I'm glad I was born in a time with no computers or video games or significant amount of interesting television programming. Because if I was born in this generation, I might have weighed 250 pounds by the time I was 18.Nope, I was a rambler. Walked damned near everywhere I went. And I didn't stick to my little town of Deux Montagnes either (Two Mountains as it was known back then). I had lots of places to walk to. We had a decent beach at one time. We had woods! I'm not kidding - woods. The trails through these mini-forests were absolutely beautiful. The railroad bridge connecting Two Mountains to Laval was a favourite method to cross over into another whole new (huge) area to explore (the first road bridge was a good 2.5km further down the river). The bridge also straddled a nice deserted little pair of islands in the middle of the river. This was the site of an innumerable quantity of parties back in the day, but I even enjoyed chilling out there alone. Just the sound of the river and the occasional train. What was once a side track heading west toward Oka had been unused for the longest time and was the perfect trail to follow to points west, long before it ever got paved and officially turned into a bike / walking path. Just for something to do, I would walk the tracks to Pointe Calumet, the site of yet another awesome beach. This was 10km away, each direction. I think the beach is still there, but I don't know if it's public anymore.
One time, I found an abandoned bicycle in downtown Montreal and rode it all the way home. That was 32km (20 miles for you non-metric types). I did have a rather interesting time explaining to my parents where I got the bike from.
If I didn't put 30-50km on my feet each month, I'd be surprised.
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