San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
The lifechanging magic of going for a walk
Shundo David Haye has probably walked through more parts of San Francisco than you have. The Zen priest leads urban hikes in which he takes groups through some of the city’s most scenic enclaves, many of them unknown to even longtime city residents: the Harry Street steps, the Sunnyside Conservatory, the Florida Alley Trail. His Meetup group, Roaming Zen (meetup.com/RoamingZen) counts more than 500 members.
But when shelterinplace orders came into effect, Haye was suddenly unable to lead group hikes. So instead, he started publishing guides to “social distancing roams.” Inspired by the popular 17mile Crosstown Trail, with its highly specific cues, Haye has drawn from his own memories — and from maps — to provide stepbystep instructions for urban trails that pass through Russian Hill, Mount Olympus, Ocean Beach and more.
He hopes that, in this time of isolation, going for walks can help San Franciscans discover the beauty of their city in a new way and feel connected to each other. “It’s a cooperative feeling, like we’re all in this together,” he says of going for walks right now. He loves seeing the messages of support posted in people’s windows.
Almost all of us are walking less right now. Under stayathome orders, our worlds have contracted. Data confirm this: According to Fitbit, the mobility index of its San Francisco users was down about 20% by the end of March. (The index measures how daily step counts compare with the expected step count based on last year’s data.) San Francisco Fitbit users between ages 18 and 29 showed the largest decrease in steps of any age group.
But for many of us, what’s taken the place of all the incidental walking we used to do — the thoughtless steps logged during daily trips to the store and commutes to work — is a different, more intentional sort of walking, the sort that Haye wants to promote. It’s an enormous, if subtle, silver lining to the forced isolation of the coronavirus crisis: Many of us are discovering, maybe for the first time in our lives, the deep pleasure of going for a walk just for the sake of going for a walk.
And in the process, we’re seeing our neighborhoods with fresh eyes.
At least, I know that I am. Before shelter in place, walking just to walk — not as a means of transportation or a quaint sort of social activity — was something I always thought I didn’t have time for. I run multiple times a week and would never have wanted to take up precious exercise time with the far less efficient mode of walking. I love hiking, which is walking, but I always thought it had to be difficult, sweatinducing, to justify itself.
Turns out, I was missing
In a way, since shelter in place began, I feel as if I’ve seen San Francisco for the first time.
out on some health benefits this whole time. The gains from regular walks in nature, science suggests, can be profound. The Japanese concept of shinrinyoku, or forest bathing, has been linked to psychological benefits like reduced stress. Spending at least 120 minutes a week in nature has shown to correlate with overall health and wellbeing, according to a 2019 study. There’s even evidence (this blew my mind) that walking in the woods can boost our immune systems because we may be ingesting phytoncides, the microorganisms that plants produce in order to protect themselves.
Of course, while the coronavirus is still spreading among our community, there is a real risk of contracting the virus while out on a walk, which would certainly be a negative health outcome. So I’ll remind you all to continue to practice physical distancing and not to touch any surfaces while you’re out.
Haye finds it amusing that we cling to scientific studies to tell us that walking is healthy. “People instinctively know that walking is good for them,” he says. The studies just confirm what we already knew. (“I feel the same way about meditation,” he adds, alluding to research that has shown that meditation can change some people’s brains.)
And anyway, the real benefit of walking — at least for me, over the past five weeks — has nothing to do with phytoncides. It has to do with rediscovering the place where I live. In a way, since shelter in place began, I feel as if I’ve seen San Francisco for the first time.
To begin with, there are all the children. They’re everywhere! I never saw this many kids around my neighborhood, even on weekends when they weren’t in school. And don’t get me started on all the adorable dogs. While walking, I’ve noticed people I normally saw on my morning bus commute, but now in a different context, with their families or pets. On the bus, we all tended to keep our eyes down, focused on our private stresses; now when we pass each other on the street, we eagerly make eye contact.
I live in a neighborhood that I already knew was picturesque, the Richmond District. Golden Gate Park was already a part of my routine before the coronavirus, but I used it as a treadmill. I rarely paid attention to its details or veered off the main paths. And while I sometimes went for runs in the Presidio, its hilly, winding geography always felt too timeconsuming to master.
That sense of mystery is what I love so much about my Presidio walks, which have now become my daily reward for finishing work. It seems like every day I can chart a new course. The Presidio has hidden stairways. Hawks circling overhead. Clearings in the forest that afford a stunning view of Telegraph Hill and the bay in the distance. Trail offshoots that deadend at a hidden lake, crackling with light. And the shock of turning a corner and seeing the strangely beautiful San Francisco National Cemetery, its green slope dotted with 30,000 white graves, whose effect right now feels more wrenching than ever. My overwhelming feeling on these Presidio walks is gratitude — for my health and my job, but also just for living in San Francisco. And maybe it’s because seeing other people has a novelty factor now, but acknowledging strangers with a wave or a hello makes me feel like I’m part of a community in a way that I haven’t always felt here.
As with other newly popular activities like baking bread and eating dinner with your family, it feels a little ridiculous that it took a pandemic to spur widespread enthusiasm for something as fundamental as going for a walk. But better late than never.
“San Francisco is full of amazing corners. It’s so green, and there’s so much to discover,” says Haye. Walking feels different these days, he says, with fewer cars on the road and no construction noise.
“There’s this feeling that the city has been given back to the people.”
Esther Mobley is The San Francisco Chronicle’s wine critic. Email: emobley@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @Esther_mobley Instagram: @esthermob