2024 American Volkssport Association Northeast Region "Hudson to Housatonic" Walking Weekend Was held over the September 6-8, 2024 weekend

Welcome to the 2024 AVA Northeast Region's September Walking Weekend!

This year, 2024 AVA Northeast Region Walking Weekend event was hosted by two clubs, the Volkssport Club at West Point and the Connecticut Valley Volkssport Club.

Note: Our Event has passed! 

We've posted pictures of the event and a nice overview write up below.

So many folks assisted us during the weekend, and we thank them here!

Hope to see many of you at the next AVA Northeast Region Walking Weekend event in May 2025! 

Over the weekend of September 6-8, 2024, we had three walks and two social events scheduled as shown below. The weekend was centered around two of the major rivers in the Northeast USA, the Hudson River that passes by Poughkeepsie, NY and the Housatonic River that passes by Kent, CT.

Our host hotel was the Hampton Inn and Suites, located in the Town of Poughkeepsie on US Route 9.  Social events were be held both Friday and Saturday nights, and three hosted walks were held Friday, Saturday, and Sunday.

As we maintain and make changes to this website, links and text will appear below so that you can see what has changed since you last looked at the site.

• March 6 - Original release of the Event Brochure
• March 10 - Added a picture of the Kent Village Walk Start Point nd other minor English style revisions throughout
• March 13 - Added a picture of the Kent Library book sale and other minor English style revisions throughout
• April 25 - Replaced EVENT BROCHURE with one that contains the correct Zip Code (10996, not 10096) for the returned document
• June 10 - Hampton Inn room allotment has been reached, so we added a list of potential other hotels in the area (note - these are suggestions without any special rates)
• Sept 2 - Carol and Lee West, Andrew Schmidt stuffing folders for our walkers!  Also the answers to the Puzzles!
• Sept 16 - Pictures from the event that occurred and re-swizzled the page to reflect the weekend has passed
• Sept 30 - A link to Walk 'n Mass club's October 2024 newsletter Footnotes.  Page 3 of this edition has a wonderful write up of the event, courtesy of our Weekend Walking Committee member Bea Hait.

The Event has passed - but a wonderful write up of what occurred is here:

Thanks to Bea Hait of Walk 'n Mass for her write up on October 2024's Page 3 of FOOTNOTES, the newsletter of her club.

Three Walking Events:

The three walks that were part of this walking weekend are Year Round Events that the two clubs sponsor; however, we met meet in slightly different starting locations.

These walks were done on any of the three days in any order, but a guided walk was held for each on the days listed below. They were led by a leader of either the Volkssport Club at West Point or the Connecticut Valley Volkssport Club.

• Friday, September 6: Hyde Park NY
• Saturday, September 7: Walkway Over the Hudson, Hamlet of Highland NY (across the Hudson River from Poughkeepsie)
• Sunday, September 8: Kent Village Walk in Kent, CT

Some photos of the event - what was promised and what actually occurred.

(The "pre" event photos of Hyde Park and Walkway Over the Hudson were taken by the Volkssport Club at West Point during February 2024.  The Village of Kent CT walk photos are from the Connecticut Valley Volkssport Club.).  The post event pictures were taken by Lee West, Carol West, Andrew Schmidt, Leslie Penton, Kathy Mack, and Eileen Andersen. Many many others are located on the "AVA: America's Walking Club"page for those that are Facebook members, and we urge you to view them!

Hyde Park:

Henry Wallace Visitor Center	FDR Presidential Library and Museum	FDR and Eleanor Roosevelt Grave Site

Home of FDR		Hyde Park Train Station (only on long route)	Vanderbilt Mansion (only on long route)

Event Pictures:

Walkway Over the Hudson:

The West Pavilion, our Starting Point	A historical marker on the Walkway	A view of Poughkeepsie looking southeast

The Poughkeepsie main post office commissioned and design influenced by FDR (on the long route through Poughkeepsie)	Market Street looking South (on the long route through Poughkeepsie)	Market Street looking north (on the long route through Poughkeepsie)

Event Pictures:

Kent Connecticut Village Walk:

Connecticut Valley Volkssporters in 2020 at the old Kent CT train depot.	A view of the Housatonic River, 149 miles long that flows through both Connecticut and Massachusetts.	The Kent Village walk will start at the bench near this red sculpture.
	The Kent Memorial Library Outdoor Book Sale weekends that include our Sunday walk date.  It's near our start point and we're told Volkssporters linger here after the walk!

Event Pictures:

Social Events:

Besides the walks, you hadour two social events.  Friday night featured a "Meet and Greet" at the Germania of Poughkeepsie's annual Oktoberfest in Poughkeepsie.  Saturday night we enjoyed a dinner at Longobardi's, an authentic Italian restaurant located just south of Poughkeepsie in the village of Wappingers Falls.

Friday Night Oktoberfest!

Saturday Night Dinner!

Stuffing Folders "Party" in Connecticut!

        
Andrew Schmidt (of VCWP, to the right in the two photos) and Lee (to the left in the two photos) and Carol West (the photographer here) spent a day in Connecticut the week of 25th stuffing the folders for our walkers.  The West's cat oversaw the production.

Puzzle Answers!

We got the answers!  Here's the Soduku and Crossword Puzzle answers from the registration package!

Thank yous!

(c) AVA Northeast Region 2024, Co-sponsored by the Volkssport Club at West Point and the Connecticut Valley Volkssport Club.