Volksmarching...Exercise and More for the Prepper

I got out on my first Volksmarch in years this morning. It was a balmy 25 degrees and the black ice kept us on our toes, but over all, the 10k walk was a welcome way to spend a weekend morning. Here's the details:

• Volksmarching is a popular organization that sanctions walking events in nearly every city in the US, many smaller cities in the US, and in many countries around the world.
• Although you can walk the routes at any time, most Volksmarch organizations schedule walks where a whole group of people show up to walk together most weekends.
• Many Volksmarching clubs schedule bigger events on occasion that include marathon-length walks (most normal walks are 10k, about 5 miles, in length), swimming, skiing, and biking events.
• Like all organizations, you will have some die-hard club members who walk every event, some walkers who show up fairly regularly, and some people who try one walk and never come back.
• Volksmarching is excellent exercise. The people I walked with this morning included quite a few who were age 70+. And they were FAST, even on the hills.
• The walks take place around the local community along pre-planned routes. The cool thing about this is that you get to see corners of your community that you wouldn't normally even notice. I went on one walk some years ago that mostly followed trails that I had no idea even existed (a good thing to know if you need to bug out from point A to B without being noticed).
• The only thing you need for the walk are shoes, way less of an investment than, say, golf.
• Joining the Club is a bargain. With a $6 membership fee and $3 cost per walk, this is a much cheaper thing to do than playing at the casino, going to the outdoor store, or many other thing that people usually spend their weekend doing. As a bonus, you get little rewards (pins, patches) as you accrue mileage and attend walking events.
• The people in the group are both active (obviously, they are out and ready to walk at 9am on a freezing morning) and interesting. On today's walk I learned about the best gear for wet weather walking (there were many opinions and lots of good advice), picked up some history about the area we were waking in from some of the people who had lived in the area for 50 years, and heard about people's latest travels to points all over the world.
• For more information on this organization or to find a walk in your area, go to the Volksmarching website at www.ava.org.

The bottom line is that Volksmarching is not only excellent exercise but it is perfect for the prepper. You get to learn you local area even better, can cull all kinds of useful advice, and be more prepared for any bugging-out scenario.