Atlanta tri-weekly journal. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1920-19??, 1921-02-26
VIM Not a H;ker' s Club?

I'THAT walking still holds it's own as
II 1 healthful and recreative exercise, de-
II spite the rise of the automobile and
airplane as popular means of locomotion, is
demonstrated by scanning the "hikers' col
umns" in some of the New York newspapers.
Il Here, occupying almost as much space as
society chronicles and the sporting news, are
set forth the doings of walking clubs that
have sprung up this winter in and around
New York. There is an article about the con-
vention Of the Interstate Park Trail Confer
ence and the Associated Walking Clubs; a
description of hike in the snow as inter-
esting and as detailed the account of a
| baseball game; and a whole sheaf Of notes
and announcements from various clubs.
| Among the latter is brief account OF the
Green Mountain Clubs outing at Mountain
Vile, the walks led by George F. Parmalee
and the social program arranged by MISS
Laura H. Woodward and DR.. E. c. Sage; an
announcement that the Club will hold "a
short walk tomorrow afternoon on Staten
Island under the leadership of Miss Flor
ence Black and Miss Ethel Savacool;" and
announcements of other walks by the Tramp
and Trail Club and the Inkowa Club.
The purpose and personnel OF the walking
| clubs is evident from these items. They are
organizations of people, old and young, who
are finding in their group hikes pleasant
and health-inspiring, yet an inexpensive, form
of recreation. One can imagine the joy they
get in brisk sallies into the great outdoors
as witness a paragraph from a hike de-
scribed by Raymond H. Torrey:
when one Is out in the woods on bril-
liant February afternoon, with the skies clear
blue after the storm, there is something up
lifting and cleansing of ones worries and
irritations to be the first to break the white
covering of earth. The first human, of
course. One could not be there before the
delicate markings of the wild things, the
straight line of the marks of the partridge's
feet, the dainty dog-like footprints of the fox,
and the tiny marks of the woodmice with a
straight line in the middle, marking the i'm
print of their tails, they glissaded down
some crusted SLOPE
There is not, around Atlanta, the white
blanket of snow to thrill the walker as he
breaks it's crunchy crust, but there are plenty
of gypsy trails to tempt him, all within few
minutes car ride of the heart of the city
wandering roads where automobiles dare not
venture, hidden streams and old mill ponds
and abandoned farms on the edge of whis
pering piney woods. And soon, as February
breaks into March and March to flowery
April, there will be dogwood and purple vio-
lets and flaming azaleas on the hillsides now
so bleak and brown. Nowhere is Nature
more beautiful than when she stages a Geor-
gia spring, and Atlanta stands in that stra-
tegic position between the hill country and
middle Georgia, where she shares it's full
Towering
Surely there is no city in the country
where walking clubs would have better rea-
son to flourish than in~Atlanta No man is
too poor to organize one or join one And
IN WaIk1ng-not mere strolling the shopping
section, but hearty, swinging walking, where
SIX miles is but step and every curve and
every slope open up new vistas of beauty
he will find the uplifting and the cleansing
no amount OF golf or automobiles could win
for him.