Nebraska Trailblazers

Raindrops keep falling on . . . Ashland

Salt Creek in Ashland is forecast to rise above flood stage over the next couple of days, which means the first 2k of the Ashland, Nebraska 10k YRE may be inaccessible by foot. Before she left town for the AVA convention, the Point of Contact for the walk had re-routed the walk due to construction on 14th Street (main N/S road in town), but not for the flooding that is occurring while she’s gone.

Suggestion: walk the route backwards and use the map to get back to the Start Point before crossing 14th Street to go east on the north end of town. (This makes sense if you’re looking at the map, really!) The rest of the town is unaffected and it’s a *great* walk, which is why the club is walking it in August.

June news

We welcome travelers on their way to and from the 2016 AVA Biennial Convention being held in Salem, Oregon! We also wish our club members and friends on their way to the convention safe journeys and great walks.

Our next event is the National Trails Day event, being held between 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. at the Chalco Hills Recreation Area Visitor’s Center just off of Giles Road at 154th St. The Papio-Missouri River NRD is opening the building just for us during those times, so that folks can register and start walking at their own pace during that time. We’re borrowing the stamp from the Chalco Hills YRE Walk Box during that time and we’ll have a special 5K route that starts from the Visitor’s Center.

Also on hand will be our new luggage tags for $5, free samples courtesy of the National Trails Day folks, and a great free selection of older awards. Those wanting AVA/IVV credit for the walk pay $3 – everyone else is free! Come join us and celebrate walking while in a great natural setting.

Finally, Jim McGahan has put together a pictorial plethora of pleasures in PDF from the last week of the Grand Island YRE, which has been in operation for the past 20 years. Jim adds that our walking friend Charlie Gentile should be in these photos, but missed that opportunity by just hours. Check it out here: The Final Four

More showers, more walks!

May has been a pretty rainy month so far this year, but that hasn’t stopped our club from taking part in events. The May 9th walk at Standing Bear Lake brought out 67 walkers to walk a quickly re-routed walk around the flooded lake. Here are pictures of two groups of walkers:

Boy Scouts, leaders, family and friends at the checkpoint

The YRE in Grand Island is now closed, but a steady stream of folks went to walk with Jim and Martha McGahan during the past week. Words are insufficient to express our gratitude for their years of service!

The last 13 folks to ever walk this sanctioned walk, assembled outside the now-closed Skagway store.

Butch Spaulding takes the Grand Island YRE walk box from Jim and Martha McGahan

You don’t have to be an AVA member to walk our walks (or even a club member), but one of the benefits of membership is receiving their publication, The American Wanderer. Long-time contributor Jim Goeltz submitted club news to TAW, and featured our very own club secretary, Tricia Abel! What a nice write-up for a nice lady. See June TAW article on NWFT and Tricia Abel. (Sorry, had to cut up the newsprint article to make it fit onto a single page!)

But, what about walking???

Remember we have the National Trails Day event coming up at the Chalco Hills Visitor Center on Saturday, June 6th between 8:30 and 10:00 a.m. We’ll be borrowing the box from its normal Start Point for the duration, but promise to get it back promptly!
Our YREs are still waiting for you! Check out our interactive Map to find a walk in Nebraska, visit AVA Interactive YRE Map to find walks around the country and of course, the GDMVA’s special walks (see GDMVA 30th Anniversary article in TAW) are available until June 30th!

Just gotta walk! April walking news

Fear not! We’ve got lots of great opportunities for you to walk. Check out any of our Year Round Events (time is ticking on the Grand Island event – see this post.

For North Central Region events from now until the end of the year (always more being added!) check April 1 2015 North Central Region Walks to come for the latest listings.

Luckily, we are pretty centrally located, so there’s always plenty to do with the clubs to our south. Check out https://clayplattetrackers.org/calendar.html for a list of their upcoming Group Walks and their first Traditional Event of the year in Olathe, KS on April 25th.

Those folks are pretty fantastic about supporting other clubs. Check out this Clay-Platte Trackers walking weekend with GDMVA for details on how the Clay-Platte Trackers are going to host a weekend of walks in conjunction with the Greater Des Moines Volkssport Association’s 30th Anniversary events! Our club is making carpooling arrangements to walk with the GDMVA in the morning (see this link for details and note the alternate start point for the morning of April 18th!). If you haven’t let Butch Spaulding know that you want a ride (or want to drive), let him know or email us right away!

April Walk reminder!

Just a reminder of our walk this Saturday. Admission to the exhibits at the Western Historic Trails Center is free, so plan to spend a little extra time enjoying the hospitality of our start point hosts!

Date: April 4, 2015

Where: Western Historic Trail Center / Welcome Center, 3434 Richard Downing Ave, Council Bluffs, IA

Start Time: 9:00 AM until 12 PM, off the trail by 3 PM

Trail and rating: A 10 K and a 5 K trail will be available. Walk is rated 2 A.

Directions to Start/Finish Point: From I-80/29 take South 24^th Street exit and turn south to either the first street on your right (at first traffic light south of I-80/29) road to Trail Center / Welcome Center road goes to the parking lot. Or go to Richard Downing Ave (at second traffic light). Turn right on Richard Downing Ave to Western Historic Trail Center. There is some construction near the entrance.

Sad news – Grand Island Year Round closing May 17th

This is to notify you that our year round in Grand Island will be closing at the end of the day on Sunday, May 17, 2015. This action is due to the upcoming closure of our starting point, Skagway Discount Center effective May 22, 2015.

We will be looking at having a group walk (or two), perhaps on a Sunday afternoon. Please let us know if you are interested in carpooling. This is a great walk and the perfect time of year to make walking memories to last a lifetime.

A special thanks to Jim and Martha McGahan of Grand Island, who have kept the Volksmarching torch burning brightly in Grand Island and nearby. Thank you, Jim and Martha!

Shelby Old Stone Arch Soup-Off, plus Trailblazers in the news!

Butch Spaulding sent out an email to all members for whom we have an email about the Shelby Old Stone Arch Nature Trail Soup-Off, to be held February 7th at Cardinal Lofts, 304 Western Avenue, to be held February 7th, from 5 to 7 p.m. sharp. The cost is $10.00 for all the soup you care to eat. Raffle tickets are available to purchase. Butch says:

One of the ways they raise money for the trail is by having a peoples choice award – this is determined by the number of votes the soup receives – 1 cent equals one vote so you can bring change or folding money if you want to vote for your favorite soup. As with most voting in the USA one is not required to vote.

They also auction off home made pies during the event. Last year a few pies were sold for over $100.00 each.

For the last few years we have car pooled from Mall of the Bluffs – off Madison Ave (exit 5) – Council Bluffs. For those wanting to car pool we will be leaving between 4:15 PM and 4:30 PM.

To get to the meeting area – take exit 5 off I-80 and head north away from Village Inn. Take the drive between Buckey’s and Hy Vee. Drive through the intersection – there is no stop sign for your direction – the other three directions have stop signs. Take the first right – just before the mall building starts. Park in this area.

If you are interested in either driving or riding please let me know so that I can start a list. (Use the Contact Us Form if you need to get in touch with Butch.)

In other news, The American Wanderer (the official publication of the AVA) published a nice article by our very own Jim Goeltz in the February – March 2015 edition. The article is attached here as a legal-sized PDF. AVA members receive a complimentary subscription to the The American Wanderer, and editions contain dozens of articles and inserts about walks and walking programs around the US and sometimes abroad. Membership is only $25/year for an individual and $30/year for a family. You don’t have to be an AVA member to walk an AVA walk, but memberships do help the national organization to stay viable.

TAW Feb March 2015 article