|
Midlands & Shropshire
TIPS FOR LEADERS
|
Tips for walk leaders |
| I'd
like to lead a walk. How should I go about it?
All the walks we do are led by club members, which means that all our regular walkers have to help out by leading walks from time to time. So, you've been coming along for a while and feel you'd like to do your bit. How do you go about it? - 1. Get an idea from a book. There are lots of books describing local walks - Waterstone's have quite a good selection. The best starting point is to browse until you find a walk that appeals to you, and make that your walk. - 2. Get a map. You need a 1:25000 scale (about 2.5 inches to the mile) Ordnance Survey map of the area where your walk is. These are the orange-topped Explorer maps. Again, Waterstone's have a good stock. - 3. Reconnoitre the walk. It's best to get a friend to go with you who'd used to leading walks. This not only makes it more fun - a good day out instead of a chore - but it will help you learn the ropes, too. At this point you may be wondering, what's wrong with these people? I've got the book. Then they tell me to get a map, and now they say I need to do a recce as well! The point is, in practice books only give you a general idea, they don't tell you exactly where the path goes. That's where the 1:25000 map comes in. Those maps show a lot of detail, including field boundaries, so in theory you can tell from the map precisely where the path goes. But then farmers plough up hedges, builders put up houses, paths get diverted or overgrown, ... and so you really do need to do a recce. - 4. Write up the directions for the walk and use the contact form to send them to us by the agreed date, which will normally be at least two months before the date of the walk. These should state - the day of the week and date - the length of the walk in miles - where the walk is (eg Abberley Hills) and a short description, emphasising the highlights (now you've done all this work you want people to turn out, don't you?) - the start point, with brief details of how to get there and unless inappropriate, the OS grid reference - the start time (usually 11am) - advise people to bring a packed lunch (this is for the benefit of anyone who may join us from other groups, where this may not be the normal practice).
|
...West
