TAKE A HIKE! L.E. Phillips Senior Center Group Invites You to Join Them on the Trail
coordinators Carol Lendle and Mike Baker invite you out to adventure with the group
Chippewa Valley residents Carol Lendle and Mike Baker have given new meaning to the slang phrase “Take a Hike,” typically recognized as a rude way of telling someone to go away. As coordinators of the hiking group at the L.E. Phillips Senior Center, however, they’re inviting folks to literally “Take a Hike” with them around the Chippewa Valley!
The 150-member group – which is welcome to people of all ages, not just seniors – meets up twice a month on alternate Tuesdays and Thursdays leaving the trailhead at 10:30am and returning by noon. Typically 30-40 members show up for the free hikes which range from two to three miles. Comfortable shoes are required and walking sticks are optional. Hikes also include a history lesson of sorts.
The National Park Service lists three benefits of hiking: physical exercise, mental health, and social interaction.
When the group hiked Carson Park on Thursday, May 4, where they met at the bear statue, they were given a two-page fact sheet about the 134-acre peninsula and learned that a hospital was built on the land to house people suffering from smallpox, and even after the hospital burned in 1878, people avoided the area. No more.
On Thursday, June 1, the group hiked a path along Lowes Creek on the grounds of Immanuel Lutheran High School, College, and Seminary and was given a tour of Ingram Hall, the former Ingram family mansion, now used for college and seminary classes.
Hiking is distinct from walking in that it’s done outdoors and along natural terrain. The National Park Service lists three benefits of hiking: physical exercise, mental health, and social interaction.
For more info about this hiking group, please email Carol Lendle at lendlecarol@gmail.com or call the L.E. Phillips Senior Center at (715) 839-4909 and visit their website.