Look around for a piece of wood to be used as a walking stick. It should be relatively straight and about as tall as your armpit. If you are already using trekking poles, only one is needed for this exercise.
While walking, pay attention to the different sounds that the end of the stick makes when it touches the ground; listen to every impact on its own and appreciate how each is unique.
Focus on the ternary rhythmic patterns produced by this three-legged walk; the sounds from the clothes and backpack rubbing add yet another layer.
Note that if you keep a steady walking pace, the resulting rhythmic pattern will be as uneven as the varied features of the terrain.
Try using the stick to feel the consistency and structure of the ground with your hand.
BASTONE
As you walk, swipe the soil with the tip of the stick as if you were carving a long and continuous line (depending on the ground’s material features, you may actually leave a mark in it).
Listen to the resonances and vibrations in the wood (or whatever material the walking stick is made of) caused by the constant friction or bumps.
If you hit a hard rock, there may be a faint echo in the environment.
Your hand experiences all sorts of jolts and vibrations; notice how the lighter you press the stick against the ground, the greater the amplitude of these gasps.
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As you walk, hold the tip of the stick just a little higher than the ground and rub the grass and plants along the side of the trail.
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While you are hiking and doing the previous exercises, from time to time and where it is safe to do so, venture slightly off trail.
Notice how the features of the terrain become even more unpredictable and differentiated.
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If you venture off trail where the forest is thick,
deliberately step on the small pieces of decaying dead wood that are everywhere on the ground and listen to the sound they make when they break under your weight.
It may seem like you are damaging the forest, but you are actually helping it to regenerate.
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Look for a small piece of wood and rub it against the walking stick with light, circular and continuous movements.
Let the tip of the walking stick touch different things around you; notice how different materials amplify this otherwise rather quiet sound in different ways.
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Think of your walking stick as a mallet and find an object that seems stable, hard and resilient, such as a large rock or a dead log.
Hold your walking stick firmly and tap it a few times; listen for a clear echo; if you don’t hear it, it’s not loud enough or you’re in the wrong place, tap harder or do the exercise somewhere else.
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Think of your walking stick as a reflex hammer, the tool used by doctors to test our reflexes, and find a dead tree next to a live one. Gently tap the two plants one after the other; notice how the dead trunk sounds resonant and alive, whereas the green one is dull and lifeless in comparison.
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Find a dead tree that is still standing and has most or all of its branches. Place your hand on the main trunk and give it a light push, if it does not move find a smaller tree. If it moves, push it repeatedly; find a tempo in your pushing (usually about once a second or a little faster) when it feels like the tree is almost moving on its own; the whole structure should move with relatively little force.
Shake the dead tree, keeping as regular a pace as possible, and listen to the sounds its branches make when they rub against each other or when they touch the forest’s vegetation.
Notice how a simple, regular and binary movement creates an asymmetrical and unstable rhythmical flow.
Listen here to some recordings of dead trees we made on this section of the trail.
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While walking, hold the walking stick in your right hand and try to make it touch the ground at the same time as your left foot; notice how the course of your body becomes unbalanced.
PIETRE
Pick up two stones of similar size that fit comfortably in your hands. Strike them against each other at regular, slow intervals, using the same force each time.
Try to change the resulting sound just by tightening and loosening the grip of the hands, or by turning over the stones.
Listen to the echoes.
Also sense the impact tactilely, with the palm of your hand and your fingers.
Do the two stones transmit the impact equally in your two hands when they collide?
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Pick up two stones, both should fit comfortably in your hands, but one should be slightly smaller than the other. Find a spot in direct sunlight and strike the smaller stone against the larger one at regular, slow intervals.
Notice how each impact creates a cloud of dust. Depending on the consistency of the rock, larger pieces may come off; listen for the sound these particles make when they fall to the ground.
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Look for a stone that fits comfortably in your hand and is not too heavy to carry around. As you walk, hold it in your hand, but try not to look at it; explore its shape and the texture of its surface just by touching it.
Imagine that this stone is a tactile map* of the trail:
Do you find any correspondence with the features of the environment you are walking through?
After a while, drop the stone and listen to the sound it makes when it hits the ground.
*The Ammassalik people of East Greenland carved tactile maps of the Greenlandic coast into wood for use in canoes. These maps could be used inside mittens and floated if dropped in the water.
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Pick up a stone that fits in the palm of your hand and squeeze it until the temperature of the stone and your hand are the same.
After a while, let go of it and feel an echo of its presence in your hand.
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When you stop walking, pick up a stone that doesn’t weigh you down and wet it with water from your bottle. From time to time, check its drying process; the way it reflects light differently over time, the shape of the spots where it is still wet on its surface, how long it takes to dry completely.
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As you walk downhill, lightly kick some small stones with your feet. Listen to the sound they make as they roll down.