On Sunday, July 9, Mill Creek was a walking city.
Mill Creek resident Lori Terry was one of about 200 people who participated in the 5K and 10K walks included for the first time as part of the city’s Meet Me In Mill Creek Festival.
“This is great for Mill Creek to do this,” said Terry, 50, after her two-and-a-half hour walk from McCollum Park to the festival at Town Center and back.
“It’s good exercise,” said Terry’s friend, Dennis McMahon, 64, of Bothell.
Maps for two walks were handed out at McCollum Park, one for 10 kilometers, or 6.6 miles, and one of five kilometers. Both routes took walkers along the North Creek Trail and through the festival, which included live music, a children’s area, a food court and a 3-on-3 basketball tournament. The 10K route also took walkers along Trillium Boulevard and Mill Creek Boulevard.
The walk was organized by the Interlaken Trail Blazers Volkssport Club of Bellevue. Volunteers from the organization registered walkers at McCollum Park.
The walk came about because of the uncertainty over the Run of the Mill, a 5K run that has taken place for each of the past 20 years. Festival organizers contacted Volkssport Club president Sue Black about organizing the walk, and though the Run of the Mill took place on Saturday, the volkssport club was happy to participate.
“It wasn’t hard to come in and do the event and let people know about volkssporting,” Black said.
Volkssporting, popular in Germany, area organized walks on a preselected routes. Some walks are self-guided and can be done any time, such as one through Central Market in Mill Creek.
Many of those who participated in Sunday’s walk were experienced volkssporters.
“We’ve walked in Germany quite a bit,” said Roi Gift, 63, of Gold Bar, who walked the 10K route Sunday with friends Chuck and Bernie Steele of Sedro-Woolley. All three formerly lived in Germany and began volkssporting there. They do it here when they can find an event, they said.
In Germany, they received badges, mugs and plaques from volkssporting clubs for achieving milestones.
“We had a hundred mugs when we left,” said Chuck Steele, 64.
Here, walkers get cards stamped by the club, and the cards are redeemed for badges and pins.
Shirley Lindberg of Renton, president of the American Volkssport Association, visited Mill Creek for the first time ever on Sunday.
“A walk like today is very social,” she said. “I’ve had a good time today visiting with people I haven’t seen for quite a while, some for years.”
Bill Sheets is a reporter with The Herald in Everett.
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