Two-Heel Drive has chronicled my hikes throughout the Bay Area from mid-2004 to the middle of 2009. I’ve hiked pretty much every trail worth trodding, particularly in the hills around Silicon Valley. I’m not sure when I’ll get back to updating this site regularly, but I figure until then, the top post at this site should offer a quick guide to everything within. There’s plenty.
- The best Bay Area hikes. These are my favorites — you can’t go wrong (though you can get lost, of course) at any of them.
- Five great hikes for Bay Area travelers. This is a Sunday Travel piece I wrote for the San Jose Mercury News, including some great places within a few hours’ drive of the Bay Area.
- Bay Area hiking clubs. If you’d rather not hike alone, these folks’ll be glad to have you along.
- Dog-friendly parks. The Bay Area is a mecca for dog lovers, but many parks don’t want any pooches around. This page offers links to the ones that do.
- Park Profiles. These are profiles of local hiking parks that I wrote about in a column at the San Jose Mercury News. It covers all best places to hike near San Jose.
- 10 Essentials. What I consider essential to happy hiking, plus a link to the Real 10 Essentials for outdoor survival.
- Latest Hike Reports. Many Two-Heel drive regular readers posted descriptions of recent hikes here.
- Hike Hacker. This is a site full of savvy hiking tips that I got started but ran out of time to develop fully. Find out how to hike off your pounds and clean a sleeping bag.
That’s a rough start. The rails on the right-hand side have tons of categories for my writing on gear, wildlife, the environment and the fate of California’s state parks. And there are dozens of must-visit external hiking sites. Plenty to keep you busy there.
I cannot promise when I’ll resume posting regularly again. Could be a few weeks, could be a few years. One thing I can say: for as long as I can remember, walking in the woods has been one of my favorite things on earth. Stands to reason I’ll get back out there one of these days.
Great to see a post from you Tom- I hope your endeavors to secure a brighter financial situation are fruitful & a “good fit” for you & yours. In the meantime I’ll be thinking about you and checking back to see if there are any postings. Thanks for all your work on the site over the years- I have greatly enjoyed it- And will be glad when you can resume the good work!
Tom, we will miss your postings. Hope you can still fit in some time for getting out, even if you don’t have time to write about it. I find that a solid day of hiking really unclutters my mind, and for a few days after, I am a lot more productive.
Thanks for the post, I miss reading your blog. I check all the time! Best of luck in whatever you do & keep hiking!
This is a great site to check for our frequent trips to the Bay Area! Keep up the great work & hike on! I am a fan!
Disappointed not to find anything about CAT on this post.
🙂
How is the new site doing?
You can tell your old hiking buddies.
Thanks all for the kind words… your contributions kept me going for months on end!
Rick: the site’s doing pretty well; Caterpillar announced its earnings to day so I’ve gotten a big boost in traffic. We’ll see how long it lasts.
Since i hadn’t seen movement here for awhile, I almost removed the THD bookmark….glad to see all is well. We just GOTTA get together and do Diablo’s Three Peaks….all I need is a couple of days.
Take care, I have an old Cat D12 I want to restore in the front yard…got any advice how to find a manual before the neighbors get testy? (j/k) See you soon!
Bob, if you can get a wheelchair up any of the common three peaks routes, I’ll be damn impressed- The tread on much of that trail isn’t wide enough for a chair, there’s numerous washouts past Eagle and above Olympia, and the grade on much of the route is pretty extreme.
Plus you’d be rolling through a boatload of poison oak.
Tho, if anyone could do it, you probably could 🙂
I was beginning to think your feed was broken. Quality, not quantity, Tom. That’s what will keep me coming back.
– Sam
Tom, this blog was the first one I checked out when I started my hiking blog last summer. You’ve really been an inspiration to me. Best of luck with the CAT site and trying to make some real money from blogging.