Hiking Archives

My 5 Favorite Bay Area Hikes

Paulina DaoApril 5, 20180721 views

The folks at Arc’teryx Stanford Center asked me to share a few of my favorite Bay Area hikes and nonprofits at their spring launch event. There’s nothing I love more than talking about outdoor adventure, so I happily obliged.

For this roundup, I only wanted to include hikes within an hour of the Bay Area. These are all places you can go and get in mileage but still make it back in time for dinner and drinks with friends.

These are the best Bay Area hikes that I return to time and time again.

Hiking the Heritage Grove, Sam McDonald County Park

Paulina DaoApril 3, 20180705 views

I turned 28 on a quiet evening in the Sierra Club Hiker’s Hut. The next morning, we woke up to fog and the slow pitter patter of rain on the wooden hut. Josh had class in the afternoon and I had plans to curl up in bed for a lazy birthday. We packed up all our things to head back home.

Instead of retracing our steps, we opted for the Heritage Grove trail instead.

Protect the California Desert

Paulina DaoFebruary 22, 20180603 views

What do you think of when you hear the word desert? Desolate? Barren? No. The desert is so much more than that. Rugged mountains, spiky trees, dark skies, sharp rock, red cliffs, Native American heritage… these are some of many elements that make the California desert a such place of wonder. These are things worth protecting.

The Department of the Interior and BLM want to reconsider the Desert Renewable Energy Conservation Plan, and the California desert needs your help.

Backpacking the Fimmvörðuháls

Paulina DaoFebruary 15, 201801.4K views

When Josh and I backpacked the Laugavegur from Landmannalaugar to Thorsmork this past summer, we had the option of adding on 30 bonus kilometers! We decided to tack on the Fimmvörðuháls, the trail that connects Thorsmork out to Skógar, for another long day in the Highlands.

A Weekend in Mount Shasta

Paulina DaoFebruary 14, 20180853 views

I’ve never spent much time in the more northern parts of California, save for a flop of a summit attempt and a few days in Lassen Volcanic National Park. It’s only 4.5-5 hours away, nearly the same amount to drive to Yosemite Valley, Tuolumne Meadows or Mammoth. Over the Martin Luther King weekend, I tried to rectify this with a trip to Mount Shasta, both a city and a breathtaking, mystical mountain.