Adventures Archives

Hiking Sugarloaf Mountain in San Mateo

Paulina DaoFebruary 24, 20171828 views

Three day weekends are not for sitting around. With the constant downpour California has been receiving, there was no place dry this past weekend within a reasonable driving distance. Josh and I got out on Sunday for a little bit. Suddenly, I remembered what it was like to be outside and not sloth-y. Josh had school on Monday so I was stuck at home sans car.

Try as I might, I laid in bed, watched TV, made biscuits… but by the time noon rolled around, cabin fever had hit. It was time to get out of the house. Luckily, there’s a good number of parks within walking and biking distance of where I live. I put on all the waterproof stuff I own and headed out into the downpour to Laurelwood Park to summit Sugarloaf Mountain.

Hiking Purisima Creek Redwoods

Paulina DaoFebruary 20, 20170895 views

It’s basically been raining in the Bay Area for the last 2 months. Save for a couple patches of sunlight here and there, I’m beginning to think I live in the Pacific Northwest. The gloomy weather has made outdoor climbing more or less nonexistent. Our favorite local crag, Castle Rock, is soaked. Yosemite Valley and Bishop have mostly been under snow, or just too wet to climb. Most of my free time has been spent training or hibernating or some combination of the two. Finally, this past weekend, we decided to get out and stretch our legs; rain or shine. Our pick was Purisima Creek Redwoods Open Space Preserve just south of Half Moon Bay.

3 Ways to Give Back Without Giving Money

Paulina DaoNovember 23, 20161562 views

The state of the world (or maybe just the country) currently has you horrified. You’ve been eating ramen for days and you can’t afford a shower or laundry. All your friends are tweeting links about places to donate, but you ain’t got a dime to your name. What can you do?

Do Something: An Open Letter to Outdoor Brands

Paulina DaoNovember 21, 20169747 views

Dear Outdoor Brands,

Are you offended? Are you angry? Do you think you were unfairly called out or linked to? I’m glad I struck a note. You should do something about it, if you think I’m in the wrong. But by do something about it, I don’t mean aggressively emailing me to take my links down because it’s driving negative traffic to your site.

Instead of telling me that you’re a diverse, minority-owned company, and we’re fighting the same fight, and that I’m wrong, you should prove me wrong. I posted an opinion piece. In my opinion, what you’re presenting doesn’t seem that diverse. Is it my place to tell people whether or not something is diverse? Of course not, I am not the diversity police. I linked to you because I wanted people to be able to form their own opinion. So prove me wrong. Prove the traffic wrong. Give those link clickers a reason to say “Hey Company, what is wrong with this blogger? She’s clearly wrong.” Give me a reason to say I’m wrong.

Why Don’t They Look Like Me? The Diversity Dilemma in Outdoor Media

Paulina DaoNovember 17, 2016185.7K views

4th of July backpacking in Emigrant Wilderness. Photo by Blair Lockhart.

Sometime last year I was tossed on a list of women of color to follow on Instagram. This struck me as odd. Mostly because I don’t particularly identify with being Asian. I’m not Paulina the Asian outdoor blogger. I’m just Paulina, this person who also happens to be yellow. I grew up in the Bay Area, the suburbs of Cupertino to be more precise. I’m fortunate enough to live and play in a place where almost everyone goes outside, regardless of gender, background or skin color. Being a person of color wasn’t really a thing I was aware of. Diversity wasn’t a thing I thought about. It just was. Until recently.