Happy Thanksgiving! I was thinking about the many reasons I have to be thankful this year, and want to start by thanking you. I’m so grateful that you are part of this amazing community of hikers, backpackers and adventurers. Your stories continue to inspire me and countless others. And so I made this photo mosaic…
A big thank-you to all of the challengers and congratulations to those who finished our second annual Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge. Together, you have logged over 2,500 hikes up the six peaks, hiked more than 32,000 miles and climbed nearly 11 million vertical feet! Best of all, you helped raise $10,000 for Big City Mountaineers–and awesome…
Do you want more adventures in the year ahead? Maybe you’ve finished the Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge, and you’re looking for a new challenge−something that takes you out of your comfort zone and pushes you beyond what you thought you could do? Big adventures don’t happen by dreaming−they require planning and preparation. Many big adventures require…
At the 2016 Six-Pack of Peaks Challenge Finisher’s Party, we asked folks to write down their next big adventure and clip it to a line with a clothespin. The end result looked a bit like a Himalayan prayer flag filled with inspiring goals from our challengers. Here’s a glimpse at what they’ve got planned for…
Sarah Hernandez is the artist behind the Six-Pack of Peaks Series now available in our shop. She shares many of her eye-catching pen and ink drawings on her Instagram feed. As it turns out, she used SoCalHiker when she was planning her thru-hike a few years ago. But I’ll let her tell you… Tell us a…
It was a warm, moon-less summer evening. I hiked in silence along the damp lakeside trail, my father behind me. There were a couple dozen of us — young boys about 8-9 and our fathers, solemnly making our way from our campsite to the campfire. My foot slipped off the embankment and into the muddy, murky…
Of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt.” – Anonymous In a survey conducted by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) they found that people in the United States spend 87 percent of their time indoors, mostly at either home or work. Bear in mind, that’s an average….
Thousands of tired, nerve-shaken, over-civilized people are beginning to find out that going to the mountains is going home; that wilderness is a necessity.” – John Muir Seems like whenever I ask a friend how they are doing, the reply inevitably includes “I’m so busy!” or “I’m slammed!” It seems that we are all busy,…
Keep close to Nature’s heart… and break clear away, once in a while, and climb a mountain or spend a week in the woods.” – John Muir Want to reboot your life? Get outdoors. Climb a mountain. Backpack through the wilderness. It was good advice in Muir’s time over a hundred years ago, and it’s…
One touch of nature makes the whole world kin.” – John Muir There is something special about the experience we share in nature. This especially strikes me at places like this in Yosemite, as I realize that John Muir walked this trail. He saw a view that has remained largely unchanged. And he was moved…
In every walk with nature, one receives far more than he seeks. – John Muir How many times have you gone outdoors, and I mean really getting away from the grind, and been dumbstruck with the beauty of nature? Even after hiking for decades, I still am blown away by the scenery, the serenity, and…
The clearest way into the Universe is through a forest wilderness.” – John Muir About the Photo I took this photo as I was sprawled on my back, laying on a picnic bench in the backpacker’s campground in Yosemite Valley. I had picked up our permits to thru-hike the John Muir Trail, and was feeling…
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