Note for you weird competitive stat junkies: these stats are a sum from the trip reports on my site, not including undocumented runs/hikes or repeat outings.
Originally a Jersey shore boy, I took my first road trip in 2012 and haven't been able to stop playing outside since. I started as a climber and shifted to the hiking and canyoneering realm. Peakbagging has been my most recent life-consuming interest. I lived out of my car from Apr '14 to Jan '20 and it was a wild time, but now reside in Las Vegas with my boyfriend and plan extended road trips around the country. Aside from the obvious, I also love board gaming, psytrance, weight lifting, and web development (yes, I work). I'm also probably too silly for my own good.
My goal is to hike to ridiculously cool places in the United States and optimize the most interesting routes I can, then provide a hiking trip report resource with a streamlined rating system and high-quality photos, maps, and descriptions for fellow PG-13 adventurers.
I provide an overall rating for each trip report, and then an additional breakdown for each (class rating, effort, beauty, personality, and solitude). Although I'm not trying to deter anyone from adventuring, there are much better resources for beginners out there, despite the existence of lots of easier hikes on my site. For each hike I include a short description, trailhead coordinates, stats, a map, and photos. I've set the difficulty ratings based on my own experience, relative to the other routes/hikes on my site.
If you have questions or are skeptical about a route, please get in touch below before heading out and I'll be happy to provide more information. I'm not responsible for your mistakes. Use this site at your risk and show me some love if you like what you see. :)
Class rating / color coding: Class ratings are highly subjective depending on the climber, and are based on the Yosemite Decimal System (YDS). I'm generally more conservative when giving Class ratings as not to under-sell a route's difficulty. I tend to go for the less-sketchy options when possible unless otherwise noted.
Trail/Class 1: hike, maybe some minor rockiness.
Class 2: easy scramble, expect to probably use your hands a little bit.
Class 3: true scramble, injury risk.
Class 4/5: serious injury or death risk, a rope might be nice or even required.
Technical Canyon: this route requires rappelling through a technical canyon. If you are unsure what this means and don't have canyoneering or anchor-building abilities, please avoid any routes labeled "technical canyon". These trip reports on my site use the American Canyoneering Association (ACA) rating for the technical portion, as well as the YDS Class rating for scrambling for the approach/exit of the canyon.Effort: All trip reports on my site are described as single-day routes, so the "effort" rating assumes you're doing it in a single day. Effort is determined by miles, vertical gain, ruggedness of terrain, and route-finding. A hike on my site with a 3/10 effort rating is roughly what the NPS labels a strenuous hike. Currently the average trip report on my site is 7.8 miles and 2597 vertical gain.
Beauty: Beauty is obviously a subjective rating. It's hard to compare desert to forest or mountains to canyons, so this is relative to the hike's region.
Personality: In my opinion, scrambling, canyoneering, cool points of interest, loop versus out-and-back, etc. give a route more personality.
Solitude: Based on route popularity, distance from civilization, route-finding, and mileage.