Winners of the book giveaway: Best Hikes with Kids: San Francisco Bay Area

Frog Mom never, ever, hikes without chocolate. Photo by C.G.

Last month I wrote a post on my hiking guidebook for families Best Hikes with Kids: San Francisco Bay Area. In that post, I encouraged people to comment and talk about their favorite Bay Area trails with kids. In the meantime my book got a review in Bay Nature magazine, a blurb on Daily Candy, was part of a contest on SFKids and soon you should hear me on KQED give my Perspective on creepy crawlers. Seriously!

Now I've selected the 2 winners via randompicker.org and I would love to announce them today. Drum roll. The winners of my contest are ... Ammo and Nicole!!! These two lucky winners will receive by mail an autographed copy of my book - sorry I can't draw even when I try hard - and a bar of high quality completely delicious dark chocolate to motivate them to go hiking! That's because I've now included "dark chocolate, bittersweet please" in my list of must-haves for hikes. No less.

Now you may be curious, what Bay Area trails did people share that they like so much? Here is what parents had to say on Frog Mom:

• So far, my favorite place to hike with little ones has been the Zinfandel Trail at Picchetti Ranch in Cupertino. The trail is very short and leads to a pond with tiny frogs. 
• Our favorite hike is what we call "the ridge" and it is our favorite place to hike and walk the dog, in fact we go several times a week. You can hike for hours or just a quick 1/2 hr if that is all time allows. The kid highlights are: great views of the bay, grazing cattle, ponds in the spring (with frogs in various life cycle stages), lots of different routes and lots of exploring. The hike is actually part of Wildcat Canyon and the trail we call "the ridge" is actually off the belgum and san pablo ridge trail. Here is the link. 
• Bernal Hill was our first "hiking excursion" and we're branching out.
• My favorite bay area hike is in the Presidio.
• My husband and I have different favorite hikes with our 3 year old. I love hiking up over the beach/cliffs at Marin Headlands. My hubby takes our son to the Mary Bowerman Trail at the summit of Mt Diablo almost every weekend (I'm expecting so not hiking so much right now!)
• My girlfriends and I hike weekly with our kiddos - usually at our favorite Wunderlich - shade from Redwoods and Eucalyptus keep the moms happy and the awesome burned out old growth Redwood tree is always a win with the kids.

Obviously if you don't have my book yet, you should get yourself a copy right now. According to my husband, it almost reads like a mystery novel. Yes, it's that thrilling, take it from a reliable source. Aw, ok, it's not quite The Game of Thrones but it'll help you get fitter and the kids will become total creatures of the trails. How's that for thrilling?

Thanks so much for participating and stay tuned for more Frog Mom fun!