The City of Fairfax Parks and Recreation Advisory Board presents Fairfax Trails Festival on Saturday, June 6, 2009 at 8:00 a.m. at Van Dyck Park.

Fit Families Run Festival — Participate in a 1-mile Fun Run 8:00 a.m. & 5K Run/Walk 8:30 a.m. Race details are available here.

Trails Festival Ceremony will begin at 9:30 a.m. We will be giving away awards for those who participated in the races and we will honor those individuals who have worked so hard to keep our parks and trails available for everyone.

Festival Exhibits — Additional exhibits include an introduction to geocaching -- a fun way to hunt and discover new places, the Northern VA Hiking Club, and other local vendors exhibiting relevant outdoor products and services. Activities, games and educational exhibits by local Boy Scout, Girl Scout, Cub Scout, and 4-H Club organizations will also be there.

We join with the Fairfax County Park Authority in celebrating National Trails Day. Most adults can remember a childhood filled with outdoor adventures. So many of us might leave our home in the morning and find wild places to explore until we were summoned back home for dinner. Obviously, the world is a very different place nowadays. The Internet has spawned a whole generation eager to spend the day in front of a computer screen, regardless of the sunshine beckoning from outside. In an effort to reconnect children and families to our numerous trails, there are many opportunities to rediscover your local parks and trails.

The City of Fairfax celebrates over 22 miles of walking, cycling and running trails extending throughout the City.

Now in its 16th year, National Trails Day has grown to inspire nearly a million trail enthusiasts to flock to their favorite trails to discover, learn about and celebrate trails while participating in educational exhibits, trail dedications, gear demonstrations, instructional workshops and trail work projects. National Trails Day is a celebration of trails that evolved from the report of President Ronald Reagan's President's Commission on Americans Outdoors. The report recommended that all Americans be able to go out their front doors and within fifteen minutes, be on trails that wind through their cities, towns or villages and bring them back without retracing steps.