Dozens of people have let me walk beside them and/or patiently answered my interminable questions over the past few years. This book would not have been possible without their generosity and wisdom. Most of their names appear in these pages already, and many should be mentioned again.
In Quebec, Stanley Vollant, Jean-Charles Fortin and Jesse Schnobb, who set the tone for my entire journey; in Glasgow, Rich Mitchell, Heather MacLeod and the members of the New Victoria Hospital health walk group; in Philadelphia, Sgt. Bisarat Worede and the foot patrol officers of the 22nd District; in New York City, Matt Green, who is doing so much more than “just” walking; in southwestern Scotland, geographer Joseph Murphy; in Ottawa, letter carrier Christine Murray, dog walkers Brecken Hancock and Andrew Markle, school travel activist Wallace Beaton, kung fu grandmaster Jacques Patenaude and Member of Provincial Parliament John Fraser; in England’s Lake District, Member of Parliament Rory Stewart and legendary guide Chris Wright, who led me on an unforgettable hike to the top of Helvellyn; in Brooklyn, journalist Norman Oder and Todd Shalom and Ben Weber of Elastic City; in Sunderland, U.K., Mike Collier, who changed the way I think about art; in Wales, outfitter Peter Hewlett, who made sure all I had to worry about was walking; and in Tamworth, Ontario, Carolyn Butts and Hans Honegger, whose heritage apartment, creative energy and loaner snowshoes made for a fantastic writing retreat.
My extraordinary agent, Martha Magor Webb of Anne McDermid & Associates, was an enthusiastic supporter from the start. So was Kevin Patterson, whose passion for embarking on and writing about long walks sent me down this trail.
The team at ECW Press has been wonderful to work with and essential every step of the way: editor Jen Knoch was complimentary and critical in the right way, at the right time; co-publishers Jack David and David Caron gave me the freedom to say what I wanted; sales and marketing director Erin Creasey got the book out into the world; publicist Sarah Dunn and social media specialist Alexis Van Straten convinced people to read it; art director Rachel Ironstone gave it the right look and feel; designer David Gee nailed the cover; copy editor Stuart Ross caught my mistakes; and managing editor Crissy Calhoun kept us on track throughout the entire process.
Several magazines sent me on trips and/or published stories that were vital building blocks. Thank you to Amy Macfarlane at The Walrus, Deb Cummings and Jill Foran at Up!, Julie Traves at the Globe and Mail, Robert Guest at The Economist, Ilana Weitzman at enRoute, Natasha Mekhail at Spafax, David Fielding at Canadian Business, Rebecca Caldwell and Jay Teitel at Cottage Life, James Little at explore, Matthew Blackett and Dylan Reid at Spacing, and Sarah Brown and Dayanti Karunaratne at Ottawa Magazine. Other writer and editor friends have provided invaluable advice and encouragement: Rick Boychuk, Eric Harris, Alan Morantz, Allan Casey, Curtis Gillespie, Chris Turner, Marcello Di Cintio, Scott Messenger, Craille Maguire Gillies and many more whose names I have surely neglected to mention. (My bad!)
I lean heavily on several books in this work, in particular the Rebecca Solnit classic Wanderlust, Jeff Speck’s indispensable Walkable City, Charles Montgomery’s thought-provoking The Happy City and Trevor Herriot’s deeply moving The Road Is How. I urge you to read them all.
The Canada Council for the Arts, Ontario Arts Council and Canadian Institutes of Health Research provided much appreciated grant funding.
To all my friends and family — especially my parents, my grandmother, my brothers and their families — thank you for steering me in the right direction, and for listening to me rant about walking with good humour.
And last, but most certainly not least, thank you to my daughters, Maggie and Daisy, and to my wife, Lisa Gregoire, the best writer I know, for allowing this project to share our home and our lives.