iWalk.2020.01.05 Neighborhoodwatch

I started cycling as a way to exercise that would avoid hurting my hips and knees. In the short term, walking a couple or three miles causes me discomfort; however, in the longer term the effect of 'shock loading' in moderation seems to benefit my leg joints and muscles. Today, I noticed two immediate differences from bicycling: my feet stayed warm; I had to turn around to see behind me. Comically I found myself glancing down to where my rearview mirror would have been if I had been on my bicycle!

Following the exemplary activities of a neighborhood Strava user, I plan to take short walks more often. I say walks, but my current gait is more lumbering and trundling than sprightly striding with a spring in my step. A police constable plodding a beat on foot patrol at 2.5mph would easily be catch me. Not that I have done anything wrong, mark you! I hope I can make performance improvements over time.

We live on the east side of the valley, which means the sunlight doesn't reach us until well after the eastern side of the valley has started to enjoy that benefit. Dawn is more complex than a single time at any particular place. At this latitude and longitude on this day of the year, astronomical dawn was at 06:15; nautical dawn (not useful data when we are 415 nautical miles from the coast) was at 06:46; civil dawn was at 07:19.

I started out at 08:00 when the snow on the tops of the Pine Valley Mountains to the west had turned from pink to white. It was 09:00 before the sun found the gap in the escarpment to the east of us and I was able to walk in sunshine. The air was cold and crisp after overnight frost, which made for agreeable walking conditions even though the temperature hovered around freezing point.

As ever, I was astounded by how much there was to see. Now that I am writing for an international audience, I recalled the visual newness I experienced almost nineteen years ago when I first arrived here to live. Some of that has never worn off and often I feel like a stranger in a foreign land. I am going to try and communicate that in my photos and writing as I continue to go walking.

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