By QUINTON SMITH/YachatsNews.com
Maryann Brown believes that sitting is bad and walking is good.
“First of all, it’s going to get your doctor off your back,” she says.
Brown and her group – the Yachats Coastal Gems – want to help keep the doctor away.
Each month it organizes walks in Lincoln or north Lane counties, scoping out routes based on length and difficulty, providing maps and turn-by-turn directions. As the group walks, people chat, get to know others, observe, learn to interpret maps and to read and follow directions.
Monthly walks offer shorter 3-mile and longer 6-mile routes, are rated on their difficulty, and steer clear of danger.
“You are not going to end up in some dicey situation,” Brown said. “It’s an exercise that gives you satisfaction and can take you places you might never see.”
The Gems formed in 1990, helped in its early years by Jim and Sue Finlayson of Yachats. The group is a Volkssport club, a chapter of the American Volkssport Association which provides national and regional support, insurance and organization.
Started in Germany, volkssporting is a personal fitness and recreation program offering noncompetitive walks, hikes, bike rides, swims, and in some regions cross-country skiing. Although there are organized weekly or monthly walks, like those sponsored by the Yachats group, walkers can pick from a list of mapped hikes, choosing their time and day and hike at their own pace.
In the United States, the Volkssport Association has 300 active clubs offering more than 3,000 events each year.
Brown, 76, of Waldport, helps organize and plan the walks – 13 are scheduled for 2019. She says the coastal walks can give people confidence to explore Oregon, other parts of the United States and foreign countries.
“I’ve learned so much about Oregon and Washington that I might never had,” she said. “When you walk a city you see and learn a whole bunch more than riding around in a car or bus.”
Brown says people who want to walk alone or in their own group can still check in at Volksports Association spots, sign a register, collect directions and head down the trail. In Yachats, one binder is located at the check-in desk at the Overleaf Lodge, in Newport it’s at the Hallmark Resort motel, in Toledo at the J.C. Market. A full list and scheduled hikes is available on the group’s website: www.yachatscoastalgems.org. There are other Oregon routes at www.walkoregon.
It has scheduled walks Tuesday, April 2 in Florence, May 7 in Toledo, June 4 in Newport and back to Yachats on July 2.
For Brown, it’s just a matter of getting started, one step at a time.
“Doing a little bit every day helps you do more every single day,” she said.
Yachats Coastal Gems, A Walks by Two Lakes
Tuesday, April 2
9:45 a.m. Join the Yachats Coastal Gems for a 3- or 6-mile walk through Honeyman State Park along the shores of Woahink and Cleawox lakes in a beautiful and peaceful park setting. The Yachats Coastal Gems will meet first at the Sportsman, 249 Hwy 101, Florence, at 9:45 a.m. then drive to the walk at 10 a.m. For information call Maryann Brown at 541-961-4279 or email the group at yachatscoastalgems@gmail.com.
