Active Adult Center coordinates year-round walking opportunities

The health benefits to walking cannot be understated.

Regular, brisk walking can help you maintain a healthy weight, manage certain conditions and strengthen your bones and muscles, according to the Mayo Clinic.

Harvard Health encourages people to make walking part of their daily lives.

But where to walk in Centre County? And with whom? Fortunately, for the 55 and older crowd, there are a plethora of places to get your steps in well into the end of the year.

Some of the top hiking spots around the area include Bear Meadows, Mount Nittany, the Allegheny Front trail and Sproul State Forest. And for those looking to broaden their hiking resumes, the Centre Region Parks and Recreation’s Active Adult Center helps coordinate near-weekly hiking trips well into December.

“The hikes themselves are coordinated by two of our members,” said center Supervisor Cindy Stahlman, “and we help make the information available.”

“They’ve been doing it forever,” she said. “I’ve been here for three-and-a-half years and they were doing it long before that.”

According to the CRPR website, the center hiking schedule meets 9 a.m. Tuesdays April through October and 10 a.m. Tuesdays November through March at the Westerly Parkway Shopping Center. Hikes traverse throughout the county, through woodlands, parks or local urban areas.

Hikes are scheduled through Dec. 12, the schedule says, with a two-week holiday break before rejoining again on New Year’s Day. Locations include excursions through Little Flat Tower, Colyer Lake, Walnut Spring Park, Boalsburg and Bellefonte.

Hikes earlier in the year included Spring Creek Canyon, Poe Paddy, Black Moshannon, Shingletown Gap and Bald Eagle.

Vonny Boarts, 71, of State College, said she’s been participating in the hikes for years. She said she likes to be outdoors and enjoys seeing all the different kinds of parks.

Walking keep her active in winter, she said, since she’s not particularly a fan of winter sports, so she plans on taking part in most of the hikes.

“It’s what keeps me going,” she said. “The only thing to keep you going is to keep going.”

The hikes are pleasant, she said, because they allow different people to move at their own speed. Many times, the group starts at a trail head, walks to a certain point, and comes back, she said, giving a chance for those who want to walk however far to go at their own pace.

During the winter, Stahlman said, walking through the Nittany Mall is still an option, and a great chance to get some walking in if the weather is bad. Some show up at 6 a.m. to get their laps in, some walk at 9 a.m. when the vans bring them to the center.

The center even offers a map for walkers, she said, pointing out how far multiple laps around the mall comes to in miles.

Stahlman added that walking “is essential. It keeps them young.”

For more information, contact the center at 231-3076 or visit the parks and recreation website at www.crpr.org.

This story was originally published October 2, 2017 at 9:18 AM with the headline "Active Adult Center coordinates year-round walking opportunities."