12 New Hike Challenge (2025)

OFFICIAL START DATE 1/1/25

END DATE: 12/31/25

Challenge Celebration date: Jan 10, 2026

We are doing a NEW Hike Challenge for 2025 but this time it will be 12 NEW Hikes you have never done before, yes, 1 new hike per month! Come on out and explore some new trails. 1 Year to complete (year of 2025), you got this!

Although more challenging this year than last year's 10 hike challenge, it is still a very attainable challenge and will help get you outside and hiking more for 2025! Add yourself to the celebration event if your goal is to complete this challenge in 2025.

TO COMPLETE:
- Complete 12 'new to you' hikes in our group, that means a trail/hike you have never done before.
- 4 miles minimum with a minimum 300 elevation gain.
- All hikes must be with the San Diego Ladies hiking group, announced hikes with the group, not just with ladies from the group.
- Hikes must be in either San Diego, Imperial or Riverside Counties.
- Send a private message to Kathryn R. in the meetup app with the list of the 12 new hikes you completed in this group, no earlier than 12/1/2025.
- Deadline to complete this challenge for 2025 is December 31, 2025
- If you have questions about the challenge or the hikes to be included, contact Kathryn R. via the meet up app or in the comments for one of her hikes. Her specific contact info is also contained in the hike descriptions for her hikes.
Note: OK to do completely different trail of the same mountain - for example Cowles Mountain Barker Way trail one day VS the front/main trail another day.

Those who complete this challenge will get a Hiking Challenge keepsake button to show off their achievement AND another prize to be announced later! Those who complete the challenge will also get 1 raffle ticket to be able to win from a choice of additional prizes at our event in January 2026.

HERE IS THE LINK TO JOIN THE CHALLENGE: 12 Hike Challenge for 2025! , Sat, Jan 10, 2026, 10:00 AM | Meetup 

Join us for one of our birthday celebrations, planned by one of our San Diego Hiking Ladies organizers, Antoinette. Every other month she organizes either a hike and lunch or just a dinner to celebrate the birthdays of those months.  Birthday ladies who are at the event will get a signed card by all in attendance and small gifts from the group.  Any member can attend this event (even if it is not your birthday month!). There is usually a cake or cupcakes involved and a nice happy birthday serenade from the group.

Visit our Meetup Page for upcoming Birthday Events:

https://www.meetup.com/hikingladies/events/

   New challenge for 2024! Begins on January 1, 2024 and ends on December 31, 2024. Brought to you by leader Kathryn Ruiz and inspired by leader Debbie Fox, the premise of this challenge is to hike the equivalent elevation of Mount Everest, in one year. That’s 29,032 feet.    
  For this challenge, you may hike as many or as few trails WITHIN San Diego County, as you like, to achieve the elevation, just keep track of your elevation gain and mileage for each hike. This is San Diego Hiking and Walking Ladies after all! You may repeat up to 10 of the same hike/trail (i.e. you can hike up Mt Woodson 10 times if you like, or 5 other trails 2x) but you can’t have more than 10 of the same trail. Part of this challenge is to get you to seek new trails and new vistas! You also must hike at least 75% of the trails WITH the San Diego Ladies Hiking and More group, on hikes posted with the group. You must complete the elevation in the 2024 calendar year to meet the challenge goal and be awarded a prize, which will consist of a special ‘Everest’ button, as well as other cool, yet to be determined goodies. All prizes will be awarded in January 2025, and you must be a member of the group to be awarded the prize.      
  There is a list of suggested trails for hikers as well as a set of guidelines and a tracking sheet.

• Guidelines & Suggested Trails
• Tracking Sheet 

   There will be special prizes for the hiker who achieves the most elevation and the hiker who does the most individual/unique hikes (separate prizes will be awarded, and if one person has both, the person with the next highest elevation/hikes will be awarded the special prize).     
  All challenges are optional and you do not need to participate in a challenge to join any of our hikes! You do not need to register for this challenge, but in September 2024 we will send out a survey to determine how many hikers are engaged in the challenge and feel they will meet the challenge requirements. In December 2024 we will post the challenge award event to take place near the end of January 2025, which will be a potluck as we have done in the past.     

   
  Follow these Steps to complete your Everest Challenge with SD Hiking Ladies:  

1. Hike at least 29,032 feet of elevation within calendar year 2024 within these guidelines.  

2. Track & submit your list of hikes with date, name of trail, and elevation gain, to the Kathryn Ruiz at Kathalmoc@cox.net, no later than January 10, 2025.

3.  Receive a free Everest Challenge button (and probably more cool stuff) for completing at the award event in January 2025!

The "52 Peaks Challenge" is an ongoing challenge in our hiking group, derived from Kathryn (Kathy) Ruiz to challenge herself after completing a virtual Pacific Crest Trail (PCT) journey in July 2021. She thought she had come up with a completely unique and clever idea (52 weeks in a year, so 1 hike a week), until she saw the "52 Hikes Challenge" a few weeks after she outlined her own "52 Peaks Challenge"! The 2 challenges are similar, but unique. The San Diego Hiking Ladies 52 peaks challenge goal is to get hikers to hike 52 different trails with an elevation gain of at least 700 feet and 3 miles. There is a list of suggested trails for hikers as well as a set of guidelines and a tracking sheet, which can be found here. For Kathryn, the goal was to hike the 52 trails in a year or less from 7/30/21 - to 7/29/22 (i.e. 52 peaks in 52 weeks). But you can set your own time limit to fit your lifestyle! To achieve the prize, you have to hike at least half of the 52 hikes with the San Diego Ladies Hiking, Walking & More Group, and repeat no hike/peak more than 10 times (full details in the guidelines), but other than that, it’s pretty much up to you how and where you complete the challenge!

All challenges are optional and you do not need to participate in one to join any of our hikes!

Follow these Steps to complete your own 52 Peaks Challenge with SD Hiking Ladies:

1. Hike at least 52 Hikes (within any time frame) within these guidelines
2. Track & submit your list of hikes to the group organizer on our meetup page.
3. Receive a free 52 Peaks Challenge pin for completing!

The first challenge participants (Kathy's original challenge) will finish on July 29, 2022, and there will be a celebration for that distinct group. If you were not in that group, you can start your own 52 peaks challenge whenever you like with the group or friends.  

Visit our Meetup Page to see current and upcoming 52 Peak Challenge hikes (just look for the "52 Peaks" call out:

https://www.meetup.com/hikingladies/events/

To find out more about Kathy's journey, check out her blog at:  https://kathjourney57.wordpress.com/

The San Diego Hiking Ladies group has adopted Cowles Mountain to do cleanup hikes for the month of November & December of 2023! ADOPT ONE PLACE is a new initiative by www.CleanTrails.org (more info at www.adoptoneplace.com).

Our hiking hosts are committed to posting 1 hike a week within these 2 months, to clean up the trails of Cowles Mountain. We will be geared up with gloves, bags and trash pickup sticks to cleanup any trash we see along the trails. 2 hosts will do the main trail and 1 host will do the Barker Way Trail. Hikers who participate with us will get a FREE PRIZE at each cleanup hike they do, as a thank you! Visit www.meetup.com/hikingladies/events to view available cleanup hikes.

San Diego Hiking Ladies is purchasing Christmas gifts for foster children/teenagers through the Promises2Kids program right here in San Diego, CA. We have are collecting money until 12/8/2023 from our wonderful members of our group who are willing to donate. Leader Kim B will then be purchasing gifts with the donations, based on the guidelines from the program. We will post how much we raised for this program & photos on our event page at:  Christmas Gifts for Foster Teenagers *Rated Easy, no hills, Fri, Dec 8, 2023 | Meetup.

NEW FOR 2022 hiking challenge by co-organizer of San Diego Ladies Hiking, Walking & More group! This challenge is meant to be accessible to all of our ladies in the group, posing both a challenge and a fun way to discover new hikes/trails, make new friends, increase fitness and most of all, have fun! All challenges are optional and you do not need to participate in one to join any of our hikes!

                                                      Start Date: July 29th, 2022

                                                       End Date: July 29th, 2023

The premise of this challenge is to do many different types of hikes and check them off on your scavenger hunt list. In contrast to the 52 Peaks Challenge, the hikes won’t all be physically challenging hikes, but rather include many different types of hikes: beach hikes, desert hikes, mountain hikes, forest hikes, waterfall hikes and yes, even peak hikes. There will be 10 categories and hikers are to hike 5 trails in each category to complete the scavenger hunt. Another contrast to the 52 Peaks Challenge is that if you wish, you can repeat hikes as often as you wish and/or use a single hike to serve multiple categories. For example, the hike to Maidenhair Falls in Anza Borrego State Park could meet the Desert hike, Waterfall hike and Peak hike categories and you would have 3 of the 50 required hikes in the scavenger hunt completed on that one hike. 

Please go here for detailed information on this challenge, there is a list of suggested trails in each category as well as a set of guidelines and a tracking sheet. The goal is to complete the 50 trail scavenger hunt in a year or less (from July 30, 2022 to July 29, 2023). If you do it, you will win a prize for your achievement! To achieve the reward, you have to hike at least half of the 50 hikes with the San Diego Ladies Hiking, Walking & More group by the end date. No registration is required, just start hiking and tracking, then email your tracking sheet to Kathryn R. (Kathy):  Kathalmoc@gmail.com.  Look for hikes on our event page; qualifying hikes will be tagged with the Nifty 50 hike label and category. If you have questions, use the meet up app messenger to contact Kathryn, or send an email.