Walking Every Street in Santa Cruz County
I guess you could call me a late bloomer. I didn’t start walking until I was fifty-two years old. I mean, I imagine I transitioned from a four-legged floor crawler to a wobbly bipedal toddler right along with my seven siblings somewhere between ten and sixteen months of age. I’m not talking about basic locomotion, though. I’m talking about the kind of walking where grayscale gives way to living color and the entire world goes full peacock before your eyes. The kind where each step mends what’s broken inside you.
I didn’t set out to repair my heart. It was much more pragmatic than that. I needed to get more exercise and to clear my head after challenging work days. I’d been walking with a group of co-workers on Sunday mornings for several months but for a range of reasons, including happily expanding families, the group disbanded. As I deliberated how to incorporate more walking into my life, the idea of systematically walking every street in the city of Santa Cruz crossed my mind. In the length of time it takes to soak in a hot bath, walking every street in the city had expanded to walking every street in the county.
It was early December and I thought maybe I’d wait until the beginning of the year to get started, but the next morning I was drawn to a local convenience store, DJ’s Market on Water Street, like a fish after bait, to purchase a paper map of Santa Cruz County. For the following days, I was preoccupied with planning a project that I came to call Street From the Heart. Over dinner my wife Ellen, my youngest son, Miles, and I talked about strategies for keeping track of the streets as I walked them, during work lunches with my friend Melissa, I’d drone on about my spreadsheets and note taking ideas, on visits with my oldest son, Kita, I’d ponder the idea of learning photography to document the journey.
On December 8th, 2013, too excited to wait for the new year to commence, I took the first walk of the project on my own street with Ellen, Miles, and our yellow lab, Izzie, in tow. The first of the thousands upon thousands of photographs I’d generate over the following years was of our mailbox which is decorated with a pounded copper image of a red cardinal, the state bird of Virginia where Ellen was born and raised. The majority of the walks, especially for the first year or so, would be solo, but starting the project in the company of family perfectly set the tone.
I walked every street in the county with the exception of a few private roads to which I was unable to gain access. What I thought might take me a year or two unfolded over the course of seven years. I squeezed the project between working a more-than-full-time job, parenting a high schooler, nurturing a healthy relationship with wife, and helping to maintain our home and sustain our social lives. This required making use of early morning and late evening hours, taking time off work for full day walks, and stealing moments between obligations for very brief walks.
My older son is a contractor with a focus on natural building. I incorporated visits to his worksites into my walking adventures, which broadened my understanding and appreciation of his work and his values and deepened my interest in natural building.
When I ran out of roads, I hiked the trails. When I ran out of trails. I started walking the California coastline with my friend Jo. Twelve years since the first walk, the compulsion to walk persists, but it consumes much less of my time. Jo and I continue our incremental walk along the coast, camping for four or five days each time, but we’re only able to venture out once every few months. I hike regularly on local trails with friends and family and Ellen and I take a walk along West Cliff Drive most days.
Occasionally I grow desperately homesick for being out on an unfamiliar road wandering so I pack a bag, open the door and head down our front walkway where the big decision of the day awaits. Where next?
With the encouragement of several friends and family members, I began to explore the idea of writing about my walks. The idea blossomed into a reality when I connected with a literary agent who has helped me hone my narrative and find a publisher with whom I have secured a book deal. Our goal is to have the book on shelves in January of 2026.
I welcome your feedback, comments, and questions, below:
One of the many maps I went through, one of the notebooks I used to keep track of the streets as I walked them. The first of many photo albums into which I selected one photograph for each of the streets I walked.
