Sonoma County Regional Parks trails challenge offers prizes for hiking

Hikers, lace up your boots. You are being challenged to trek five or more parks between now and November, including new trails in Sonoma Valley, Santa Rosa and along the coast.

The sponsoring agency, Sonoma County Regional Parks, will launch the second annual Sonoma County Trails Challenge on Saturday, June 6, which also is National Trails Day.

Hikers can shop a variety of potential trails included in a downloadable guidebook posted at parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov. The guide has been updated for 2015 with new hikes at North Sonoma Mountain, Sonoma Valley, Taylor Mountain and Stillwater Cove regional parks.

Finishers who turn in an online trails log will get a free water bottle or other hiking-related gift. Those who post a photo of themselves taking the Trails Challenge on Regional Parks’ Facebook page will be eligible for monthly park membership giveaways. Kids who take the challenge will get a youth-sized water bottle and an official “Trails Challenge Explorer” certificate.

Co-sponsored by the Sonoma County Department of Health Services, the Trails Challenge promotes the health benefits of spending time in nature. It is designed for all fitness levels with hikes ranging from 2 to 5 miles round-trip. The guidebook rates each trail as easy, moderate or strenuous and includes key facts about parks, turn-by-turn trail notes, trail maps and driving directions to each park.

Sonoma County has more than 50 regional parks with more than 150 miles of trails for walking, running and biking.

As part of the challenge, the county is sponsoring a series of guided walks, starting with a historical ecology hike over the new addition to the Sonoma Valley Regional Park in Glen Ellen on Saturday, June 6.

For more information about the guided walks or the challenge, visit parks.sonomacounty.ca.gov/Activities/Trails_Challenge.aspx.

A limited number of print copies of the trails guidebook will be available starting Friday, June 5, at the staffed entries to Spring Lake Park in Santa Rosa and Ragle Ranch Park in Sebastopol and at the Regional Parks office, 2300 County Center Drive, Suite 120A, Santa Rosa.

You can reach Staff Writer Meg McConahey at meg.mcconahey@pressdemocrat.com or 521-5204. On Twitter @megmcconahey.