Planetwalker and Ameritrekker

John Francis and his ever-present banjo during his journey in the 1970s.

Peter Jenkins and Cooper, 1973.

On the heels of yapping about Grant Cunningham's epic trail journey in my last post, I may as well tell about a couple of books written by other long-distance walkers. I came upon the book Planetwalker quite by accident few months ago in a book store. Having not heard of it before, I quickly paged through it and made a mental note to maybe buy it later. After doing some resarch on the planetwalker, John Francis, I knew I had to read why he did no traveling in motorized vehicles for 22 years and stopped talking for 17 years. After witnessing the tragedy of a huge oil spill in San Francisco Bay in 1971 and its devastating effects on the environment and wildlife, Francis decided to crusade for environmantal awareness, as well as world peace. His WEBSITE tells of his efforts. Check out the 30 Minutes Bay Area video on the website. I takes a bit to download but is worth a watch. What attracted me most to Francis was his devotion to his cause and his amazing network of friends and well wishers who gave him shelter and other aid during his trek.

A Planetwalker movie is in negotiations, and actor Will Smith has expressed great interest in playing the role of John Francis. Francis himself would like Morgan Freeman to play his father in the movie. Anything those two actors would be in should be well worth a view.

As soon as I am finished reading Planetwalker, I will follow another grand walk in Peter Jenkins' A Walk Across America. This journey of a "discouraged hippie" also happened in the 1970s and later became a bestselling book. Paging through the book, I came across a photo of the author holding his deceased dog, Cooper, above a freshly dug grave while on the journey. I know it will be sad to read about the author's close companion and traveling partner.