTC)