'Force of Nature': Retired hikers still exploring

If you see a car with the license plate RAH21, it belongs to Kim Collins – leader of the Retired Awesome Hikers and known as a “force of nature” to those she leads. 

Collins started the group of mostly 50, 60 and 70-year-olds in 2021 after she retired from teaching at White Hall Elementary School in Richmond. 

“People assume when they hear retired and 60 and 70 that we're just, you know, tottering along. No, no,” Beth Jenkins, a member of the group and president of the Madison Multi-Use Trails Alliance, said. 

The group hiked trails involving boosts over ledges and climbing, rode bikes down a mountain, kayaked, jumped off rocks into the water, hiked through extreme heat conditions and even hiked during the winter on snow and ice.  

“One of these trails you go up this crevice where water comes down but it was all frozen because it was really cold and so we more or less had to climb through this frozen waterfall up to the top,” Brent Irvin said about his first hike with the group. “I was pretty amazed. I was like, this is a pretty hardcore hiking group.” 

The oldest member of the group, Mary Lynn Stakelin, is 83 years old. 

“She’s still hiking almost every day. And biking and kayaking and exploring and traveling and laughing,” Another member of the group Attorney Helen Bukulmez, known as Momma Bear in Berea, said. “And being around somebody like that, it just gives you the best energy to say you know, all the self-limiting beliefs that I had before, they're not true.”

More than just retired hikers, members of the group come from different backgrounds with distinguished careers and involvement in the community. And when they are together, it’s like one big family. 

“We’ve become a family. We all love to be together,” Collins said. “We’re all out there because we love it, and we’ve all found friends who have those same loves of the nature. So that’s kinda great, that’s the greatest part is to see my group really like each other. Like to do more than just hike together, they like to be together.” 

Collins plans the hikes and organizes everything, from the trail path to the photo albums neatly labeled in their Facebook group for convenient access. 

She led hikers for the 250 Boone Trace Commemorative Relay, drawing more people each day into participating. When the event was being planned, it was unsure if it was possible. Collins and others like John Fox, President of Friends of Boone Trace, made it possible. 

“John (Fox)’s comment the other day was, ‘and they said it couldn’t be done.’ And we did it,” Collins said. “So these men organized the days and the paths, and they needed me to put the people on it. They didn’t know, who are we gonna get to do this, so I was instrumental in accessing all of our friends.” 

Many of the Retired Awesome Hikers were part of the relay as well. 

The hiking group continues to grow, inspiring each other and new members with what Bukulmez describes as a contagious sense of adventure. 

As people age, doctors will tell you that two of the most important things are to keep active and to have a social network. And that group provides both, which is awesome, right?” Jenkins said. “We go eat together, we’re hiking together, we’re taking care of each other.”