BorderWalking is the child of stupidity and an idea file. Looking toward a period of coming unemployment I was rummaging through my papers and found a small sheet with one sentence. It said "Walk the borders of a square state."
I have lived in Colorado and spent time in Wyoming but I picked a square state with a corner whacked out of it - Utah. I picked it because it is dead center in the West where I have spent most my life and because it has a huge variety of terrain running under its borders. It only took about three miles to realize this was going to be damned hard and at the same time wholly fascinating.
Geographic borders are the result of complacent laziness. Once you start trying to walk them you realize the folks who set a lot of them had no idea about what those map lines touched. When I started this idea I was hopeful there were more people out there who might want to experience this. Perhaps not, but I'll leave this site open for a while just in case.
A STRANGE CHALLENGEBorderWalking is a triple challenge to
geocachers, hikers, river travelers and other outdoor folks. Unlike geocaching, which involves following GPS waypoints along a pre-established route to find a cache, BorderWalking involves traversing an existing state border. A BorderWalker logs waypoints as close as possible to the actual state border. The first part of the triple challenge is traversing a route as close to the borderline itself as possible. The second part of the challenge is documenting the trip with a narrative and photos. This part of the challenge has an extra component in that the narrative should be more than merely a description of the traverse itself. Good narratives will discuss people and issues attached to the section of border traversed. The third part of the challenge is subjecting the chosen route and visual and written narrative to the analysis and commentary of other BorderWalkers on the BorderWalking site.
The "Walking" part of BorderWalking is about using non-motorized travel. Many state borders are water borders and must be traversed by a variety of non-motorized watercraft. Some are possible to traverse by horseback or on a bike. Any non-motorized method of transport qualifies as "walking" for the intent of BorderWalking.
MORE COMPLICATIONSA bunch of possibilities for BorderWalking have occurred to me along the way, many suggested by friends and colleagues. I started another blog called Borderlands Traverse as a way to experiment with some of those ideas. It tracks my own borderwalking experiences and narratives. I linked it so anyone crazy enough to want to try this can get some idea of my own limited vision for what it might turn out to be. I also attached another sister blog, "
Walk the Lines, Tell the Tales," which I hope will incorporate a place for the fictional/mythic stories that reside along the borders.
All of this for me has come to represent a way to harness the energy of folks who want to tell true stories or spin a yarn or two. As a career journalist I have a hope and a hunch that what folks may do here will shed light on what "citizen journalism" could look like - but maybe not. BorderWalking will, I hope, provide another means of moving the spate of online opinion sharing to a literal grounding in real experience.
STARTING OUTBefore all this gets more complicated I thought it would be important to get some folks out on the borders and hear what they have to say about their experience. Then you can make contact by adding a comment below with a (very) short description of where you did your borderwalk and what kind of narrative you want to add together with a contact address. I'll then add your narrative to this blog and we'll go from there. If things roll along I plan to create a wiki site for the narratives and other materials. I will also continue my own BorderWalking and will post those narratives to the other two sites where comments are also encouraged.
CREDIT DUEThis idea is a derivative of Geocaching, no mistake about it, and full credit is due all the folks who combined GPS units, orienteering and the challenge of the outdoors into an exciting pastime. My hope is that BorderWalking will add a new dimension for those in search of a little adventure and a little learning.
