Joost Schreve, CEO of EveryTrail.com, hired me to write more than two-dozen “Guides,” for his site, which allows the GPS-enabled to record their adventures with words, pictures and GPS waypoints.

Now Joost and his team are building a second tier at EveryTrail: guides full of travel tips and outings with turn-by-turn directions that people will be able to access either online or via iPhones and Blackberrys. EveryTrail, based in Palo Alto, CA, decided to test the concept in its own back yard.

My job was to provide a kind of digital putty that could be molded into whatever model makes sense as the project evolves. We decided on three kinds of guides, running from general to specific, mainly built around hiking.

  • Themes: Overviews with multiple trip suggestions.
  • Points of Interest: Trip ideas built around a specific geographic location.
  • Routes: Specific turn-by-turn directions for individual outings.

Here’s how my contribution shaped up:

Themes Points of Interest Routes
Bay Area overview

Top Bay Area hiking destinations

Bay Area hiking by season

Redwood hikes

Waterfall hikes

Wildflower hikes

Scenic drives

Mount Tamalpais State Park

Marin Headlands

Angel Island State Park

San Francisco waterfront

Sunol Wilderness

Big Basin Redwoods State Park

Año Nuevo State Reserve

Mount Hamilton

Tomales Point at Point Reyes National Seashore

Cataract Creek Trail in Marin County

Muir Woods loop via Bookjack Trail

North Peak at Mount Diablo State Park

Ohlone Wilderness Trail

Mission Peak via Horse Heaven Trail

Skyline-to-the-Sea Trail

Coyote Creek loop at Henry Coe State Park

Someday EveryTrail would like to have as many guides to hikes and outings as Yelp has to pizza joints and barbershops. Right now we’re at the first step in a hike that could go around the world; should be some interesting sights along the way.