Fort Wayne Senior Completes Local Hiking Challenge 125 Times
Pokagon State Park’s 8-mile Hell’s Point Challenge has been open since 2017. To complete it, you must hike a mapped route that covers most of the park’s trails, taking photographs of specific waypoints.
Once hikers complete the challenge, they can share their photos with park staff to earn a free finisher’s sticker and bragging rights, and their finishers’ hometown cities and states are recorded. More than 100,000 finishers have been recorded since 2020.
One is a Fort Wayne native, Steve Weaver, age 75, who completed the challenge for the 125th time on Dec. 12.
Since the start of 2025, the Purdue University alumnus has hiked more than 1,000 miles on the park’s trails. A retired computer programmer, he hikes the challenge an average of three times per week, and that’s not including him running it three or four times on some days as he prepared for the London 2 Brighton Ultra Challenge, a 100-kilometer race he completed on Memorial Day weekend.
Weaver says he loves to watch Pokagon’s various habitats change through the seasons. One of his favorite spots in the park is the marsh near the saddle barn, from late February to early March.
“One day it’s pretty quiet, and the next, the cacophony of emerging frogs calling is almost deafening,” he said.
Another aspect that keeps Weaver going, according to park interpretive naturalist Aimee Wentworth, is all the interesting people he meets on the trails.
“He has been known to help hikers find their way and has even hiked with many,” she said.
In addition to his Pokagon hikes and runs, Weaver has also completed the challenges at Indiana Dunes, Turkey Run, Shades, Clifty Falls, Spring Mill, Charlestown, and Ouabache state parks. Having hiked over 2,600 miles in 2025, one of his future goals is to complete the challenge at Brown County State Park.
Pokagon State Park (on.IN.gov/Pokagon) is at 450 Lane 100 Lake James, Angola, 46703.
For more information on any challenge mentioned, see on.IN.gov/parks-challenges, where you can download maps and plan your visit.
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