Mount Lebanon, PA Outdoor Activities

A still figure stands silently behind a few thin trees. When he sees someone emerging from a long, metal tube several yards away, he takes aim with his marker, squeezes the trigger, and watches a blot of brightly colored paint materialize on his friend's shoulder. Such friend-turned-foe scenarios play out daily at Urban Assault, a paintball facility whose outdoor battlefields in Cecil and indoor arenas in McDonald attract players from all around the area. In the outdoor arenas, the surrounding wooded landscape adds variety of terrain and barricade possibilities, letting staffers add touches such as metal crawl tubes and other strategic bits of architecture that paintballers have come to depend on for cover. The competitors engage in open play on five such outdoor fields—each with unique features—as well as in the company's two indoor spaces that total some 30,000 square feet. Indoors, paintball contests go from sparsely adorned to almost disco-like as players stalk their enemies while traipsing across catwalks and navigating a demanding maze of fog machines, black lights, and adrenaline-boosting music inside one of the fields. The brains behind Urban Assault also offer special rates to large groups, military veterans, and members of the CIA's finger-painting brigade.

With more than 700 public stairways, Pittsburgh ranks among the most-stepped cities in the United States, and the highest concentration of these antique escalators may be found in the South Side Slopes. Every autumn since 2001, the South Side Slopes Neighborhood Association has organized a walking celebration of the approximately 2,700 steps that make up the neighborhood’s pedestrian paths. Streets in the area are prone to change suddenly into tangled, narrow passageways and hard-to-spot hidden corridors, confounding drivers and fostering an old-time vibe underlined by the residents’ liberal use of the word “malarkey.” While exploring these paths with the help of a narrative program book, the curious enjoy a heart-healthy exercise and soak up historical tales such as those about the 1849 cholera epidemic or the home lives of workers at the local glass factories and steel mills.

Steel City Airsoft's safety-conscious staff hosts adrenaline-pumping showdowns for recreational warriors as well as for law enforcement or military groups looking to train in a close-quarters, indoor environment. A modular building design allows staffers to reorient the walls, hallways, and doorways that honeycomb the 15,000-square-foot facility, ensuring unpredictable, action-packed bouts amid a hail of whistling pellets. With an emphasis on responsible play, the staff members steadfastly enforce the facility's rules and advise patrons either to wear clothing that covers any bare skin or to don their family's coat of arms. Steel City Airsoft is open on Fridays from 5 p.m.–midnight, Saturdays from noon to midnight, and Sundays from noon to 10 p.m.

The friendly experts at Willi's Ski and Snowboard Shop sling the latest in contemporary snow-sport products and maintain slope-traversing gear, earning themselves a Gold Medal Award from Ski magazine. Boot technicians help guests hunt down the precise fit for their boots, and maintenance wizards use top-notch Wintersteiger tuning machines to ensure that skis and snowboards retain their integrity during outings or unexpected ice ages.

Draped over the verdant Washington County countryside, Fort Cherry Golf Club's 18-hole course spans 6,205 yards of rolling, player-friendly terrain. The course's relatively open layout invites players to blast tee shots with their drivers or T-shirt cannons at nearly every non-par 3, as sparse tree lines offer little impediment to shots that find the rough, and the course's multiple sand bunkers loom by the greens—not the fairways. An adjacent driving range loosens up swings to perfection, and a practice green sharpens up putting strokes and helps players get a feel for how to read the course's subtle slopes and metaphorical flagsticks. With its own motel and a gourmet bar and restaurant, the club hosts all-day and overnight golf-outing packages for a restful pin-hunting vacation.

Course at a Glance:

• 18-hole, par 70 course
• Length of 6,205 yards from farthest tees
• Course rating of 69.6 from farthest tees
• Slope rating of 122 from farthest tees
• Four tee options

SteelTown Paintball Park embraces competition with a Sup'Air speedball field and 11-balls-per-second Envy paintball markers. Its mirrored field encourages strategizing and modest primping among teams, and often games can become up-close-and-personal affairs after tickling becomes the only true means to attain victory. The turf field also hosts competitive events, ranging from national USPA matches to local-level tourney play. Recreational players need not feel intimidated, however, as the referees ensure fair matches with equal teams.