I’ve loved doing the fieldwork for our monthlong series on walking. (You can find the previous installments here.) This week, we are livening up our walk by turning it into a microadventure, imbued with a sense of curiosity and exploration.
I tapped a few experts for inspiration and learned you don’t need to go far for a little novelty. It’s all in the approach.
Take a “scent walk.”
Tejal Rao, the California restaurant critic at The Times, built a “personal smell museum” of Los Angeles, where she lives.
As Rao made her way through the city, she jotted down the aromas in a notebook. Her discoveries included the scent of frying onions from her neighbor’s kitchen and the “sticky, piney aroma of sage bushes and rosemary.”
I decided to take a “scent walk” with my best friend, Julie, who lives in Morningside Heights in New York City. As we walked with her Boston terrier, we detected notes of butter and vanilla wafting from a bakery, mulch from a community garden and a sewage scent from a puddle. (That last one was unpleasant for us, but Julie reminded me that “it’s like Chanel No. 5” for her dog.)
Look for wildlife.
Every environment has a variety of living creatures, said Sgt. Rob Mastrianni, a park ranger in Manhattan, who recommended taking a walk with the express goal of spotting wildlife. He suggested turning over logs to see bugs and salamanders, and also remembering to look up. New York City, for example, is home to bald eagles, “but people won’t realize there’s an eagle circling above them,” he said. You can use an app like the Merlin Bird ID to identify the birds you see.
Pattie Gonia, a drag queen and environmentalist who leads hikes as part of her mission to get marginalized people outdoors, pointed out that squirrels were surefire entertainment. “They’re always in a war with each other,” she said. “It’s endless melodrama, like a tree version of the Kardashians.”
Embrace the weather.
If there’s a safe way to take a walk in the rain, wind or fog, “lean into the elements,” said Rob Walker, the author of “The Art of Noticing,” a book about finding opportunities to be amazed in everyday life. Revel in the dramatically shifting landscapes — the drama of wind whipping through the trees, or the way that rain can make greenery look more vivid.
“I don’t want to encourage anyone to go kick a football around in a hurricane,” Walker said. “But we could all probably get, like, 10 percent braver about the weather.”
Explore a new corner of your neighborhood.
There are likely things you’ve never noticed within a few miles of your home, Walker said. I followed his advice and discovered a park that I’d never visited. I’ve also found that cemeteries — a blend of nature, architecture and history — are a guaranteed microadventure. I’ve wandered among the headstones and speculated on whether the names Ebenezer or Euphronia will ever become popular again.
Many communities, Walker added, have an “informal neighborhood historian who loves to go on about the back story of this house or the secret history of that park.” Use them as a resource, he said. I have a chatty neighbor who always stops me to talk about local lore (or gossip). So I proposed a walk, and he led me to a house that was part of the Underground Railroad.
If you live in a city, try organizing a food tour on foot, Pattie Gonia said. Grab a friend, walk for a while, stop and split a bite, and then walk some more. Who’s going to say no to a taco walk?
To close out our walking series next week, I’ll be talking to David Sedaris, author of “Happy-Go-Lucky” and a longtime walking enthusiast.
Fuel your microadventure walk with a trail mix recipe from Genevieve Ko.
Before you head out, whip up this easy salty-sweet trail mix created by Ko, an editor for New York Times Cooking. (You do need to subscribe to cook this recipe, along with the tens of thousands of others.) This version has minimal sugar, vinegar for tanginess and toasted nuts for zip. Perfect for an adventure walk.
Get the recipe: Salty Sweet Trail Mix
The American Medical Association recommends doctors move beyond B.M.I. alone to assess weight and health.
Critics have long argued that body mass index, a medical screening tool, is an inaccurate measure of health. The A.M.A.’s new policy, adopted last week, could be a first step in moving away from a model of medicine that urges people above a certain B.M.I. to lose weight.
Read the story: Medical Group Says B.M.I. Alone Is Not Enough to Assess Health and Weight
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