I’ve now written three books for Mountaineers Books ( two are published and one’s coming out in February 2026 ), and in each one, we include The Mountaineers Ten Essentials . The Ten Essentials are categories of items you should have on hand on your outdoor adventures in case of an emergency. I do a lot of hiking in urban areas with mild weather, so in reality, I regularly only have seven of these on me at any given time. As someone who’s done thousands of miles of hiking in the Bay over the past number of years, here are my gear picks for each these essential categories. As a heads up, some of these items have affiliate associated with them, so I do make a commission on them, but I actually use these items and endorse them. My Take on the Ten Essentials 1. Navigation . Always make sure you have a map with you or that you can pick one up at the trailhead. Picking up a map on the fly isn't my style, so I always look at maps ahead of time s...
December's always a good time to reflect on the past year and see how much you've learned, seen, and done. In this post, I'm sharing 14 places I visited or re-visited over the past year to motivate you to get you out there and explore during this holiday season or in 2023. January: Sausalito stairways. Did you know there are some 40 stairways in Sausalito? While most visitors don't leave the Bridgeway promenade with Sausalito's shops and restaurants, there's much more to this bayside town. Climb into the hills to see epic stairways — some with amazing views. Here is a map of many of them, and here are photos of many of them . February 2022: Labyrinth above Rodeo Beach Rodeo Beach is a favorite destination for our family. There's an extensive network of trails here, but until February of this 2022, I had yet to visit to Tennessee Point, where I saw the Tennessee Point Labyrinth. Here are some directions on how to get here. March 2022: Wild...