Six Things I Learned While Walking Across Kansas

A slow trek across the Central Plains

Comedian Steven Wright once quipped, “Everywhere is in walking distance if you have the time.”

Well, I had the time.

It was summer of 1998 and I was a high school math teacher with no plans for my vacation time. I was also recently divorced.

I lived and taught in Wichita, Kansas but I owned a business three hours away in Lawrence, Kansas. I found myself on the road between the cities weekly.

I knew every inch of that route.

I used to play a game with myself as I tried to pass the time behind the wheel. I would look around at the scenery and try to guess the next mile marker. I was seldom more than a mile or two off.

I had just finished the school year and my 30th birthday was around the corner.

How well did I really know the trip across Kansas that I did weekly?

Since I had no major plans that summer, I decided that I would walk to Lawrence from Wichita. By car, it was about 150 miles. By the time I walked it, it was well over 200 miles.

I packed a bag, bought myself a new pair of hiking boots, and planned a route. I would camp out when I had to and if I was lucky enough to be in a larger city at the end of a day, I would stay in hotels. My route only went through three towns big enough for a hotel.

Without ceremony, I left my house out of my front door and walked down the driveway.

Just getting out of the city seemed to take hours.

Walking, I decided, was going to be a very slow way to see Kansas. But I continued.

Here are six things I learned during my walk.

1. Finding a route was tough

Walking the shortest route was hard to do. It was practically illegal.

The two routes that were the most direct were the highway and the train tracks. Both were illegal to walk on.

I had planned to follow the train tracks as much as possible. Besides being illegal, this wasn’t exactly the best way to travel by foot.

The railroad ties were not evenly spaced. They were probably spaced out just a little less than a natural pace and a little too far apart to make it so you landed on one every other pace.

Between the railroad tracks, it was rocky and uneven. Because of those facts, you had to watch every step.

The railroads themselves were build on steep, rocky mounds surrounded by weeds, trees and vegetation. Going off the tracks, especially when a train approached, could be precarious.

Cutting across a farmers’ fields was also never easy. Fields were often covered in large dirt clods, troughs from plowing, rocks and creeks hidden from view from the road. Crossing a field was always a gamble that seldom paid off.

The highways were illegal, scary and boring.

So, I traveled mostly on dirt roads. As any of my Geometry students could tell you, walking the legs of a right triangle is much farther than following the hypotenuse. The slow trip took much longer because of the extra miles.

2. Choose your shoes wisely

The next thing I learned had to do with my footwear.

I had bought a brand-new pair of really good hiking boots.

I made the rookie mistake of not breaking them in first. This certainly contributed to my sore feet. But even if they had been broken in, they were way too heavy. Every mile I walked they felt heavier and heavier.

Since I was mostly on dirt roads, I would have been much better off in a lightweight pair of running shoes. Lesson learned.

3. Nature is amazing

Another thing that I learned was how abundant Kansas was with wildlife.

Birds of ever kind were omnipresent. Rabbits, squirrels, mice and snakes could be found in large numbers in every county.

What amazed me the most were the deer. I probably saw a dozen a day.

You don’t see as many in a car because they hear you coming, they stay away from roads, or you are not looking for them.

At 4 miles per hour, you can’t help but seeing them.

Flowers, trees, prairies, creeks and rivers were works of art and I had a daily private viewing.

4. People areinherently good

I learned something that I have always known but was reminded of frequently on my journey as I met folks along the way. People are amazing and accommodating .

Three different people let me sleep in their house without me asking along the way. Another stopped while I was getting poured on during a thunderstorm to let me know the area was under a tornado warning. She let me and my rain-soaked gear ride in her expensive SUV and gave me a ride into town to safety.

All along the journey, many people would stop and jump out of their air-conditioned cars just to talk and ask me about my journey. Often, they gave me bottles of water or pop. One guy even offered me a beer one day.

Most people at their core are truly kind and helpful. I was amazed.

5. I learned who I really was

The fifth thing I learned was about myself. This was probably the real reason for the walk in the first place.

When you have nothing but painful slow mile after slow mile, you escape into your head and get lost in your thoughts. This slow trek helped me come to terms with my divorce, turning 30 and various life choices. It was extremely cathartic.

6. Walking is a slow way to get somewhere

Lastly, what I learned was how slow walking was as a mode of transportation. The journey took me 12 days, averaging about 17 miles a day. I was sore at the end of every day.

I learned a lot about walking, about Kansas and about myself. Everyday, I was one with nature and my surroundings. I was in awe of its beauty.

I also learned I would never attempt something like that again but I am glad I did it.

After that, I chose bicycling for cross-country trips. It was just as healthy, I saw just as much, it hurt way less and getting to my destination was much faster!

Here is an excerpt from my first bicycle trip across the western United States:

Here is another story by Curt: