Sauntering Vancouver: 2024 in Review
The walking quest that's turning into something more
Maps have a way of seducing you with their blank spaces. What began as scattered lines—traces of casual walks collected over years—evolved into an obsession: to walk every main road in Vancouver. 826,667 steps later, my grand quest has spawned countless side adventures and unexpected discoveries.
The Journey So Far
Before diving into the stories, here’s a quick status update: I’ve covered 620 kilometres (that’s like…15 marathons!) across Metro Vancouver, from downtown streets through Burnaby’s heights and even all the way to Coquitlam.
The quest took on a life of its own, birthing all sorts of wonderful side quests. I found myself casually tackling 10+ km “expeditions”—distances that, tbh, used to seem ludicrous to me. I wandered through neighbourhoods with friends (both old and new), built Gogomi to be my walking companion app, and even started writing this blog. Talk about branching out!
The Walks
My quest took me through various terrains the cities offered: trudging along sea shores, trampling grass in suburban parks, slipping into creek beds, shuffling through hiking trails, side-stepping crowds on busy sidewalks, and strutting down empty streets.
Neighbourhoods
To make this grand quest more tractable, I broke it down by neighbourhood. Some were first-time explorations (Arbutus, Shaughnessy), while others were familiar places seen with newer eyes. In Brentwood and Dawson-Delta, I finished walking every main artery, every road adding another piece to my understanding of the city.
With others
I wasn’t always walking alone. Some of my favourite walks were shared with friends and strangers (who inevitably became friends). Together, we zigzagged through the Downtown East Side, sauntered in the snow, caught sunsets in the West End, searched for labyrinths, and many other hidden spots in the city. These shared walks often led to unexpected friendships—which, let’s be honest, is the real reason for doing anything.
Expeditions
Among all these walks were the 10+ km ones, born from pure whimsy: trekking to ‘dates’, to meet-ups, to work in a different city, to draw geoglyphs on the map, or just wandering about without purpose. What started as a crazy idea—“Could I walk there instead?”—became my default way of moving through the city. And this brought about some interesting changes.
Transformation?
One does not simply embark on a grand quest without experiencing some form of transformation. Beyond the obvious physical changes—defined hamstrings, better resting heart rate, ruined New Balances, and pretty much everything espoused in this youtube video—I noticed shifts in how I move through the world.
After walking enough 10k’s, long distances stopped being daunting. “Could I walk there?” became less of a question and more of a default choice—especially when time wasn’t pressing.
The paradox is that while this quest clearly came from my go-getter energy, it taught me to slow down and allow things to unfold. Walking through suburbia made me notice the extraordinary in mundane street scenes. I even started paying attention to birdsongs (an ability I supposedly shouldn’t unlock until 35!). In chasing distance, I found myself discovering a deeper appreciation for the everyday—each step adding richness to ordinary moments.
Superlatives!
While the joy now comes more from how I see than what I see, from the act of walking itself than the destination, here are some standout moments from the quest:
Longest: 13km, Ep 15.1, 2, 3 - Walking to the Sea, from Brentwood to the north coast, following creek paths on a nice Sunday morning.
Most Memorable: The Ep 4: Beecher Creek Adventure—slipping on ice into creek ravines leaves quite a mark, both figuratively, and literally!
Favourite Solo: Post-flu wandering through Brentwood for medicine and Gabi & Jules’ pastries. Followed my bliss and the highlighted unexplored roads in my Gogomi app. This became the final piece in Ep 30: ‘Completing’ Brentwood
Favourite Group: Zigzagging through the Downtown Eastside and Ep 09: Unclogging catch basins with Em. We’d only had one convo at a Christmas party before this, yet here we were, embarking on this adventure together. The synergy was perfect.
Looking Forward
A true quest spawns endless side quests, and this journey has done exactly that—through walking, meeting people, building Gogomi, or even just writing about it all.
The numbers tell me I’ve only covered about 10% of Vancouver’s main roads and a bit more of Burnaby’s. Next up: exploring Vancouver’s untouched streets and ‘completing’ places like the West End, Downtown, and Willingdon Heights—plus all those neighbourhoods where I’m just a few walks away from that sweet EXPLORED badge in Gogomi.
But there’s potential for something more. Other Gogomites (currently the word for people using the walking assistant, Gogomi, I built, haha) are walking too, gathering their own little urban adventures. Every time I look at the map showing everyone’s anonymised walks, I imagine a collective effort taking shape.
My grand quest isn’t novel—I keep discovering kindred spirits everywhere, from Smith’s Walking Manhattan to Arnade’s global walks. Some, like Hurducas’ The Flaneurs Project, take a more literary twist, while others are right here mapping Vancouver’s streets!
I dream of group walks and talks—diverse people gathering for a movement movement (sorry, couldn’t resist). I discovered Jane’s Walk Vancouver too late last year, but it’s on my list for this one. While I’m still learning the city’s history, I’d love to create spaces where walking becomes a shared adventure in exploration. Maybe even something like “The Great Saunter” is in our future. After all, the best quests are the ones we share.
Each step has revealed something new about the city, community, and myself. 826,667 steps in, and somehow it feels like the journey is just beginning. Cheers to more walking in 2025!