Walking the Farm
18 Themed Walks Exploring the Stanford Campus, 20 Local Hikes from the Foothills to the Bay
Written by Tom DeMund, Walking the Farm is rooted in the Bill Lane Center for the American West’s annual tradition of hiking the Stanford campus and its environs to trace the links between the university, its founders Leland and Jane Stanford, and the dynamic region it helped shape. From the transcontinental railroad to postwar atomic research, and onward to the rise of Silicon Valley, walk in the footsteps of generations past.
Color Maps and Detailed Directions
The book features highly detailed maps in full color, with walking routes, points of interest, building information, terrain and other natural features, and trail markers. Some walks also offer alternative driving directions.
Following DeMund's Footsteps
Students Surabhi Balachander and Mira Olson walk the farm during their summer at the Bill Lane Center. Their first walk follows DeMund's descriptions of the Stanford campus before and after the 1906 earthquake, and their second takes them on a hike of the Dish.
Try a Hike
Visit this page for a map and full description of Hike C-10, Noteworthy Residences Loop--all the tools you'll need to explore the history of some of Stanford's famous houses with Tom DeMund as your guide.
The Bill Lane Center for the American West is proud to publish this walker’s guide to Stanford and its environs. Some years ago, the Center inaugurated a tradition, which has inspired Tom’s title: “Walking the Farm.” Acknowledging the University’s familiar nickname, rooted deeply in the Stanford family’s relation to this unique place, the Center in turn adopted that nomenclature from a venerable Midwestern practice, whereby farmers annually trod the perimeter of their acreage to check on fences and gates and roads and pumps — and to see how their neighbors are doing. The Bill Lane Center still annually sponsors Walking the Farm around the 8,000 acres that compose Stanford’s incomparable landscape.
Tom DeMund is a graduate of Stanford (albeit not recently). He is a lifetime member of the Stanford Alumni Association as well as a member of the Stanford Historical Society, the Block S Society, and the Stanford Founding Grant Society. He and his wife have been football season ticket holders for many years and have been on six international Stanford Alumni Travel trips.
The author is also a member of many environmentally oriented organizations including: Sierra Buttes Trail Stewardship, Pacific Crest Trail Association, California State Parks Foundation, Bay Ridge Trail Council, American Hiking Society, Save the Redwoods League, Northern Sierra Partnership and The Trust for Public Land.
Tom’s first venture in writing a hiking book resulted in his 2001 publication of Feather River County Adventure Trails, which described 101 hikes in California’s Plumas and Sierra Counties. In 2015, he published a fully updated sixth edition which followed on the heels of his very successful prior editions. His book has sold over 15,000 copies (certainly not Harry Potter numbers, but not bad for a hiking book) and is considered by many to be the “hiker’s bible” for hiker-friendly trails in this region of the Sierra. The author is now retired from a career in commercial/industrial investment real estate. He and his wife live in Graeagle, California (the bulls-eye of the Feather River country located 48 miles northwest of Truckee) during the summer and the rest of the year in Sausalito, California.
How to Order Walking the Farm
The book is available now from the Stanford University Bookstore.