No books have turned conventional wisdom on walking in and around this city on its head like those written by retired mathemati¬cian Charles Clapham.
A former city councilor and veteran urban walker called Clapham’s second book, Walk the Burrard Loop, “the most subversive book I’ve read about the Vancouver region in years.
“Though the most commonly used words in the book are ‘left’ and ‘right,” wrote Gordon Price, “it demolishes the boundaries of paro¬chialism regardless of political stripe. After close reading, you will never see the region the same [way] again.”
What Clapham had done in this and an earlier book, Walk Horseshoe Bay to the USA (both from Peanut Butter Publishing and available in some bookstores), is devise entirely new walking routes — really a series of daily walks that, if completed, make for a memorable collective experience and show off the region at its natural best.
Importantly, both books also show how you can walk in one direction and return by public transit — an almost subversive suggestion, as Price notes, in this auto-dependent culture. Further, every walk is described in copious detail — with a map, distances (down to a fraction of a kilometer), and the projected time it will take. Bits of history, ecology, politics, and whatever help you understand and enjoy the landscape.
Walk Horseshoe Bay to the USA follows the West Vancouver shoreline, around the Point Grey peninsula to South Vancouver, and on to Richmond, Tsawwassen, Boundary Bay, and White Rock. Walk the Burrard Loop begins downtown, then follows North Vancouver’s waterworn landscapes of Mosquito and Lynn creeks to Burnaby Mountain, the Coquitlam and Pitt rivers, and back to Burnaby Lake Park and Vancouver’s Renfrew Ravine. Walks average eight or nine miles.
Price, who walked the Burrard Loop, added: “Vancouver.. . is a pro¬foundly rural city, though you’d never know it from the front seat of an suv. Clapham reveals how you can better experience the farthest parts of this region more conveniently if you don’t use a car.”
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