Volksmarching into Arkansas
Posted on Monday, March 31, 2008
Most of us think of walking as boring. It’s so... pedestrian.
In Arkansas, we figure babies only learn to walk just in case the pickup someday runs out of gas.
The American Volkssport Association, however, has walking organized for fun and fitness. AVA members actually like to walk and they hold walking events and keep records of their walks.
You can thank the Germans for organizing something as fundamental as walking. The Germans called it volkswanderung, or “people’s hike,” and today in Europe it is organized under the Internationaler Volkssportverband (IVV ). That translates to the International Federation of Popular Sports. Those sports include biking, swimming and other activities, but this Volkssportverband-ering is mostly about the walking.
Glen Conyers of Joplin, Mo., the South Central Region director of the AVA, says Germans may have organized simple walking and spread the concept around Europe, but it was American servicemen who brought it to the United States.
The GIs stationed in Europe enjoyed volkssporting because it was wholesome, noncompetitive family fun.
“When one group came home to Randolph Air Force Base in Universal City, Texas,” Conyers says, “they decided they wanted to have an American Volkssporting Association. This was 30 or so years ago.” It spread quickly. There are now 319 AVA walking clubs in the United States with 30, 000 to 35, 000 members.
The outfits are all across the country, and Hot Springs National Park has offered Volkssporters an Octoberfest hike once a year for years; but Arkansas has only recently developed an AVA-affiliated club — the Ozark Hill Hikers of Bella Vista / Holiday Island.
Conyers says the Northwest Arkansas club is composed mostly of out-of-state retirees who chose to revive the name of a walking club that had died out.
“The retirees moved into that part of Arkansas from places like Nebraska where they had had a good big club,” says Conyers, whose home base is the Dogwood Trailblazers in Joplin. “And they came from Texas where they have a lot of volkssporters. They started coming to our club in Missouri.” One day, Conyers suggested that the retirees start a club.
The Ozark Hill Hikers now sponsor walking events in Eureka Springs, Holiday Island and Pea Ridge National Military Park. There is an event in the works for June in Bella Vista.
As an homage to its German origins, all this organized walking is called volksmarching.
The returning military personnel changed the “wanderung” portion of volkswanderung to make it volksmarsch, which dropped an s during its peregrination into the Anglo-German volksmarch.
Maybe marching seemed more purposeful to the GIs than wandering. Others further simplified volksmarch to volkswalk. Wandering, marching or walking — whatever you call it, volksmarching is plain ol’ strollin’ down the street, no-frills, bring-your-camera walking.
NO LOSERS The key word in all this is noncompetitive. Volksmarchers participate for reasons other than the sweaty glory of the finish line. Still, folks will be folks. Veteran volksmarcher Ruth Redd, who recently moved from California to retire in Conway, admits the juices do flow, even while walking. “It is noncompetitive,” Redd said. “It’s supposed to be noncompetitive, but I had a friend I walked with in California and we always tried to outdo each other.” Redd, who walks at least six miles every day, is organizing a volksmarching event / route in Conway. “I haven’t been here very long and I was a very avid volksmarcher in California,” she said. By May, Redd’s Conway route will be recorded with the AVA and official. It will be a yearround, self-guided event. AVA clubs present about 2, 800 events each year. Many events last from one to three days, but more than half are self-guided and open every day of the year. Volksmarching routes are 6. 2 miles long. That’s 10 kilometers for those who want to keep in the European spirit, or 10 K for the cognoscenti. The routes are well-marked or mapped. Each course also has a 3. 1-mile option for those who like a shorter walk. The routes may travel past historic or scenic sites. Most are on city streets. Some follow park trails, and there are occasional checkpoints where walkers should make a note about what they see as they complete a course.
WALKING LITTLE ROCK Little Rock has a year-round volksmarching event. It’s a 6. 2-mile course that begins at Curran Hall, the Little Rock Visitor Information Center at 615 E. Capitol Ave., where walkers pick up a map and fill out a registration card. The route ambles over to the Clinton Presidential Center, backtracks through the Little Rock River Market area, passes the Old State House and Pulaski County Courthouse on Markham Street and moseys west to Union Station. It then saunters south to the Capitol steps, cuts over Interstate 630 and strolls past Philander Smith College and Mount Holly Cemetery. The course then perambulates to the Governor’s Mansion, meanders past the Villa Marre and MacArthur Park and eases back to Curran Hall, where you can have your record book stamped.
Easy walking. Lots of history. Hardly any hills.
For extra credit there’s a 1. 2-mile detour to the Central High Visitors Center.
Extra credit ? Volksmarching may be noncompetitive, but there are goodies to be gleaned if one wants to “keep score.” Conyers explains: “Not many people who go to the gym and run on a treadmill keep a record. We like to say volksmarching is a different way to walk.
“ We have a choice. You don’t have to keep track of anything, or you can keep track of just your distances. Or you can keep track in the event book, which says, ‘ I was at this place and that place. ’” If you have the time, energy and gas money, volksmarching can take you far and wide. Conyers and his wife have chalked up 539 different walking events. “Doris and I have gotten 48 of the states,” he says. “It’s taken us about six years to do that. We only need Hawaii and Alaska.” Redd has walked events in 49 states, and it only took her two years.
“Whenever I go out of town I take my [record ] book with me in case I’m able to do a walk,” Redd said. “I went to Dallas in December and was able to do a volksmarch.
“ I just need to get to Alaska,” she adds, laughing. “I want to take a cruise to Juneau so I can get the capital and the state. That’s just my personal goal. I want to say I walked all 50 states.” FOR THE HEALTH OF IT Walking all 50 states is only one of a number of sub-event categories in which volksmarchers can keep records. Walking state capitals is another. Walkers keep their own record books and each event — special or year-round event — has at the starting point an information box in which there is a rubber stamp. Walk the walk; stamp your book. When the record books are filled up, they’re sent to American Volkssport Association headquarters to be noted in other record books. Volksmarchers can also collect pins or patches or other small mementos of their accomplishments. The Little Rock volksmarching route is a bonanza. It qualifies walkers under 11 categories — everything from State Capitals and American Presidents, to Railroad Heritage and Cemetery Strolls. “This is walking for the health of it,” Redd said. “And you get to walk with other people, too. Then you get so caught up with it you want to go to other states and try to get all the states. “ I’m retired. I’m a young 62. You just have to go out and do something every day. You really have to do something.” Conyers agrees that walking with a group is a wonderful social activity. “My wife and I walk together,” he says, “but when you do a club walk like this, when you’re walking with 12 or 14 people, you walk with some, then drop back and talk with others — back and forth. “ Before you know it, you’re done — a six-mile walk and you’ve had good conversations and it went very fast.” SATURDAY Arkansans who are curious to see what it’s all about can sample a genuine volksmarch at noon Saturday. The Dogwood Trailblazers will come down from Joplin to trek the Little Rock route, spend the night, then journey to Hot Springs on Sunday to walk the national park’s volksmarching course. “Maybe somebody will see us as something different from what they normally do,” Conyers says. “I think it’s a good way to stay away from doctors. This is a good way to stay healthy.” Redd readily agrees: “We would like to have a club in the Little Rock area. We’re trying to get younger people interested in this. I haven’t seen too many younger people or families out there. Volksmarching is great. It’s a very neat organization and we’d sure like to draw some younger people in to keep it going.” Conyers and Redd remind walkers all they need to bring is a water bottle and a sturdy pair of shoes.
And if you’d still prefer to go Germanic and call it volkswanderung, that’s OK. It sort of recalls a line from a poem in J. R. R. Tolkien’s The Fellowship of the Ring — “Not all those who wander are lost.” And not all those who walk are out of gas.
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