Today marks the 6th birthday for Modern Hiker, the day I bought a .com and spun off the trail writing I’d been doing on a personal blog into this little web domain. Since then, I’ve written up over a hundred hikes around Los Angeles, Southern California, and beyond, welcomed over a million unique visitors to the secret world of L.A. hiking, written 1,100 posts, led charity hikes, been featured in publications I love, been lucky enough to have a few sponsored hiking trips and – most importantly – met a lot of amazing people along the way.

Modern Hiker from early 2007

The site has definitely changed quite a bit from the way it looked and felt back in its early days, but throughout these past six years my mission has always been the same: to get Angelenos informed and excited about the wilderness in our backyards. I want to sincerely thank every single one of you who’s ever read a post, shared the blog with your friends, left a comment or sent me an email. You guys make all of this work worthwhile, and every time I get a note from someone who’s just starting to discover all the amazing hiking around here, I just can’t help beaming.

On another note, I should have a bit more time to devote to the site next year (as the TV show I write for is going away). I’m still formulating a bunch of early year travel plans that include the Trans-Catalina Trail and a grand tour of the National Parks of Utah. I also have a long list of Modern Hiker projects I’ve been keeping on the back-burner, and I’m excited to finally have the time and energy to get them done.

So again – thanks for reading, thanks for sharing, thanks for commenting – and stay tuned! There’s great stuff on the way!

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by Casey Schreiner

Founder and Editor of Modern Hiker, Author of "Day Hiking Los Angeles." "Discovering Griffith Park," and "Cloud Spotting." Walking Meditator, Native Plant Enthusiast.