April is shaping up to be a very exciting month here at The Urban Deer. In addition to hosting our first -- and nearly sold out -- Urban Deer Retreat mid-month, we’re also excited to announce a new addition to our writing team: Brittany Hopkins of Dabbling Makes Perfect.
When she isn’t hiking, building furniture or snapping photos of street art, she’s writing about her favorite things in life: San Francisco, the great outdoors and creating a balanced lifestyle. She puts her blood, sweat and tears into everything she does, so we’re thrilled to have her on board!
Before we let her loose in the wild, we asked her to answer a few important questions:
Have you always considered yourself an Urban Deer?
Great question! And honestly, no. My dad refuses to camp, so I didn’t go on my first trip until sophomore year of high school. A friend’s dad took a few of us out to the wilderness, and it was a nightmare. I had never seen so many bugs in one place. I wasn’t prepared to make nature my restroom or swim with snakes, and my hair was a tangled, frizzy mess the entire weekend. It took me years to work up the courage to get back out there, but I’m glad I finally did.
What’s one of your favorite types of adventures?
My boyfriend and I don’t have a car, and it makes our Bay Area outings even more adventurous. We’ll take public transportation -- a bus, a train or, my favorite, a ferry -- to a starting point and hike over hills and through woods as far as we can to another transit stop. One of my absolute favorites was taking BART and a bus to Pacifica, hiking through San Pedro Valley Park and McNee Ranch State Park to get back to the coast in Montara, then enjoying a delicious dinner (in dusty hiking gear) at a 3-star restaurant on a cliff overlooking the ocean before hoping on a bus and BART back to the city. That’s my kind of romantic date. And it’s neat to see how many difference modes of public transportation you can use in a day to get there and back.
What activities are you planning to do more of this year?
Kayaking! I’ve done a bit of kayaking in calm bays, but I’m planning a few trips to river and open ocean kayak for the first time, so you can definitely expect to see stories on great places to kayak. I’m also working on fostering my foodie-side; getting more adventurous with camping and backpacking meals -- without getting overly complicated.
Brittany will be sharing tips and inspirations every week to help you plan your own stylish and comfortable adventures, so be sure to check back here regularly.