Freedom to Roam

Freedom to Roam is a unique hybrid book that shows how Wil Gesler’s academic pursuits in the field of Health Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill intersect with both his leisure time activity as a dedicated walker in the English Lake District fells and his personal life.

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This unique hybrid of a book shows how Wil Gesler’s academic pursuits in the field of Health Geography at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill intersect with both his leisure time activity as a dedicated walker in the English Lake District fells and his personal life.


Follow the author as he interviews 1000 residents of rural Appalachia about their health care and examines health care access for mothers and children in a Nigerian city. Do geographies of the novel Moby Dick and the TV show ER and make a mortality map of Freetown in Sierra Leone. Find peace at a pilgrimage site in the heart of the Balkan Wars and ask patients and staff to rate their environments in a London hospital. And so much more.


At the same time, walk Lakeland hills with the poets Wordsworth and Coleridge and navigate through heavy fog and rain using a map, a compass, and a GPS unit. Experience a wide range of emotions as you face both rough and smooth terrain and ever-changing weather, learn to perceive landscapes in different ways, and take risky walks. And so much more.