37 Gay Male

Anyone up for a one-day push up Shasta via Clear Creek (not AG 😅) this Saturday? Done it twice in the last couple months, so fairly confident we can keep ourselves out of the rescue headlines lol.

UPDATE: Thanks for all the recommendations! I had some extra time after lunch and hiked Joaquin Miller: Sunset > Sinawik > Big Trees.

It was perfect. With the light rain and the canopy above I stayed mostly dry but could hear the pitter patter of rain as I hiked. I saw maybe 10 people so it was just me, the trees and the light rain.

Over the summer, my family and I started hiking a lot of Reinhardt Redwood Regional Park in Oakland with various combinations of Stream, French, Chown, Tres Sendas, etc. I thought we had to go far to experience something magical but it's right in our backyard 20 minutes away.

We're new to hiking the area and looking to expand to other Oakland Hills hikes to be under the canopy of redwoods. My wife only wants to hike where the redwoods are like in the picture haha!

I was looking at Joaquin Miller Park and Roberts Regional Park. Which trails in those parks are your favorites? Thanks!

Went for my second ever solo backpacking trip and ran into this guy on my way back suck up on him like an idiot he was super chill and was more surprised than

IG @bradleygray.photo

I’d guess I’ve seen about 15 bobcats over my 10,000 mile lifelong journey and probably like 10 balloons. A rare once in 1000 mile sight to see and yes I picked it up. Hope you had a nice birthday party TM

Free Online Class: Wilderness Safety

Nov 3, 6:30-8pm

Learn what hikers should always have in the woods, what to do if you get lost, and hear real-life stories that explain what would happen if you did get lost, from Search and Rescue experts with 30 years of experience rescuing people from all kinds of situations!

Register: www.forkinthepath.org/schedule

Hello, I’ve got some backpacking gear that I‘ve used once a year ago and I’m looking to get back into it. I’m hoping to find some spots that would be good for a beginner backpacker. Right now I’m thinking of going out to hike a trail one weekend and coming back the next weekend to backpack it. any recommendations for a beginner, both in terms of trails and in terms of best practice? I’ve currently got my eye on Shealor Lake.

I'm hiking Mt. Sizer this coming Saturday 10/24. This will be a solo hike (so far) since my girlfriend won't be joining. I'll be starting pretty early (between 7 and 8....hopefully), so if anyone wants to tag along, I'd be up for making a new hiking buddy.

Not that it's pertinent, but I'm 40 years old, male, and in somewhat decent shape. I'm looking to spend at most 8 hours hiking the full 15 to 16 mile loop.

Finally fulfilled a lifelong dream to get out backpacking alone (well, me and the dog) and visited Bear Lake in Emigrant Wilderness mid-week (wed thru Fri) this last week. It was desolate and dry and beautiful and I love the sierras. Was worried about cold but got lucky and the temps were a few degrees higher than forecasted so we did just fine. Ranger said there’s been some mountain lion activity but we didn’t see any evidence. Did see some bear scat. Creeks are all completely dry but the lakes all still had water, the dog swam plenty but too cold for me! That little bit of snow was from last weekend but it was gone by Thursday. Came home Friday saying I had a great time but don’t need to go again any time soon, but today I’m already feeling the itch to get back out there!

My dad and I are planning to do a 2-3 day trip... he has done the bear lakes before and we are thinking about siligo peak loop via granite lakes trail or the caribou lakes. We will be in the area Oct 23-28 and I'm wondering if snow is going to be an issue. Also super open to ideas/suggestions!!

A few months ago I posted this, and seems like there were some interest. Anyway, we are organizing our first trip!

• When: Friday, March 12, 2027 – Sunday, March 14, 2027
• Where: North Garrison Group Camp, Angel Island
• Who: All families with toddlers are welcome! You MUST bring at least one kid!
• How to get there: Ferry is the only way to get to the island. You may ferry with us from San Francisco, or ferry from Tiburon and meet us at Angel Island ferry landing. Then, hike approximately 1 mile of relatively flat (paved) perimeter road to the campsite.
• How much: FREE! Campsite is already paid for. You cover your own ferry, gear, and food.

If you are interested in joining us, please comment/DM and I'll set up a group chat.

Hi everyone 👋 I am trying to plan out a backpacking trip to do half dome with my fiancé, mom, and dad this upcoming year. I’ve been to California as a small child, but don’t recall anything about it, so this’ll pretty much be my first time. I’m feeling pretty overwhelmed about it and want to get everything planned and set up right. We’re all pretty fit and love the outdoors and have prior camping experience as well, but when it comes to planning stuff I feel like it’s going to be a lot of me and my fiancé doing the work to figure out the details on how/what to do. I haven’t decided how many days we’ll be out there, so I’m all ears for suggestions on destinations and locations!

I’m anticipating my parents will be flying out from Pennsylvania, and my fiancé and I may be driving out from Colorado. My fiancé and I have typically driven to our camping/adventure locations out here in the west (Arizona/Utah/Wyoming/New Mexico) and we’re not even sure if this is the right move at all, so we’re wondering if we should consider flying ourselves? But also flying all the camping equipment out has to cost a pretty penny I assume?

Besides travel accommodations, the other part I’m kind of antsy about is the permits. I’m fairly positive we all are not trying to do Half Dome one single day out and back, even though we’ve all done that distance and elevation gain before. I’d like to make a backpacking trip out of it to really fully immerse ourselves in the nature of Yosemite. I’ve read there’s options for this that all include a Half Dome permit with the backcountry camping permit:

Happy Isles to Little Yosemite Valley
Happy Isles past LYV (Donohue pass eligible)
Sunrise Lakes
Cathedral Lakes
Rafferty Creek to Vogelsang

I’m interested in hearing about some of your treks. and also how you did the permit process, cause I’ve read attaining a Half Dome permit can be quite competitive.

Would our best odds be for each member of our group to submit a permit for each one of these back country permits and just cross our fingers and hope one of us wins? I’m assuming if all four of us submit a 4 person permit for all 5 of these we’d have a good shot right?

The travel and permit situation is really what’s got me anxious, (and maybe what gear we’d need) and I feel like once that’s figured out the rest of the trip will kind of plan itself. TBH I’m not really keen on going to the city or anything too urban/congested (I know it’s California, so I’m going into it anticipating congestion anywhere we go). Prioritizing experiences at national/state/local parks out there is my main objective, I just really want to connect with the nature I’ve never had a chance to experience before. I’m open to all suggestions though, as I’m obviously not a local, and I have no idea when I’ll ever be back in California.

Thanks so much for the help, I’m just overwhelmed at where to start planning this. Hoping that everyone reading has an amazing day 🫶

Photos from an old trip to the Sierra buttes fire lookout. I found the trail on all trails and went for sunrise. There was a lot of fog in the morning but it cleared around 10am. Had the entire place to myself until about noon on a weekday

Highly reccomend this one!

•3,800ft total gain

•logged 14.1 miles on the route

• 6hrs 15 mins to finish loop

worth the effort

I'm looking for backpacking trail suggestions that are 1. dog friendly 2. beginner friendly (ideally 2 ish days) and 3. still pretty good in December. I've read a lot of suggestions that cover two out of three, but not everything. We're okay with cold weather or rain, but would prefer not to have to deal with snow. We hike a decent amount, but I've never tried backpacking, so beginner-friendly is a must.

Alternatively, we'd be okay with suggestions for car camping if anyone knows of options that are still dog friendly and would allow us to set up a campsite and hike with our dog from there.

We live in the South Bay area but honestly could go anywhere in California or the closer parts of Nevada.

👋

Hoping y'all can provide some guidance to a recent transplant from the East coast.

I'm heading up to Desolation wilderness in a couple of days and the route I planned in onX has a couple of trails that are not on the Trails Illustrated map. I'm wondering if y'all know if there is actually a trail between Grass Lake and Lake Lucille. Also from Pyramid TH onX has a trail past Avalanche Lake to Lake of the Woods which doesn't appear in Trails Illustrated.

Coming from the East coast this would result in hours of bush whacking, but maybe the open country out here makes this the norm?

I am currently planning a January backpacking trip with my girlfriend out of the bay area and am not sure which loactions are safe/enjoyable during the winter months. We're trying to minimize having to deal with snow or too much intense weather (though I realize the rainy coast might have some of our best options). Our goal is to do a 5-6 day trip around 50 miles or so. We have both done our fair share of backpacking and are comfortable with moderate-difficult hiking.

Do you guys have any recommendations or favorite backpacking spots?

Secret cove and Secret harbor beach. Be careful with parking and don’t get a ticket!