Now that the semester is over, I have time to walk. This afternoon I walked around the lake, again. In the last week I’ve logged 66 kilometres, all walked on the same path under the same leaden December sky. The lake route does have a couple of advantages, though: there are places to stop and get warm if I get too cold; the path is kept relatively free of snow and, more importantly, ice; and it can’t get any duller than walking on a treadmill, can it? Usually I don’t listen to my iPod when I’m walking–I try to practice being in the moment, with varying degrees of success–but I’ve listened to the entirety of the Serial podcast in the past week, and now that I’ve finished the last episode I wonder what I’ll listen to now.
I’ve been thinking about where next summer’s big walk is going to be. The Rideau Trail? The Grand Valley Trail? The West Coast Trail? All of the Canadian options are going to be harder than the Camino or the Cotswold Way because they’re going to mean carrying food and a tent and other gear. I know I’m going to have to keep fit over the winter if I’m going to be carrying a 60 litre backpack for two weeks next summer. So I’m going to spend as much time as possible this winter trudging around the lake, one step at a time.