About John

Welcome to the Northern California Hiking Trails blog. I’m John Soares, co-author of 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, third edition and author of 75 Hikes in California’s Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park Regions, revised edition. I did a lot of tramping and trekking in the wilderness long before I wrote the books, but doing the very enjoyable research for the hiking guides took me all over Northern California, from Santa Cruz to Crescent City, and from Mokelumne Wilderness to the Warner Mountains, Mount Shasta, and the Trinity Alps. So I have a broad perspective of the region. And a deep love for it. I’ll share that love with you.

The overall focus of this blog is foot travel, but I’ll also examine various facets of being outdoors, from maximizing trail-time enjoyment to details of hike updates to political, economic, social, and environmental aspects of north state trails. I also examine various stories and issues of interest to hikers.

I live near Mount Shasta in the far north of the state, about 60 miles or so south of the Oregon border, and I grew up around Redding just to the south, so I talk a bit more about Lassen Volcanic National Park and the Trinity Alps, for instance. But there is also plenty on the Bay Area, the coast, and Sierra Nevada, I promise.

John Soares is a freelance writer living near Mount Shasta in Northern California. He began walking the hills near Redding, California at the age of 5. He later did extensive hiking and backpacking in the Trinity Alps, the desert Southwest, and Europe, in addition to much exploration of backwoods Northern California. He is co-author of 100 Classic Hikes in Northern California, third edition (The Mountaineers Books, 2008), author of 75 Hikes in California’s Mount Shasta and Lassen Volcanic National Park Regions, revised edition (The Mountaineers Books, 2006), and he has written numerous newspaper and magazine articles about outdoor travel. He is a member of the board of directors of the Mount Shasta Trail Association. He is also an avid tai chi practitioner and loves to read and write haiku. You can read more about John at www.GoJohnSoares.com. His latest works are an ebook on how to write supplements for college textbooks and the e-book Intelligent Productivity for Freelance Writers.

And check out John Soares’ LinkedIn profile for more details on his education and career.