WALKING

By Ed Kemmick

Two years ago, after rotator cuff surgery, when almost all other forms of exercise were temporarily impossible, I took up regular walking for the first time in my life. A year later, when the Covid-19 pandemic descended on all of us, I had even more reason to keep walking.

I’m not here to tell you what you already know, that walking is one of the best forms of exercise there is, that it increases your strength and agility and that it’s good for your heart. And there really is no downside to walking. As an amateur sports enthusiast who has managed to damage both wrists, both shoulders, a knee, an ankle and an elbow over the years, I am grateful for that.

What you may not know is that walking can also be good for your mind, your disposition, your general sense of happiness. The Danish philosopher Soren Kierkegaard hit on the dual benefits of walking when he said, “every day I walk myself into a state of well-being and walk away from every illness.”

If you need inspiration to begin and to continue walking, I recommend setting yourself a goal. That may be as simple as committing to walk 10,000 steps a day, or three or four miles every other day, or whatever you’re comfortable with.

Once I began walking regularly, I set myself a different kind of goal, which was to become more familiar with Billings. It is a never-ending inspiration. Every new thing I discover on my walks makes me want to discover something else, so that I look forward to my outings as a chance to stretch my legs and nourish my brain.

I used to bicycle all over town, and as a Gazette reporter for almost 20 years I visited every corner of Billings. But it wasn’t until these past two years of walking that I felt I had really begun to know this city.

It is only while walking that you’re moving slowly enough to appreciate your surroundings, to focus in on things that you might not have noticed when you zip by in a car or perched on a bicycle.

My constant walking companion has been Xavi, a cocker spaniel-black lab mix (as far as we know), seen here on a North Side street just under the Rims.

There are so many beautiful old cars to be seen when you’re out walking, some of which are still running, while others appear to be rotting into the ground.

Because I live downtown, I initially spent a lot of time walking on the South Side, not just the oldest part of it in the vicinity of South Park, but basically the whole swath of town between South 27th Street and South Billings Boulevard, from I-90 to First Avenue South. I think I got hooked on those walks because so much of the area, from the size and style of the houses to the quirky individuality of yard ornaments, reminded me of the small town in Minnesota where I grew up.

It helped that, on a lark, I started posting on Facebook photos of oddball discoveries spotted on my walks—a frightening doll strapped like a scarecrow to a fence, an actual pay phone attached to a tree stump, and no end of antique cars, some in mint condition and some slowly sinking into the ground.

I was carrying my smartphone anyway, mostly to record my mileage, and I wasn’t aiming to create works of art, just simple snapshots of interesting finds. Once I had begun, I felt each walk had to yield at least one photo, which meant that I was paying even closer attention to my surroundings, and also meant that I had another goal.

Even at that rate, though, I found myself wanting to see new parts of town. And so we — I was accompanied by my wife, Lisa, on occasion and by my dog, Xavi, virtually every time — walked all over the downtown, too, and all over the North Side, with occasional forays to the Poet Streets, the Tree Streets, the far West End, the CentralTerry neighborhood and various corners of the Heights.

There were many other walks along the river at Mystic, Two Moon, Coulson and Riverfront parks, numerous trips to Norm’s Island and to trails on the slopes and on top of the Rims, including the Four Dances Natural Area. If any of the preceding place names don’t ring a bell, you’ve got some exploring to do.

In a way that’s difficult to describe, getting to know Billings on all these walks, paying attention to the character of neighborhoods, and seeing how they changed from season to season, rarely failed to clear my mind and lighten my mood. If my walks had that effect in 2020, in many ways so awful and sad a year, imagine what walking would do for you in a “normal” year.

Take it from me — and from Xavi and Soren Kierkegaard: if you start walking, you’ll find it hard to stop.

This photo looked to me like a movie pitch: “Angels in Bathtubs Behind Bars.”

This creepy doll was attached to a fence post in front of a South Side house.

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