Walking

Walking is the easiest, most accessible, cost effective, and enjoyable way for most people to increase their physical activity.

Want to walk but don't know where? 

A new website - walk4life could be the answer.

The Walk4Life website has thousands of walks, and you can add your own routes and share them with others!  What is innovative about the site is the use of OS maps as well as an easy-to-use mapping tool (there is even a video to help you get started). 

You can add walks of any length or type - including your regular walks to work, the shops or school, health walks, a weekend stroll, or longer routes over the fells.  Cumbria's Countryside Access team are supporting the project and have submitted the "miles without stiles" routes, designed to have as few barriers as possible. 

Each time you complete a walk the site records your miles, building up a record of your walking activity. You will soon be able to set yourself a challenge, like walking 50 miles before your next birthday! 
Some of the walking routes are special "fitness test" routes - these are 1 mile long, uninterrupted, fairly flat and barrier-free routes.  If you time yourself walking the mile and take your pulse at the end, your fitness log will track your improving fitness levels! 

The website was launched for National Walking Day on the 26th September together with news items on ITV.  Since then nearly 2,000 miles have been walked and over 3,000 walking routes have been added.  Take a look and get walking!

The Woodland WalkFinder

To make it easy for you to find your nearest walks in woods, Walking for Health has mapped all of its health walks that pass through woodland. They have done this by teaming up with the new Woodland Trust-led VisitWoods project - the UK's first interactive website to map nearly 14,000 of the UK's woods

Search for your nearest walk at www.woodlandwalks.org.uk »
 

Events

• Cumbria's Blue Badge Tourist Guides have released details of their town and country walks programme which will be starting on July 11 and will run throughout the county for the summer season. >>more
• 2011 - Pooley Bridge, Lake District.  With some of the most dramatic and breathtaking scenery in England, the Lake District was the inspiration for some of the nation's finest poets including William Wordsworth.  This HACK gives you the chance to experience the splendour of one of the most beautiful lakes, Ullswater, and its spectacular surroundings.  Who knows, after walking 22 miles in this historic part of England, you might be tempted to pen your own poem?  Get more information or register here.

Health Walks

Doorstep Walks

Courses

Volunteer Pathways