CLIF Meet The Moment Giveaway Contest; Random Shots of Beauty

I’m back from Zion this weekend … and as the lack of posts here this week would indicate, I’m also a little behind on my blogging schedule.

Accordingly, I’m combining a couple of regular staples – a Random Shot of Beauty and a giveaway contest – into a single post this weekend.  However, the subject matter of each is somewhat related, as I’ll explain shortly.  First, our newest RSOB:

Another shot from Zion National Park – this one showing my family ascending the spine of Angels Landing, one of the park’s most famous destinations.

As for the giveaway, it’s the first of what may turn out to be three separate contests from my friends at CLIF Bar.  And if you’re wondering what this has to do with Zion, allow me to explain: Our family did three days of pretty intense hiking last week, all of which were fueled by CLIF products.

Many of our breakfasts consisted of Builders Bars on the way to the trailhead, and our lunches each day included some combination of CLIF Bars and MOJO Bars (and for whatever it’s worth, the mountain mix MOJO flavor has become my absolute favorite trail snack).  Most importantly, however, was that our energy levels on the trail were easily maintained thanks to CLIF Bloks – especially for my 8-year-old daughter, who is the littlest hiker in the photo above, not to mention one of the youngest we saw in Zion.

I’ve described before how my wife and I have relied on CLIF blocks to rally our tired little hikers on long treks through Yosemite, and we employed this strategy again in Zion last week.  Whenever our youngest began to lag behind or get discouraged, a few block-sized doses of sugar and electrolytes (as well as a half-shot of caffeine) proved to be the perfect remedy. 

Throw in the fact that CLIF products are among the healthiest snacks you can bring on long road trips, and our family is basically a bunch of CLIF groupies.  But that doesn’t have anything to do with you or this contest – so let’s get to what’s in this post for you.

This fall CLIF is doing another installment of its Meet the Moment contest that it first introduced last spring.  It’s essentially a photo contest where you submit an entry that reflects your love of the outdoors, and CLIF donates $5 for each uploaded photo to one of five non-profits dedicated to protecting outdoor recreation.  Visitors to the website will select the 25 finalists (based on the number of likes and shares – I believe those are social media terms, yes?), and then a panel of CLIF folks will choose one winner who will have $10,000 donated in their name to one of CLIF’s non-profit partners.

It takes about 5 minutes to submit a picture; here’s the one I did this morning:

(Yes, it's from Leadville - I'm having a hard time moving on.) 

And if you want to vote for me, you can see my official entry page here.

But as I said, this contest isn’t about me – it’s about you.  In conjunction with their Meet the Moment contest, CLIF has agreed to provide a cool prize pack to one of my readers who submits an entry.  I don’t know exactly what’s in the prize pack, but if CLIF says it’s cool, I believe them.

The instructions for this contest are different than my usual ones, so here’s what you do to enter: go to CLIF’s Meet the Moment page and upload your own photo on the site.  Then come back here and leave the URL of your Meet the Moment page in the comments field, and I’ll pick one of them to receive the prize pack.  I’ll pass your contact info along to CLIF, and they’ll mail your prize pack.

My criteria for choosing the winner doesn’t have anything to do with likes or shares or anything digital - rather, it will be a purely subjective ruling by Running and Rambling’s distinguished panel of judges: me, along with the hikers you saw in the first photo.  Score high marks with us, and enjoy some CLIF love as your reward.

So, to recap: you enter the contest, CLIF makes a donation to a non-profit of your choosing, and you also have a chance to win a prize pack from me and a $10,000 donation from CLIF.  If anyone sees a downside to this, I’d love to hear it.

CLIF’s Meet the Moment contest closes on October 31^st, and my own contest winner will be announced the following weekend (November 3 or 4). Remember to copy your contest page URL here in the comments so I can find them.

Very big thanks to CLIF for sponsoring this contest, and good luck to everybody!

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