Twenty years ago, I worked very long hours behind a desk five or six days a week, putting in plenty of overtime and spending way too much time indoors. In my precious free time I tried to get out into nature as much as possible, but with all of life’s demands, I rarely had more than a few hours each week to play outdoors. On top of that, I was frequently plagued with injuries to my knees and hips—most likely a result of my chained-to-the-office lifestyle.
But one day I made a decision to commit more of my life to the beauty of the great outdoors, and I began that journey on the trails in this book. These trails are suitable and fun for almost everybody, regardless of your fitness level or how creaky your knees are. When you hike these trails, you can bring along your children, your grandma, or your spouse who thinks the “great outdoors” is nothing but mosquitoes and poison oak. Every trail in this book was chosen because it offers a good payoff—a reason for going besides the exercise. These eighty hikes lead you away from pavement, exhaust fumes, and crowds, to places where you’d rather be: sparkling waterfalls, scenic viewpoints, and peaceful forests.
To choose these hikes, I walked every trail in this book, most of them many times over. I also hiked plenty of other trails that didn’t make the cut, often because they were too difficult or too dull to ensure that everybody would have fun. I also made extensive use of “field testers”: I brought along my eighty-year-old mom. I forced my not-so-enthusiastic-about-hiking friends to traipse along with me. I even made my friends’ kids tag along (and usually they were way out in front).
During my travels, what I found out is that there are plenty of Northern California trails designed for ordinary people, not just Mr. or Ms. Hardcore Outdoors Enthusiast. And when ordinary people hike those trails, they feel happy.
I hope to see you (and your children, grandmas, and spouses) out there . . .
–Ann Marie Brown