There's Always Someone Walking at Your Pace

LOWER CAPE · ON THE TRAIL

The club's first walk, at Kent's Point in 2022, drew 11 people. It now counts 3,000-plus members and asks every newcomer to take a clinic first.

4 min read · A Celebrate Lower Cape spotlight

Kent's Point in Orleans. Eddy Bay in Brewster. Fort Hill in Eastham. Hawksnest State Park and Bell's Neck in Harwich. Great Island in Wellfleet. Salt Pond to Doane Rock to Coast Guard Beach.

Six days on the walk calendar of the Cape Cod Nordic Walking Club, Friday through Wednesday, and every one of those trails gets walked in a group, with a pole in each hand. By the club's own count it has more than 3,000 members and has run more than 300 instructional clinics. In January, WCVB reported at least 60 walks a month, and founder Carla Fogaren gave the station the range: Plymouth to P-Town.

If you've passed one of those lines of walkers and wondered what to call them, the Provincetown Independent already settled it in a December 2022 headline: "Traipsing With the Norkers."

Off-season training for cross-country skiers

Nordic walking started in Finland in the 1970s, the Independent reported, as a way for cross-country skiers to train without snow. WCVB described it as walking with specialized poles "to engage the upper body while walking." At her clinics, the Independent wrote, Fogaren teaches "the mechanics of incorporating the upper and lower body in a well-coordinated motion."

The club's own homepage pitches it as exercise for any age, and it doesn't skew the way you might guess. In 2022 the Independent found walkers ranging "in age from 20- to 80-something."

Eleven showed up holding driveway markers

In June 2022, Fogaren went on Facebook looking for five to ten people to walk with, according to a profile in Stroll magazine. The Independent counted who came to that first walk, around Kent's Point in Orleans: 11 "curious locals holding trekking poles fashioned from flimsy driveway markers."

By December the group had passed 850 members, the Independent reported. Eighteen months later, the Martha's Vineyard Times put it at nearly 2,800, run by volunteers, with 10 certified instructors and 28 trained walk leaders. The paper described Fogaren as a former nurse and certified Nordic walking instructor. From 11 to more than 3,000 has taken four years and four months.

The Kent's Point walk is back on the calendar this Friday at 8:15 a.m., listed as high beginner/low intermediate, 1.5 to 3 miles. The host on the listing is Carla Fogaren.

Under two miles, or five through Helltown

The calendar labels its walks by level but doesn't define the levels. The miles do the sorting.

• Beginner, 1.5 to 2 miles: Eddy Bay in Brewster; Fort Hill and the Hemenway area in Eastham (1.75).

• Intermediate, about 3 to 3.5 miles: Bell's Neck in Harwich; the Cold Brook Preserve loop, where Harwich's otter story ran last week.

• Intermediate/advanced, about 4.5 to 4.8 miles: Baker's Pond to Higgins and Eel Ponds in Orleans; Great Island; Salt Pond to Coast Guard Beach.

The labels overlap, too. Hawksnest's Ponds & Pines walk carries the same intermediate/advanced tag at 3 miles.

Advanced shows up just past this week, on Friday, Oct. 30: "Helltown, Snake Hills, and Wild Bogs" in Provincetown, 5 miles. Fogaren answered the obvious worry back in 2022, talking to the Independent.

"Be safe, be seen"

That's the first of the alerts at the top of the club's homepage this week. The rest of the notice sits behind a member login, so the general version comes from the state's safety tips for non-hunters: "A brightly-colored orange vest or hat will help you stay visible. Avoid earth-toned or animal-colored clothing." The same page notes that Sunday hunting is not permitted in Massachusetts. Another alert, in capitals: "TICKS ARE ACTIVE YEAR-ROUND."

The last one is the one that sorts everybody else: "INSTRUCTIONAL CLINIC REQUIRED!" The club's registration form asks new members to agree to "participate in our required Nordic Walking instructional clinic prior to signing up for a scheduled walk." The next one on the calendar is Tuesday, Oct. 27, at the Brooks Sports Complex in Harwich Center. In 2022 the Independent reported that Fogaren kept loaner poles so newcomers could try the sport before buying; the current site doesn't say either way.

Book the clinic first. Then pick the walk by its miles.

KEEP READING

Before your next walk, read these

Trails, beaches and a few creatures you might meet on the way, from stories we've already walked.