Stopped by Stinson Beach this past weekend with the boyfriend where we had our first not-date, and decided to cheesily celebrate our year and a half anniversary with a hike, mini picnic and wine.
After countless soaked walks to work and sloshing around on muddy trails in the past year, I finally decided to pull the trigger on a pair of rain pants. My requirements? Petite sizing!
After scouring the web and procuring a 20% off coupon at REI, the Sierra Designs Hurricane Pants came home with me. I like them. They keep me dry; they get the job done. And they don’t drag on the floor because they come in petite sizes! (I’m five feet tall, for the record.)
Nestled in the eastern Santa Cruz Mountains between Morgan Hill and Watsonville is Uvas Canyon County Park. With Swanson Creek flowing year-round and tall hills, this is a great place for some mellow and scenic hiking away, but not away, from civilization. You can hit miles of trails and still be back in time for brunch. I met up with my longtime Instagram friend, Christian Arballo, and set off to explore some trails in this new-to-us park!
When you combine modern, technical alpine apparel and American manufacturing, you get NW Alpine. A simple, lightweight, yet highly functional brand engineered in the United States was what Bill Amos envisioned in 2010.
Met up with Russ the Wine Hiker & Karl from Alpha Roaming this past Sunday for a quick hike off of Skyline Blvd at Russian Ridge Open Space Preserve. The Bay Area is chock-full of these Open Space Preserves, open to hikers, bikers and equestrians. They tend to get very busy and are quite open and unprotected, so I tend to avoid them. But they all offer miles of gorgeous trails and amazing views.