How to turn your walk into a ‘Microadventure’
I loved doing the fieldwork for our month-long series on hiking. (You can find the previous installments here.) This week, we’re enlivening our hike by making it a micro-adventure infused with a sense of curiosity and exploration.
I tapped a few experts for inspiration and learned that you don’t have to go far for a little novelty. It’s all in the approach.
Take a ‘scent walk’.
Tejal Rao, the California restaurant critic at The Times, built a “personal fragrance museum” in Los Angeles, where she lives.
As Rao made her way through the city, she wrote down the scents in a notebook. Her discoveries included the smell of fried onions from her neighbor’s kitchen and the “sticky, piney aroma of sage and rosemary.”
I decided to go on a “scent walk” with my best friend, Julie, who lives in New York City’s Morningside Heights. As we walked her Boston terrier, we detected notes of butter and vanilla emanating from a bakery, mulch from a community garden, and a sewage smell from a puddle. (That last one was off-putting for us, but Julie reminded me that “it’s like Chanel No. 5” for her dog.)
Look for wildlife.
Each environment has a variety of living creatures, said Sgt. Rob Mastrianni, a park ranger in Manhattan, who recommended taking a walk for the express purpose of spotting wildlife. He suggested turning logs to see bugs and salamanders, not forgetting to look up, too. New York City, for example, is home to bald eagles, “but people won’t realize there’s an eagle circling above them,” he said. You can use an app like the Merlin Bird ID to identify the birds you see.
Pattie Gonia, a drag queen and environmental activist who leads walking tours as part of her mission to get marginalized people out, pointed out that squirrels are definitely entertainment. “They are always at war with each other,” she said. “It’s endless melodrama, like a boom version of the Kardashians.”
Embrace the weather.
If there’s a safe way to take a walk in the rain, wind, or fog, “lean against the elements,” says Rob Walker, the author of “The Art of Noticing,” a book about finding possibilities to amaze you in everyday life. Enjoy the dramatically changing landscapes – the drama of the wind blowing through the trees, or the way rain can make green look more vibrant.
“I don’t want to encourage anyone to go and kick a football in a hurricane,” Walker said. “But we could probably all get 10 percent braver about the weather.”
Explore a new corner of your neighborhood.
There are probably things you’ve never noticed within a few miles of your home, Walker said. I followed his advice and discovered a park I had never visited. I’ve also found that cemeteries – a mix of nature, architecture and history – are a guaranteed micro-adventure. I’ve scoured the tombstones and speculated whether the names Ebenezer or Euphronia will ever become popular again.
Many communities, Walker added, have an “informal neighborhood historian who is happy to share the backstory of this home or the secret history of that park.” Use them as a resource, he said. I have a chatty neighbor who always stops me from discussing local knowledge (or gossip). So I suggested a walk, and he led me to a house that was part of the Underground Railroad.
If you live in a city, try organizing a food tour on foot, Pattie Gonia said. Grab a friend, walk for a while, stop and share a bite, then walk some more. Who says no to a taco walk?
To wrap up our walking series next week, I talk to David Sedaris, author of “Happy-Go-Lucky” and an old hiking enthusiast.
Fuel your micro-adventure hike with a trail mix recipe from Genevieve Ko.
Before you head out, make this easy salty-sweet trail mix created by Ko, an editor for New York Times Cooking. (You’ll need to subscribe to cook this recipe, along with the tens of thousands of others.) This version has minimal sugar, vinegar for spiciness, and roasted nuts for spice. Perfect for an adventurous hike.
Get the recipe: Salty Sweet Trail Mix
The American Medical Association recommends that doctors go beyond BMI alone to assess weight and health.
Critics have long argued that body mass index, a medical screening tool, is an inaccurate measure of health. The AMA’s new policy, passed last week, could be a first step toward moving away from a drug model that urges people above a certain BMI to lose weight.
Read the story: Medical Group says BMI alone is not enough to assess health and weight