Let’s talk hiking

Two-Heel Drive was born as a general-interest hiking blog in the fall of 2005. In the summer of 2007, A I decided to focus more tightly on on hiking in the San Francisco Bay Area of Northern California.

So, who am I? To pay the rent I work as an editor at the San Jose Mercury News, where I write the twice-monthly Hikes column in the weekly Eye entertainment section. (All columns archived here).

I was a blogger before the term existed, and have lived in in the Bay Area since 1999. I took up hiking in the summer of 2004 to get shape and burn off the beer gut (lost 30 pounds!), and have been out on the nearby trails just about every weekend since then. A hiking blog was a natural combination of these obsessions (hey, it keeps me out of the bars), and a hiking blog about the Bay Area was better attuned to my own experiences.

So, what should you expect? Mainly, a weekly write-up posted either Sunday or Monday describing wherever I hiked over the previous weekend. Throughout the week I’ll post local hiking-related links and commentary when the mood/opportunity strikes.

I take the weekends off to, you guessed it, go hiking.

18 Responses to “Let’s talk hiking”

  1. Joe Says:

    I’m from Ontario, so most of my hiking trips have been in Canada. I did manage to enjoy the outdoors on two trips to the U.S., however. On a business trip to Irvine, California in the fall of 2000, I managed to steal away for a weekend to Cleveland National Forest. The drive through the mountains was awesome and the SoCal style of backcountry was a nice change from what I’m used to.

    My most recent trip south of the 49th parallel was to Loveland, Colorado in November 2004. What a beautiful state. I climbed to the top of Dear Mountain in Rocky Mountain National Park, which may be only a bump among the Rockies, but for someone from the flat side of North America, it was a big deal to me. The mountains were breathtaking - literally, as I gasped atop Dear Mountain, at 10,000 feet above sea level, and planted my Canadian flag. ;-)

  2. tom Says:

    Joe: welcome to the blog; I hope to be linking you yours in coming days.

    One thing I noticed as I was tracking down all these hiking sites is how damn many other totally awesome trails there are around the country. Heck, it’ll take half a lifetime just checking out the ones in California.

  3. Jack aka norcalhiker Says:

    Hi!!

    A hiking blog! Whoopee!
    I’ve been thinking of making such a thing for a long, long time. Finally, tonight I sit down to learn about typepad and moveable type and the such and low and behold I find your blog! Started only yesterday too :)
    I hope you won’t mind a little competition if I ever get mine started.

    You seem to be doing nice work. I’ll be checking back often.

  4. Tom Says:

    Jack: It’s not a competition, it’s a community. One good blog on any given topic will encourage others to start their own. There’s so much stuff out there that it’s impossible for a single person to cover it all anyway.

    For instance: I see “norcal” in your handle, which suggests you could do a blog on hiking in northern California that wouldn’t compete with mine at all.

  5. Henry Says:

    This is an excellent page. I go hiking with my time-share dog, Edna, every weekend around Portland. I should start a hiking blog like you have done– funny I haven’t thought of it before. Edna is cute, sweet, and slightly insane, and deserves to have her adventures admired by millions on the world wide web. So it’s the copy editor who writes those silly headlines, is it? The sillier the headline, the larger the font size–is that how it works?

  6. tom Says:

    Henry: I used to have a whole blog devoted to copy editing but it got to be too much like work. It’s testament to the purely average writing skills of your average newspaper hack that pun headlines are considered clever, creative, etc. Many of them win awards. But it might reassure you to know there is a website for folks in our trade called http://www.testycopyeditors.com — its keeper works at the Washington Post and insists there’s no place (much less a need) for pun headlines in the paper. He’s had to fight off torrents of abuse for taking such a contrarian stand.

    As to fonts: technically, your statement should be “the siller the headline, the larger the type size.” A font is a collective of character shapes, not sizes; the font stays the same but the type size can change. Very large type is often called “display type” — the idea being that the words become a visual element on a page like photos and charts. It used to be that only big news got big headlines, but that was before desktop publishing made it so easy to get all cute and creative.

  7. Little Po Says:

    This is a good site, Tom.

    A few days ago I was searching in google for any outdoor related blog, and I’m so glad that I found your site here. Originally I thought there was few sites about outdoors but when I checked the links you provide, I have to say I am overwhelmed. :)
    Hope you don’t mind that I link to your site.

  8. Russ Says:

    Tom, you’ve got a good thing going here. Keep up the good work! Meanwhile, you and I are practically neighbors - I live in Sunnyvale, and I’m out there on the same trails you are at least every other week, if not more often. Saturday found me leading a group at Mt. Diablo, which had had a good dusting of the white stuff the day before. Could be there’s a hike in our future!

  9. Mel Says:

    So I google “hiking blog” and Wham! There you are siting at the number one spot… Good Job!

    Quite appropriate too, you’ve got a great site here. I’ve just started my hiking blog focused on the Flathead Valley, which includes Kalispell Montana, and I’m itchin to get out on the higher trails! Snow’s melting slowly!

    Great Site! Great Community! See ya on the trail!

    Mel

  10. Eddie Says:

    Help Needed with my packing trip to Bib Basin

    Hi you all. I planning to take a three-days, two-nights backpacking trip with some High Schoolers from my local church through Big Basin but I dont’ know where to begin or where to end, trails to take and places to see. These young men have never gone backpacking and want to introduce them to the beauty of it. Can you guys recommend anything, a book, a website? Thank you all, and God bless you all.
    Eddie

  11. tom Says:

    Go to http://bigbasin.org — all the info about camping in the park is there, plus it has recommendations for routes.

    Also, be sure to call the park’s main office (the number should be at that website somewhere) and reserve your campsites. Just tell the ranger or whoever is on the phone what you’re planning and they’ll provide all the help you need.

  12. Jon Gross Says:

    Hi Tom,
    Great site. Lots of usefull information. I designed a new kind of day hiker/adventure racing ype of backpack and would love to hear what you think about it. check it out on http://www.symbiotdesign.com

  13. DSD Says:

    Hi Tom,
    Good to see a quality hiking blog out here.
    Enjoy your adventures and your musings!
    DSD
    “Summit Stones & Adventure Musings By DSD”
    Blogger.com

  14. Susan aka Lil' Earth Mother Says:

    I stumbled across your blog a few days ago and can

  15. Adam Gerken Says:

    Hey Tom, ran into your hiking blog via the Trout Underground. I’ve recently put my own blog out there to share as well at http://gsmhiker.blogspot.com, which will highlight day hiking, backpacking, and fly fishing in the Great Smoky Mountains in Tennessee and the surrounding areas. It’s a WIP for sure. I look forward to checking back on yours for the happenings of SoCal hiking in the future. Thanks Tom.

    Adam

  16. Hal Says:

    Hey Tom, thanks’ for checking out my blog and hipping me to your own. Very inspiring seeing all those wonderful hiking photos and info.

    Happy Trails,

    OK HW

  17. Tommy Lehmann Says:

    G’day Tom,

    It’s Tom here from Australia. I found your blog while searching for “hiking blog”. I’m into all things that have to do with nature, such as camping and all that stuff.

    I see that you’ve never hiked here in Australia yet. I just came back from Grampians last week. For those who don’t know where that is, it’s in Victoria, Australia. It’s the third largest national park here in Victoria. I was up there with a couple of mates for a whole week, hiking, barbequeing and basically having the time of our lives.

    Should you happen to be in Australia, let me know. We have great hiking locations that are sure to blow your mind.

    Great blog, by the way. Keep it up!

    Tommy L. from Camping Tips

  18. Ralph Alcorn Says:

    Just back from section hiking PCT section D. Really dry down there in Southern California. I’m concerned for the thru-hikers just starting out. We had a dry camp every other day, and I started out from each water source with 2 gallons.

    You might enjoy our site http://www.backpack45.com - don’t know how to classify it - good stuff on PCT & Camino de Santiago, plus general long distance hiking tips.

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