Descriptions of routes should be prepared, illustrated with maps, if necessary, and should be made available to those who wish to use them, whether members of the club, visitors from a distance, or the general public. For a club, rightly conceived, is, within its sphere, a public benefactor, and its policy should be always to enlarge its usefulness.
A proper description of a route should give, (1) distances from start to finish, as well as from point to point along the way; (2) approximate time requisite to walk each stage. (Here it may be noted that Baedeker’s famous guidebooks err on the safe side, and give very liberal time allowance in describing walking tours.) The description should further give (3) elevations, where range in elevation is appreciable, with note of steep ascents and descents; (4) the nature of the surface; (5) stopping places for rest and refreshment and springs; (6) such matters of caution as the particular route may require, in regard to dangerous places, heavy roads, obstructions, and the like; (7) objectives and points of particular interest. Recommendations should be made on such matters as preferred season, special equipment, need for guides, and incidental expenses. Descriptions should be concise, easily intelligible, and should be at once accurate and inviting.
A handbook of routes of the region may well be prepared, and in such a handbook descriptions of particular walks may be prefaced by such general statements regarding topography, science, history, and sport, as are applicable to the whole region. Such general matters may, however, be published in leaflet form, and separate leaflets be prepared and published for the several pedestrian routes in the region.
An excellent specimen handbook is “Excursions Around Aix-les-Bains,” mentioned in the Bibliography ([page 148]).
It has just been said that the descriptions of routes should be published and distributed. They may be printed under the imprint of the club, or, more economically, they may be published in the local newspaper, and extra copies, separately printed for distribution by the club, may be procured by arrangement with the printing office. If the club be a small one and young, and the cost of printing too great, at least typewritten copies of descriptive matter and blue prints of maps should be available.
In addition to such descriptions of its own region, a club should similarly prepare and make available other routes traversed by its members in other and undeveloped regions.
Maintaining a bureau
A club should have a place where its data are filed, available to those who wish to consult them. This place should be a distributing point for the club’s publications. If the region has already been mapped by the Geological Survey, the club should lay in a supply of the quadrangles covering the region, sufficient to meet the needs of applicants.
A library should be maintained, or a bibliography at least, to which the members of the club may have access, to acquaint themselves with all that concerns the art of walking, the choice of route, and the sources of enjoyment along the route chosen. Cooperation in this regard will readily be accorded by any local public library or museum of natural history.
In such manner a walking club becomes a source of information for visiting pedestrians. Out of the wider relationships so established will come increased membership and livelier interest. Incidentally, it will have become apparent to one who reads these pages that the organization—though, by recommendation, kept as simple as possible—will, in an early stage of development, include an office with a secretary in charge. The library may be conducted, perhaps in the secretary’s office, perhaps in the rooms of a general public library. Club rooms or a club house will be maintained only under exceptional circumstances.