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Hello, Silicon Valley!

March 4, 2015—We've been waiting for this for a long time.

The idea for Hilltromper was born many years ago on Highway 17 as two nature-happy alt-weekly journalists, newly in love and stuck in traffic, cooked up a scheme for an outdoor recreation guide that would help people get out of their cars and into nature. It would list events and explain the science of Nature's wonders. It would be a little nerdy, a little woo-woo, a little smart, a little flip. In other words, it would combine the spirit of two places we knew and loved well: Santa Cruz, our home; and the South Bay, our home away from home, the place we worked, played and spent time with extended family.

We started Hilltromper Santa Cruz in March 2013. Two years later we've arrived over the hill with Hilltromper Silicon Valley, birthplace of the Internet and (spoiler alert!) home to some of our favorite outdoor destinations. Unbeknownst to many in the Bay Area, the Valley is a drop-dead gorgeous place, ringed by redwood-blanketed mountains and oak-crowned hills where a surprisingly wild and intact ecosystem, complete with apex predators—mountain lions—coexists with a dense human settlement. Thanks to the work of conservationists, in some places the protected land goes on for miles and miles, and networks of trails crisscross the hillsides as well as the floor of the valley below.

We're about the wildness found in those places—and about giving people the information they need to engage with and appreciate it. That means we're also about hiking, birding, mountain biking, cycling, kayaking, surfing and nerding out on nature. We're about conservation, inclusiveness and community. We hope you'll enjoy our coverage of open spaces, environmental news, events and community organizations in Santa Clara and San Mateo counties, including the untamed coast of the San Francisco Peninsula. Because we know we're going to enjoy bringing it to you.

—Traci Hukill and Eric Johnson
Founders of Hilltromper

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