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Author: Ruby Rodríguez

The 52 Hike Challenge

por Karla Amador

Take yourself back to your childhood and recall a moment you spent in nature with your family.

I remember when I was young, during spring break, my mom would take my sisters and me on walks at the “Enchanted” Fern Dell Nature Trail a.k.a “Ferndell Nature Museum” at Griffith Park in Hollywood, California.

The trail was beautiful with towering trees, a natural spring that fed the waterfalls, lush green tropical ferns, and lots of flora popping out at you. We would look for magical creatures: turtles, koi fish and dragonflies. My sisters, Sarah, Sybil and I, would run around, laughing, playing hide and seek. I remember imagining fairies lived there. We even found our family dog, Sasha, while walking up the trail to the Observatory.

It’s actually one of the main things I remember doing with my mom.

This was one of few activities I looked forward to as a kid. With three little kids, my parents did not have a ton of money to spend on expensive activities, so walking it was. It’s actually one of the main things I remember doing with my mom.

I didn’t realize it then, but spending time outside with my family was one of the most powerful ways for us to connect to each other and make memories.

Now I know the incredible benefits of getting outside regularly, and with family. The great outdoors can bring you an overwhelming sense of peace and well-being. It increases creativity and overall joy. The best part of all? It’s FREE!

When you bring your family with you, you will all benefit.

Benefits of Getting Outside With Loved Ones

You will:

  • Find time and space to communicate with each other
  • Enjoy the little things and spend quality time together
  • Unplug from technology and your daily life
  • Live a healthier and happier life

As you can see, getting out in nature can have tremendously positive effects on your overall well-being and strengthen bonds with your loved ones.

When you get outside regularly, you increase your physical strength and stamina, reduce stress, improve your mood, and so much more.

So why not make it a goal for you and your family in the New Year?

The Goal: 52 Hikes In A Year

In 2014, I was looking for a worthwhile goal for myself. After falling in love with hiking, I decided to commit to a hike a week for the entire year.

Every week I looked forward to my next hike. I enjoyed packing a lunch and eating outside. I enjoyed enlisting my son and friends to join me. I enjoyed the feeling of accomplishment when I reached a summit.

It was life-changing, and I decided to share my 52 Hike Challenge idea with others. The idea took off and spread like wildfire. I now run this movement to help as many people gain the physical mental, spiritual and emotional benefits derived through nature and hiking. We’ve now had more than 41,000 people take the challenge.

With the New Year and a pandemic upon us, one of the best things we can do is commit to finding healthy ways to destress, find joy, and keep our families united. Hiking is a great way to do so, safely of course.

Challenge Yourself in 2021 – Commit to 52 Hikes

I want to challenge you to commit to getting out into nature once a week for a year. That’s 52 hikes in 52 weeks. Are you up to the challenge?

Commit to something that will help you enhance your physical and mental health, build stronger family bonds, and so much more.

Curious about getting started? Here’s what helped me stay committed to my goal:

5 Ways to Stay Committed to Your Outdoor Goal

  1. Set your intention (what do you want to achieve?)
  2. Share your goal with a loved one and your immediate family
  3. Keep track of your progress (log your hikes and take pictures)
  4. Join a community (engage with people who share the same goal)
  5. Reward yourself (and your family) for your hard work!

Are you ready to experience the life changing benefits of 52 hikes?

You simply never know where this year-long adventure will take you, but one thing is for sure: you’ll make tons of amazing memories with your family.

Sign Up for the 52 Hike Challenge Now

So, what do you have to lose? Commit to making the outdoors a priority in your life. Sign up for the 52 Hike Challenge now!

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Karla Amador is the co-founder of the 52 Hike Challenge, a global movement that has inspired hundreds of thousands of people around the world to get outdoors and take advantage of the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual benefits gained through hiking once a week for a year. Together, with the community she has created a culture of support, which can be seen in over 430,000 images shared under the #52HikeChallenge hashtags on Instagram alone.

A Trailblazer

Working for Latino Outdoors, Ruby Rodriguez wants to ensure that others can more easily follow in her footsteps.

“Today, I’m the person I knew I could be—if given the opportunity,” says Ruby Rodriguez.

That includes connecting her community in Fresno, California, to Yosemite National Park. The project is funded by the National Park Trust, and it’s part of her work as the director of programs and operations for Latino Outdoors, an organization that connects and engages Latino communities in the outdoors.

“I’ve come full circle,” Rodriguez says.

Ruby visits Yosemite National Park in community with future-LO Fresno leader, Lucia.

She first visited Yosemite in 2009 while going through intense personal and marital issues. To cope, she would drive in an area that she considered to be “the country,” because it felt calm and soothing. She liked to look at the scenery because it brought back memories from her childhood of playing outside in a ditch—what she would later recognize as riparian habitat. Those comfort-seeking drives eventually brought her to the majestic park. On her third such trip in 2010, she brought water and workout clothes. She parked at Nevada Falls and embarked on her first-ever hike.

She parked at Nevada Falls and embarked on her first-ever hike.

It was the most physically challenging thing Rodriguez had ever done. It was also tough emotionally. “I didn’t know what I was doing,” she says. “I saw other people in gear and happy, and I was way out of my comfort zone.” Part of that discomfort came from not seeing anyone who looked like her, nobody from her nearby community.

At the same time, Rodriguez experienced the benefits of being outdoors in a beautiful and awe-inspiring place. She felt the presence of a higher power and the sense of being part of a larger story. She remembers thinking, “Damn, I have potential.”

Finding Purpose

In that moment, it all came flooding back: the happy times Rodriguez had spent outside as a child and the growing disconnect from nature she experienced as she aged. But her return to the outdoors wasn’t instantaneous.

But her return to the outdoors wasn’t instantaneous.

Rodriguez became a mother when she was only 16. Finding her identity as a parent would have been challenging at any time of life, but she had the additional struggle of trying to resolve her own trauma of being told she wasn’t good enough and yet knowing she could do better for herself and her child.

When she wanted to transfer from community college to a university and was scrolling majors at the California State University at Fresno website, she saw Recreation Administration. “That’s something I could stick with,” she thought.

Her moment of resolve came a couple years after that as she was going through a divorce and expecting her third child with no degree and no job. She thought, “This isn’t the life I want.”

Ruby and LO Founder José González at the 2019 LO Leadership Campout.

Determined to earn her degree, she discovered that Humboldt State was the only school still accepting applications. She’d never heard of it before. She looked more closely at the school and its recreation program and thought, “This place is amazing.” But when she submitted her application, she received an error message. She nearly gave up, but a couple weeks later tried again. It went through, and soon her acceptance letter arrived.

As she prepared for this new path and after a trip to Hetch Hetchy with her newborn, she decided something must be done about the lack of Latinx people at Yosemite. Craving connection, she found Latino Outdoors on Instagram.

Skill Building

At Humboldt, as an older student and single mom, Rodriguez wasn’t the typical recreation major. As she did her best as a mom and student, she grew more confident in her sense of self. She learned more about the benefits of being outdoors and thought, “I’ve experienced this.” Rodriguez also used outdoor recreation to promote wellness and strength in her children. Her youngest learned to walk while hiking.

As she did her best as a mom and student, she grew more confident in her sense of self.

In 2016, the year she would graduate, Rodriguez became an ambassador with Latino Outdoors and participated in her first-ever leadership campout. With support and encouragement from her academic advisor, Dr. Marchand, Rodriguez pursued her interest in diversity, equity, and inclusion within the outdoor recreation field. She knew what it felt like to be uncomfortable on trips with her young, white classmates and then making the same trip with Latino Outdoors and feeling like she was home.

Ruby and her children on graduation day.

“I learned so much,” she says.

The summer after she graduated, she became a student intern for the Outdoor Foundation’s Outdoor Nation challenge, designed to help with diversity and inclusion in outdoor spaces. The competition included 87 universities competing for the title of Most Outdoorsy College in the nation. As the student coordinator, she helped plan the messaging, outreach, and events with students logging their activities on an app. “I learned so much,” she says. “And we won the competition.”

Coming Home

When she first graduated, Rodriguez thought she would become a park ranger. “But I quickly realized that those positions weren’t created with single women with children in mind.” Instead, Latino Outdoors hired her. She continued to grow in her roles and responsibilities, balancing the challenges of work and parenting.

Ruby’s eldest daughter, Eva, at the LO Femme, Trans, Women’s Leadership Campout.

In 2020, the pandemic offered more opportunities to reflect and grow, and included taking on the role of teacher for her children. That experience made Rodriguez think about home. “I was born and raised in Fresno. I have a small but mighty circle of caring family and friends there. All the healing and growing that I’ve done has contributed to improving my relationships. Having a better relationship with my mom was another motivating factor,” she says.

Now, Rodriguez is back at the place that started it all, leading others to the same kinds of awe-inspiring experiences, connections and opportunities.

Now, Rodriguez is back at the place that started it all, leading others to the same kinds of awe-inspiring experiences, connections and opportunities. She’s especially proud of how she’s grown as a mother and a leader. “It’s hard to be a woman of color in a leadership position. It’s an ongoing challenge that requires you to heal those parts that have been sent messages that you aren’t enough,” she says. But now she’s showing her children and others what’s possible.

“I’m doing all the things I imagined I would,” she says. “And nobody can take that away from me.”

This article was produced in partnership with the Outdoors Alliance for Kids, a national strategic partnership of 100+ organizations from diverse sectors with a common interest in connecting children, youth and families with the outdoors.

Connecting to National Trails

por Crystal Salvador-Zapote

Growing up with undocumented parents limited what was available to me as a child. Most of our family outings were to the local park, which was less than a mile away from where I lived. We stayed within this one-mile radius for the first decade of my life, until my parents became naturalized citizens. Meanwhile, I got older and ventured outside less. Florida is extremely humid, even in winter, which makes going outside less than desirable.

My grandfather was an important part of the reason I got back outside. He was 60 years old when he moved to the United States, spoke no English, and had no way to navigate around town, yet he somehow managed to find the closest walking trails. He was content to venture away from home and would disappear from sunrise till sunset.

Crystal with her Grandfather

He was 60 years old when he moved to the United States, spoke no English, and had no way to navigate around town, yet he somehow managed to find the closest walking trails.

After a few instances of my grandfather “staying out too late” (or getting lost), my family decided he needed a chaperone. My cousins and I became obligated to be his walking partners. Our only advantage: we knew English and could work a smart phone. We reluctantly accepted, and quickly found out that we had to run to keep up with his walking pace. When I got a job as a backpacking guide he was one of the first people I told, and more than pride I sensed his envy of my opportunity to wander around in the desert.

Recently, through a lot of hard work and persistence—and with the help of an organization called Hispanic Access Foundation— I was able to land a fellowship with the National Park Service. My fellowship is with the National Trails System, a component of the National Park Service that aims to protect and preserve natural and cultural resources through designated National Trails.

While these trails may be unrecognized by a majority of the American public, they offer tremendous opportunities to recreate and reconnect to the history of the nation. The people that I have met since starting my fellowship are working to share this history and promote and provide access to these treasured resources.

Ream Wilson Clearwater Trail, Florida

Soon after starting my fellowship I discovered that the trail my grandfather loved to frequent, the Ream Wilson Clearwater Trail, is a designated National Recreation Trail—one of the four types of trails that make up the National Trails System—I had no idea.

This piqued my interest and, because I knew National Trails Day was approaching, I wanted to share a story about a National Trail with roots in an intriguing history of Latinos in the west, which brings me to Naomi Torres.

Naomi joins Latino Outdoors for a day of training.

Naomi is an advocate for involving the Latino community in conservation work and serves as Superintendent for the Juan Bautista de Anza National Historic Trail. She has been working with the National Park Service for many years and emphasizes the importance of encouraging pride of place with Latinx youth. She has worked with many partners to bring youth programming to the trail and is also working to connect people to the history of the Anza trail, a story that is not typically shared in the classroom.

Naomi also believes the story told today focuses on the Spanish colonial, which does not paint a whole picture of the history of the Anza trail. She hopes to be able to share the story of the diverse characters that make up the trails’ history, which include Afro-Latinos and the native peoples that lived and still live along the trail.

Photo Credit: Anza Trail NPS

This work is not easy to do, as it takes a lot of involved time, but is necessary and the payoff is great. The Anza trail offers many opportunities to get on the trail or to visit historic sites, as well as opportunities to get involved. If you are in California or Arizona, I encourage you to connect to the Anza trail, and if you reside elsewhere just know that there are many other National Trails to visit.

At the beginning of February I was at Hike the Hill, a National Trails conference, when I got a call from my dad. My grandpa had been in and out of the hospital for a few years and had always managed to get back on his feet, but that was not the case this time around. Unfortunately, I did not get the chance to say goodbye, so when I flew into Florida to attend his funeral I knew I wanted to find my own way to commemorate his life. 

When I was still living in Florida and would visit from college, my grandpa and I would often walk the Clearwater trail to a small bay where we could watch the sunset. On my visit to Florida I walked the same trail, this time without my grandfather. As I watched the sun set I reflected on his quiet nature and how he was the one who introduced me to quiet walks. The first that I can remember were walks on his farm in Mexico when I was only a toddler.

For this upcoming National Trails Day, June 6th, I have planned an early morning hike. The outdoors is a space where I can meditate and re-center myself, and with the events going on in today’s world I know I could benefit from carving out some space for quiet contemplation. I am also taking a pledge to leave the trail better than I find it, with the plan of going out with a trash bag to pick up any waste I find along the trail. I invite you to also get outside if possible. However, I understand it may feel difficult to step away from the world due to diverse reasons. If this is the case, no worries, the trail will always be there.