Havre Trails offers hiking scavenger hunt

Havre Trails began an outdoor scavenger hunt challenge Saturday that will be open through Monday, Aug. 31.

Havre Trails president Lindsey Bennett said the scavenger hunt is a list of nine outdoors challenges in north-central Montana that community members can take part in this summer.

Bennett said for the past four summers, Havre Trails has offered guided group hiking events around the region that were free and open to the public and due to the current COVID-19 situation, the group will not be offering these events this summer. 

“The scavenger hunt is intended to replace that so that people can get out to explore north-central Montana on their own,” she said. “We are super excited to see the photos of everyone getting out and exploring. Havre has so many cool spots that are unknown to a lot of people.”

She said the challenge has many different activities.

“The challenges include everything from taking a walk around the Fresno Wildlife Management Area, to hiking in the Missouri River Breaks, to floating the Milk River,” she said. “Some challenges have multiple options to choose from.”

For example, challenge number one is Beaver Creek Park.

Participants must hike all three of the main trails in Beaver Creek Park — Rotary Canyon Trail, Bear Paw Nature Trail and Mt. Otis and take a photo on one bench on each trail.

Then, follow the directions to complete the challenge:

Challenge one: Drive south of Havre on MT Highway 234 for approximately 15 miles to reach the northernmost trail: the Rotary Canyon Loop Trail. 

Details about all three hiking trails and their locations can be found online at havrechamber.com/hiking or in paper brochure format at the Havre Chamber Office at 130 Fifth Avenue, call 265-4383 to check hours. 

Submit the photo entry to https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/HTScavengerHunt2020 . Each challenge will count as a separate entry.

After that, for each challenge completed, names will be entered in a drawing to win one of the outdoor recreation themed prizes. Several general prizes will be drawn for the monthly drawings Wednesday, July 8, Wednesday, Aug. 5 and Wednesday, Sept. 2. Grand prizes will be drawn Wednesday, Sept. 2.

Some general prizes include: First aid kit, wool socks, 150 lumens headlamp, Klean Kanteen insulated water bottle, hydro flask 32oz water bottle/growler, compression dry bag, double deluxe Nylon hammock and more.

Participants who complete all of the challenges by Aug. 31 will be entered into a drawing for one of the grand prizes.

For more information about the other challenges, the directions, rules and prizes people can go to the Havre Trails Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/havretrails , or https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ypZpdKZZ

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People with questions can email [email protected].