Tom Brown and walking attunement
Posted: Sun Feb 08, 2009 12:43 am
Don't laugh... this is what happens when you don't have TV, live on a ranch, and have no (nearby)friends.. you read a bunch of books and dig up nuggets of knowledge to pass on to Topix High Sierra Forums in the dead of night.. indeed it is well past thru-hiker midnight..
From, Tom Browns Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking:
The City Shuffle
Just as a domesticated horse walks and runs much differently than it's wild counterpart, we move much differently than our aboriginal ancestors. Evidence of this can be found in the following statement from The Gospel of The Red Man, by Earnest Thompson Seton:
In 1882, at Fort Ellice, I saw a young Cree who , on foot, had just brought in despatches from fort Qu'Appelle(125 miles away) in 25 hours. It created almost no comment.... The Tarahumare mail carrier runs 70 miles a day, every day in the week, carrying a heavy mailbag, and he doesn't know he is doing an exploit... A Hopi messenger has been known to run 120 miles in 15 hours.
These feats were not unusual. In fact it was not uncommon for an Apache boy to run 300 miles nonstop.
Even many aged Indians had an endurance that makes our modern day marathons seem like child's play. When Rick and I(Tom Brown) were about fifteen years old, we left Stalking Wolf for a campground 20 miles away. We didn't think the distance was all that great, so we decided to run. We started off at a healthy jog, and Stalking Wolf (then in his nineties) jogged right alongside us. Not only did he keep up with us, but occasionally he berated us about how sloppy and citified our gait had become after spending so much time in school.
After ten miles, Rick and I were getting very tired. At sixteen miles we had to sit down, and Stalking Wolf passed us giggling. We got up and started walking after him. We watched his footprints, hoping they would slow down or stop somewhere. A few times they did, but only in places where he had detoured to pick a few herbs. Three miles from camp, we saw plumes at the toes of his footprints, indicating that he had broken into a fast run. The plumes never got smaller. By the time we got to camp Stalking Wolf had built a shelter and a fire and was already cooking the greens he had picked.
Part of this amazing ability, of course, is conditioned endurance. But a lot of it is also technique...
Later on.. regarding the city shuffle (And being a soloist I find the following hysterically true of the groups I meet on the trail.. no offense)
Tom Writes:
Mother Nature did not mean for us to walk this way. and it becomes strikingly evident as soon as we leave the sidewalk. When we take the city shuffle back into the woods, we suffer all kinds of unexpected mishaps, from bumping and tripping over roots and rocks to sprained ankles and broken legs. Even more commonly, we clomp along a trail this way expecting to see some wildlife and then wonder why nothing shows up. Not only do we blind ourselves to what's there by looking down all the time, but we scare all the wildlife by our thrashing and pounding.
From, Tom Browns Field Guide to Nature Observation and Tracking:
The City Shuffle
Just as a domesticated horse walks and runs much differently than it's wild counterpart, we move much differently than our aboriginal ancestors. Evidence of this can be found in the following statement from The Gospel of The Red Man, by Earnest Thompson Seton:
In 1882, at Fort Ellice, I saw a young Cree who , on foot, had just brought in despatches from fort Qu'Appelle(125 miles away) in 25 hours. It created almost no comment.... The Tarahumare mail carrier runs 70 miles a day, every day in the week, carrying a heavy mailbag, and he doesn't know he is doing an exploit... A Hopi messenger has been known to run 120 miles in 15 hours.
These feats were not unusual. In fact it was not uncommon for an Apache boy to run 300 miles nonstop.
Even many aged Indians had an endurance that makes our modern day marathons seem like child's play. When Rick and I(Tom Brown) were about fifteen years old, we left Stalking Wolf for a campground 20 miles away. We didn't think the distance was all that great, so we decided to run. We started off at a healthy jog, and Stalking Wolf (then in his nineties) jogged right alongside us. Not only did he keep up with us, but occasionally he berated us about how sloppy and citified our gait had become after spending so much time in school.
After ten miles, Rick and I were getting very tired. At sixteen miles we had to sit down, and Stalking Wolf passed us giggling. We got up and started walking after him. We watched his footprints, hoping they would slow down or stop somewhere. A few times they did, but only in places where he had detoured to pick a few herbs. Three miles from camp, we saw plumes at the toes of his footprints, indicating that he had broken into a fast run. The plumes never got smaller. By the time we got to camp Stalking Wolf had built a shelter and a fire and was already cooking the greens he had picked.
Part of this amazing ability, of course, is conditioned endurance. But a lot of it is also technique...
Later on.. regarding the city shuffle (And being a soloist I find the following hysterically true of the groups I meet on the trail.. no offense)
Tom Writes:
Mother Nature did not mean for us to walk this way. and it becomes strikingly evident as soon as we leave the sidewalk. When we take the city shuffle back into the woods, we suffer all kinds of unexpected mishaps, from bumping and tripping over roots and rocks to sprained ankles and broken legs. Even more commonly, we clomp along a trail this way expecting to see some wildlife and then wonder why nothing shows up. Not only do we blind ourselves to what's there by looking down all the time, but we scare all the wildlife by our thrashing and pounding.