I’m walkin’, yes indeed, and I’m listenin’, to the CBC.

Now that I'm a five-day-a-week workin' man (see previous posting), I've decided to walk to work at least four of those five days. Walking home from work is an altogether different matter (variables include: whether I have the energy, whether I can catch a ride, or whether Carole has an evening class and has unsuspectingly parked the truck at the College and I've remembered to bring my keys).

I started last week, and so I've only made the hour-long trip three times. In that short time I've already learned a few lessons:

• Bring an extra undershirt. Regardless of my layering, I arrive at the College dripping in sweat. The extra shirt I bring in my backpack has been cooling in the outside air for an hour and slipping it on is the definition of refreshing.
• Bring a headlamp. One stretch of my hike is away from the lights of the Alaska highway and the first day I stumbled around in the blue-black night (8am, Yukon Time) up to my knees in snow thinking "this isn't the trail." The headlamp beam is also effective in warding off snowmobile commuters.
• Bring some entertainment. So far, I've been tuning my AM/FM walkman to the Corp's broadcast, but this week I'll be stocking up my new iPod (thanks, Iain) with a few choice podcasts.
• Wear a headband instead of a toque if at all possible. For one thing, a headband lets you shed excess heat while keeping your ears protected and preventing the earbuds from falling out. For another, no more hat head.

On a related note, I found Gmaps Pedometer which uses Google Maps to mark out waypoints on a trail and view the total distance. You can then save the whole shebang, and let others view your own five-kilometre commute (a zoom level of 13 should show the entire path). Unfortunately, what you can't show others is that, while the College and my house are at approximately the same altitude, there is a considerable valley between the two so there's no escaping an uphill trudge.