Asheville walking group invites everyone to Lake Junaluska event

After moving to Asheville years ago, Dennis and Judy Michele wanted to explore their new environs.

That is, by foot.

So the retired couple, after spending the first few years exploring popular hiking trails and driving along the Blue Ridge Parkway, joined a walking group in Asheville that schedules scenic walks year-round.

“You see so much more,” Judy said of walking.

The activity has remained a focal point for the 72-year-old couple.

Since their first walk with the group, the Asheville Amblers, at the North Carolina Arboretum, they have taken strolls together in every state and countries abroad. That includes all 100 counties in North Carolina.

The backdrop of their latest one is Lake Junaluska, this weekend.

Expected to draw more than 30 people, the walk will cover about 10 kilometers, or a little more than six miles, around the man-made lake. It is one of two dozen walks the group arranges each year around the region and throughout South Carolina.

The group is using the date of the walk — which starts at 10:11 a.m. on 12/13/14 — to promote walking as a healthy activity, offering both physical and mental benefits.

It’s one of many events under the national “Time to Walk” umbrella, organized for that day and time by the American Volkssport Association (www.ava.org) to promote the health benefits of regular walking.

Those, of course, are no secret.

“Everyone knows that walking is good for you,” said Perry Rawson, president of the Asheville group.

But for the Micheles, it is also a chance to socialize.

While they make it a point to walk as often as possible near their home in Fairview, they say they enjoy sharing walks with their peers. They joined the group within two years of moving to the area from Virginia Beach in the early 1990s, after Dennis took a job with an industrial real estate company after serving as a U.S. Navy officer.

Unlike a group focused on, say, power walking, this group has not the slightest competitive edge, with members free to stray from the trail or even stop altogether halfway through. (The trails overseen by the group, however, are required to stretch at least 10 kilometers.)

“It takes time,” Judy said of the group’s walks, which sometimes involve stops at garage sales and museums, or even just for lunch.

The group has about 150 members, many of them elderly. It was created nearly 35 years ago by the American Volkssport Association, a nationwide walking group part of an international one that started in Germany.

A friendly bunch, they expect to gather after the Dec. 13 walk for an annual Christmas party at a restaurant in nearby Waynesville.

The group holds particular significance for Dennis, who is president of the nationwide group and oversees walking trails for the Asheville one. Living with Type 2 diabetes, he finds the activity helps him lower his blood-sugar levels — without seeming too routine.

“It’s not a chore,” Dennis said, calling the activity “worthwhile.”

WANT TO WALK?

Join the Asheville Amblers for a free walk at 10:11 a.m. Dec. 13 — that is, at 10:11 on 12/13/14 — at the Bethea Welcome Center, 91 N. Lakeshore Drive, Lake Junaluska, with 5K and 10K routes around the lake at walkers’ own pace. Registration begins at 9:30 a.m.; membership is not required. The event is part of a national walking event organized by the American Volkssport Association. To learn more, visit http://ashevilleamblers.com.