AFNHA Hiking Challenge
Thank you for your interest in the AFNHA Hiking Challenge! This challenge is meant to encourage hikers of all experience levels to experience West Virginia's natural beauty.
The format is simple. Complete any 5 hikes in the AFNHA region and get a free embroidered patch!
AFNHA also presents guided hikes via Storymaps. If you don't know where to start (or just want to get a preview of the kinds of views you'll see while hiking), you can view them here!
Rules
- Go on any hike in the AFNHA region. A map of most of these hikes can be found here. To find hikes in your region, you can use the "search" feature in the upper-left corner of the map.
- Let us know about the hike! You can send us a picture of yourself on the hike and/or a brief message about your experience. Each submission will be manually verified by AFNHA. You can submit this here.
- After 5 verified hikes, collect your badge! The badges can be picked up at the Appalachian Forest Discovery Center (Darden Mill) in Elkins. Address: 101 Railroad Ave. Elkins, WV 26241
Future Plans
This hiking challenge will have more content added over time. Of note:
- There are currently 5 guided hikes on Storymaps, which can be found here. More guided storymaps will be added.
- The current way to collect your badge is by going the Darden Mill. In the future, we hope to have the badges avaliable for pickup in other locations and/or mail them directly to people who complete the challenge.
- The map for the AFNHA region's hikes is almost certainly missing some hikes. If you believe that we should include a hike that's not currently on the map, please let us know via this form!
- We'd like a more user-friendly way to let users keep track of how many hikes they've done. One potential solution is having a membership form specifically for the hiking challenge; if this sounds like something you'd be interested in, please let us know!
Feedback
We value your feedback on this hiking challenge! Please provide feedback via this Google Form or by emailing recreation@afnha.org.