About Fit Frog Adventures

Walking and hiking in Calgary, Alberta’s cool little towns, the prairies, foothills, and the Rockies, that’s what Fit Frog is all about. Fit Frog Adventures began in 1997 and is both a walking and hiking club and a publishing company. Club Fit Frog organizes year-round urban walks, full day Alberta hikes, and snowshoe treks in Calgary and area. With a focus on community building in the great outdoors, Club Fit Frog events are all volunteer-led. All Club Fit Frog fees are for the organization of the day. Club Fit Frog events are updated often and you can join the club with a 6-month sampler pass or on more of a casual, drop-in basis.

Most notable published works include the bestselling Calgary’s Best Walks guidebook, now in its 2nd edition, featuring 45 different walks in the lovely city of Calgary, Alberta and Calgary’s Best Bikes Rides guidebook with 50 curated cycle tours and pathway pedals throughout the city of Calgary.

Fit Frog helps build community in Calgary through partnerships with organizations and donations of guidebooks and guided walks and bike rides.

About Lori Beattie

Lori Beattie is the face behind Fit Frog. She has been organizing and leading year-round Calgary walks, hikes, and snowshoe days since 1997. She is also the author of Calgary’s Best Walks and Calgary’s Best Bike Rides, an writes about walking, biking, hiking, and connecting cities on foot and by bike in various publications. She presents to groups on the pleasure of self-propelled urban exploration, being a tourist in your own city, building communities through walking, and making Calgary feel like home, one step, or pedal, at a time.

Join Club Fit Frog on an Adventure

Choose between Little Town Treks, Foothills Rambles, Prairie jaunts, and Mountain Hikes in the spring, summer, and fall, or ice walks, winter hikes and snowshoeing in the winter.

Or opt for walks closer to home with Calgary City Walks, Urban Adventures, or Spring Hiking Training.

See Upcoming Events

Work with Lori

Donations, Partnerships, Team Building

Lori believes in giving back and is happy to donate 1000’s of Calgary’s Best Bike Rides and Calgary’s Best Walks guidebooks as well as her time to lead walks and rides to local charities. She also works with organizations as a presenter, program consultant, and creator of walking initiatives and guide of custom walks.

Whether you are a charity that sees a fit for partnership, a company that would like a guided conference walk or an individual who would like to arrange a birthday trek for friends/family, connect with Lori to discuss your idea. Here are some of her ongoing and past partnerships.

Two Wheel View: Ongoing since 2022: Calgary’s Best Bike Rides guidebook donation for all youth in the Earn-a-Bike program: Read about the Earn-a-Bike program and my part in it in this CTV news story
Cerebral Palsy Kids & Families: 2023: Calgary’s Best Bike Rides guidebook donation for all the kids and families in the Adapted Bike program.
The Calgary Public Library: 2017- 2024: Lori guides free walks from libraries around Calgary.
Youth En Route: 2023: Calgary’s Best Bike Rides guidebook donation for youth who are empowered by Youth En Route programs to use active and independent ways to get where they are going.
The Alex Community Food Centre: Developed and guided a FoodFit Alumni walk
WALK 150: The Calgary Public Library & Centre for Newcomers: In celebration of Canada’s 150th birthday in 2017 Lori created WALK 150. Building communities through walking, she donated 1500 Calgary’s Best Walks guidebooks and guided over 1000 people on free multilingual urban walks.

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Public Speaking

Connect, discover and explore Calgary by bike and on foot: Become a tourist in your own city! Lori’s presentation surprises audiences with the diversity of beautiful, quirky, unexpected, and inspiring things to see and do when exploring Calgary on foot and by bike.
Building Community through Walking: Intrepid urban walker and veteran guide, Lori talks about walking as a way to connect people to their city and to each other. Such a simple, pedestrian activity, walking in gives us a chance to slow the pace, recharge, reflect and observe all while soaking up the fresh air and taking in the sights and sounds of the city.
Be creative, Make things up, Don’t follow the rules: Lori will share her experiences creating Fit Frog, writing and publishing guidebooks, and her walking initiatives that build community through walking.
Guidebook Publishing 101: From writing, layout, and design to map-making; from barcodes to printing and distribution, to media, and marketing! Learn self-publishing tips from the best-selling author of Calgary’s Best Walks and Calgary’s Best Bike Rides.

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Publishing & The Business of Writing

Writing is hard work. Publishing is complex. Marketing is a game changer.

Having published her first two books with Fifth House Publishers in 2002 and 2004, and her current titles as a self-published author, Lori has a vast amount of publishing knowledge to share. Whether you are thinking of pitching a publisher, publishing with a hybrid press, or going it alone and self-publishing, Lori can give insights and contacts that will help get the ball rolling. Connect with Lori for an initial chat about your book. If she can offer value to your project with her experience and insights then you can make a plan to meet!

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“I was not sure how to begin the process of self publishing my first book. What to do? Who to talk to? Lori Beattie was the logical person to seek advice from, having several highly successful, self-published books to her credit. Lori shared her experience, her contacts, and provided interesting, practical suggestions. Lori knows who to talk to about book distribution, who to do the design and lay out, and who can do copy editing. She was a fountain of ideas for marketing. I listened and followed all of her recommendations. After that, she went from enthusiastic mentor to being a friend.”

– Dale Leckie, author of The Scenic Geology of Alberta: A Roadside Touring and Hiking Guide.

TV Segment Host and Content Creator

Lori has been a CTV Morning Live segment host and content creator since 2015. She has also worked with CBC Radio many times to create a series of segments about walking and biking. She is keen to partner to create video content for on-line and traditional media.

See examples of Lori’s CTV segments.

Lori’s CBC Radio series on Calgary’s Best Bikes Rides runs on The Homestretch throughout the summer of 2022

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