Northwoods Trails Offer Dawg Daze of Summer Challenge To Help Get Participants Stay Fit During Hot Months
HOT SPRINGS NATIONAL PARK, Arkansas — The Arkansas summertime is about to flop onto the scene, bringing heat, bugs, vacations and other reasons not to get out there and keep up the exercise and fun regimen that started in cooler months.
To help, the Hot Springs’ Northwoods Trails System is offering the 2023 Dawg Daze of Summer Challenge to get participants through the season.
The Dawg Daze of Summer Challenge is a 10-week series of weekly trail segment challenges on the Northwoods Trails. The challenges will run from Thursday, June 1, through August 12. Participants must register at http://www.bikereg.com/northwoods-dawg-daze-of-summer.
“You will need to create a Strava Profile if you do not already have one,” Visit Hot Springs Trails Coordinator Traci Berry said. “It is free, and the segments/routes will be recorded/reported via Strava.”
There is a $25 registration fee, which will include a Dawg Daze of Summer T-shirt and a variety of awards that will be presented at the end of the summer-long challenge.
The weekly challenges will include divisions assigned according to age, gender and ability.
“During the Northwoods Dawg Daze of Summer, we will post weekly challenges each Friday and participants will have a week and two days to get their best time on each segment challenge,” Berry said. “We will have a celebration of sorts at the end of the summer challenge. We will provide the food, drinks, and give out our Dawg Daze awards and T-shirts. Awards will include the weekly winner in each category and overall winner for each category “and maybe a few other fun awards.”
The weekly challenges will include biking and running events on the many trail segments in the Northwoods Trails System.
“The challenges will overlap for two days,” Berry said. “So, if you can only ride on the weekends, you could knock out two challenges in one day or on a single weekend. You will have just over a week to ride the segments as many times as you want to record your best time.”
Subject to change, the 10 weekly challenges are:
- June 1 - June 10 — Green - Yaupon Yop Downhill; Blue - Cats Meow
- June 9 - June 17 — Green - Bees Knees, Dew Dropper, Freeman, Funguy, Bearcat Pass; Blue - Bees Knees Sidecar, Cats Meow, Freeman, Rockhound, Bearcat Pass
- June 16 - June 24— Green + Blue - Freeman Clockwise
- June 23 - July 1 — Green + Blue - Freeman Counterclockwise
- June 30 - July 8 — Green - Waterworks Green + Brown Thrasher; Blue - Climbing Waterworks Blue
- July 7 - July 15 — Green - Climbing Bees Knees + Sidecar; Blue - Climbing Valkyrie
- July 14 - July 22 — Green + Blue - Pumphouse NO PEDALING
- July 21 - July 29 — Green – Nighthawk; Blue - Ragnarok
- July 28 - August 5 — Green - Evergreen - Buzz By - Arrowhead - Let’s Roll; Blue - Waffles & Coffee Clockwise from Hub 3
- August 4 – August 12 — Green + Blue New Parking Connector Trails from Parking Area
The Final Dawg Days Celebration and Awards will take place August 12 at the trail system’s Waterworks Trailhead.
The Challenge categories: Men’s Green Bike; Men’s Blue Bike; Men's Run; Women’s Green Bike; Women’s Blue Bike; Women's Run; Youth 14-17 Green Bike; Youth 14-17 Blue Bike; Youth 14-17 Run; Youth 13 & Under Bike; Youth 13 & under Run; EBike Green; EBike Blue.
For more information contact Traci Berry at 501-321-2027.