Hike with me – and maybe win boots – when you join the Oboz Trail Experience

A hike along the Shoal Creek Trail, which leads through Pease Park in downtown Austin, is part of this year’s Oboz Trail Experience. Photo by Pam LeBlanc

Lace up your hiking boots, folks, and come join me for a walk. The Oboz Trail Experience is under way in Austin, and I’m leading a qualifying hike on Oct. 26.

This year marks the fourth year of the event in Austin, which rewards participants for completing a series of hikes around the city. The more you hike, the more chances you earn for winning cool prizes.

I’m in the thick of writing an urban hiking guide to Austin and have spent a lot of time this year exploring city trails. One of the oldest is the Shoal Creek Trail, which includes lots of hidden highlights, from a huge troll created by Danish artist Thomas Dambo to the site of an old Comanche camp and the location of a long-gone bath house.

At 11:30 a.m. Oct. 26, I’ll lead a short hike from Duncan Park, 900 West Ninth Street, to Whole Earth Provision Co., 1014 North Lamar Boulevard. It’s part of the Shoal Creek Social, which also includes a native plant tour at 9:30 a.m., a history tour at 10:30 a.m., and an infrastructure hike at 12:30 p.m.

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Danish artist Thomas Dambo made this troll statue in Pease Park using mostly recycled wood. Pam LeBlanc photo

Even better, it counts as one of the official Oboz Trail Experience hikes. It’s the fourth year of the program in Austin, which encourages people to explore more than 100 miles of area hiking routes during October.

To participate, sign up (it’s free!) online at https://austin.oboztrailexperience.com/Welcome.

Once you’ve registered, you can see a list of mapped trails, form hiking groups, and chat with other participants. Trails can be completed in any order, and some are broken into segments. Participants must log all their hikes on either a GPS device or smartphone activity tracking app. Your progress will be posted on a leaderboard.

All hikes must be completed by Oct. 31.

A wrap party is planned for 5-7 p.m. Nov. 2 at Whole Earth Provisions, complete with drawings for Oboz boots, Whole Earth gift cards, and other more. The event is sponsored by Oboz Footwear, Whole Earth Provision Co. and the Hill Country Conservancy.

For more information go to https://austin.oboztrailexperience.com/FAQs.