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Oktoberfest Volksmarch on the Keuka Outlet Trail on 10/23/22

Oct 11th, 2022

October 4, 2022

Oktoberfest Volksmarch on the Keuka Outlet Trail  

 Sunday, October 23, 2022 - Rain or Shine!

 

Penn Yan, New York – After the successful Celebrate Cascade on September 18, Friends of the Outlet are now busy planning another, family-friendly event on the Keuka Outlet Trail. On Sunday, October 23, 2022, 12-4 pm, all are invited to the Oktoberfest Volksmarch, a German-themed community walk giving trail users of all ages the chance to appreciate the fall foliage while enjoying live music and an assortment of refreshments and activities. Among the activities will be celebrating the revival of the Chronicle Express, which will continue its weekly publication under the CherryRoad Media.  

 

The volksmarch is a walking event collaboratively planned with the American Volkssport Association (AVA), also known as America’s Walking Club. As a non-competitive sports organization, the focus is fun, fitness and friendship drawing on the German term “volkssport” which means “the sport of the people.” There are over 200 active AVA clubs nationwide and more than 2,500 volkssports activities each year. Participants set their own pace in each event, be it walking, biking, swimming, canoeing, or snow sports such as cross-country skiing or snowshoeing. This is the first sanctioned AVA event in Yates County, and both new and old members of the AVA will be able to earn credit for completing the volksmarch.

 

Participants of the inaugural Oktoberfest Volksmarch will begin gathering for a 5K or 10K walk at 10:00am at the AVA tent near the Cascade Pavilion located just east of the intersection of Ridge and Outlet Trail roads in Penn Yan, New York. At 12:00pm, the Apple Strudel Gang, an authentic German band from Pennsylvania will take the stage providing live music and there will be plenty of refreshments. Keuka Spring and Scout Vineyards, along with The Laurentide Brewery and Climbing Bines will be providing locally produced beverages. The “Whistlestop Wet Hop” produced by Climbing Bines will be among the beers on tap which recognizes the long history of the Keuka Outlet Trail including the Crooked Railway. There will also be a food truck offering various kinds of food, including traditional bratwurst, beer pretzels and other German delights (Cash purchases encouraged).

 

Additional Oktoberfest Volksmarch opportunities include:

·        The Chronicle Express will be hosting its own table to celebrate its revival under the new ownership of CherryRoad Media, a large national firm that specializes in applying strategic technology solutions to a wide range of industries including small, rural community publications. With over 65 rural newspapers across the United States, CherryRoad Media will help ensure the Chronicle Express reaches its bicentennial anniversary in 2024.

·        The Penn Yan Rotary Club will be on task to encourage support of the organization’s “Walk 4 Water” project which raises funds for clean water and sanitation in far-away places such as the Democratic Republic of Congo. Unlike other water projects in developing nations, the Penn Yan Rotary Club’s project benefits from the leadership of Leon Frontier who trains local residents in water well and latrine maintenance, and helps establish small community businesses to manage long term pump repair and replacement. Donations to Walk 4 Water augment the Rotary Club’s ongoing contributions providing the necessary parts for the small, manually operated pumps. 

·        Children will not be forgotten at the Oktoberfest Volkmarch. Along the 5K walk east from Cascade Falls to Seneca Mill Falls there will be a story tour. The Penn Yan Public Library will be furnishing story boards that unfold page by page along the trail. When the walk and story is finished, there will be some game boards and a magician who makes animals from balloons.  

·        A $50 gift certificate by the Penn Yan Downtown Business will be awarded to the attendee wearing the most authentic German Festival costume such as lederhosen, dirndls, aprons, hats and knee socks. (Members of the Apple Strudel Gang Band may not enter the competition.)  

Attendees are encouraged to bring lawn chairs, blankets or picnic baskets with wine glasses or beer steins, and to dress appropriately for the autumn air and temperature.

 

“I have been a longtime member and supporter of both the AVA and Friends of the Outlet and have always felt these two organizations need to be aware of each other,” Robert Schwarting, an AVA member and also a FOTO board member. “This event makes that introduction, while also reintroducing a favorite autumn Oktoberfest celebration to our community,”

 

For more than a hundred years Keuka Outlet waterway hosted mill races, sluices, gears, shafts and multiple buildings all housing the water wheels of hydropower and an assortment of different industries. Through the many decades, these facilities employed hundreds of people and fed thousands more. Gradually, as commerce changed the hydropower uses of yesteryear gave way to the recreational uses of today along the beautiful stream.  

 

The Keuka Outlet Trail is open year-round as the waters of Keuka Lake flow approximately eight miles east to Seneca Lake. As the waterway drop 270 feet in altitude from Penn Yan on the west end to Dresden, New York on the east it can be a raging river or a babbling brook depending on the time of year. In 1984, a group of local citizens formed Friends of the Outlet, Inc. as a nonprofit organization dedicated to preserve, protect and develop properties along Keuka Outlet Creek as an area for outdoor recreation and education, and to serve as responsible stewards for the region’s natural resources.

 

For further information or to assist with Celebrate Cascade or the Octoberfest Volksmarch go to

go to www.keukaoutlettrail.org/ or https://ava.org.

 

Go to https://www.facebook.com/keukaoutlettrail/photos_albums for photos of the Celebrate Cascade and many other Keuka Outlet Trail events and opportunities.

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