Take a hike—at Erie’s Asbury Woods

By Eva Mihelich News editor

Asbury Woods contains over 216 acres of land and 5 miles of trails.

For this reason, it is a beloved part of the Greater Erie community. They host year-round programs to encourage Erie residents to get out in nature for some fresh air.

Additionally, they promote physical wellbeing, since hiking is a great form of exercise. For the second year, Asbury Woods participated in the City Nature Challenge, which is “an international effort for people to find and document plants and wildlife in cities across the globe,” according to the City Nature Challenge’s website.

This annual challenge started in 2016 by the staff at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles and has since grown into a wellloved event all around the world.

Hiking itself is an activity that promotes both physical and mental health.

According to the official National Park Service website, hiking builds stronger muscles and bones, improves your balance, and improves overall health.

As far as mental health goes, the website says that hiking reduces stress, calms anxiety, and lowers your chance of depression.

Hiking with someone else can also strengthen your bond since you will overcome the various difficulties of hiking trails together, and there are no screens or anything to distract you from meaningful conversation and experience.

All of these reasons show that hiking and getting some steps in outside are great ways to ensure longevity and overall happiness!

Asbury Woods is taking part in the City Nature Challenge for years to come. Everyone is welcome, and people are encouraged to attend even if hiking has not been their hobby in the past. This is not a particularly strenuous hike, so as long as you are relatively able to walk a few miles then you should definitely consider taking part in this. This is the second year that Erie has taken part in the City Nature Challenge, and Asbury Woods re- corded that the turnout was much larger this year which is encouraging for future challenges to come.

Although this event has ended for the year, keep the City Nature Challenge in mind for next year along with the many other events that Asbury Woods hosts throughout the year.

Getting outside is a free, easy way for college students to get off campus and find something fun and wholesome to do.

It is easy to get wrapped up in the campus bubble where you forget that there are many parts to Erie that you probably have not seen. Take advantage of the beautiful trails at Asbury Woods, and support their City Nature Challenge next year!

In the fall, they have many fun events catered to Halloween, such as kid-friendly ‘haunted’ trail tours, or scenic fall scenery trail events. There is something for everybody when it comes to Asbury Woods, so consider staying up to date with their website.