Heading out for a hike and hanging out with friends are a nice break to explore nature with family, friends or even enjoy your “Solo” hike.
1. How to find your hiking partners and activities
I would like to recommend Meetup. You could find the group partners who have some interested as yours.
After joining the group, you could organize or join the activities。
2. How to search the trails in Bay area
I used Alltrails.com to search couple trails in Bay area. It shows hiking level( Easy- Moderate, Hard), Elevation, and distances.
3. The 5 nice Hikes In The Bay Area
3-1 Yosemite Nation Park
Yosemite Nation park has 229 great hiking trails, trail running trails, views trails and more, with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions. There are 100 moderate trails in Yosemite National Park ranging from 0.6 to 62.2 miles and from 3,802 to 12,542 feet above sea level. If you are challenge lover, you should definitely to try Half Dome Trail.
3-2 Muir Woods National Monument
Muir Woods National Monument has 17 great hiking trails, trail running trails, views trails and more, with hand-curated trail maps and driving direction. There are 13 moderate trails in Muir Woods National Monument ranging from 3.9 to 12.4 miles and from 9 to 2,552 feet above sea level. The easy trail example is Muir Woods Trail,
On the other hand, there’s hard trail such as Dipsea to Ben Johnson Trail with enjoy beach and redwoods scenes.
3-3. Big Basin Redwoods State Park
Big Basin Redwoods State Park has 29 great hiking trails, trail running trails, forest trails and more, with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions. There are 16 moderate trails in Big Basin Redwoods State Park ranging from 1.7 to 10.8 miles and from 967 to 2,490 feet above sea level. The hiking difficulty leave is from simple trail like Sempervirens Falls Trail to moderate trail like Sequoia Trail.
3-4 Portola Redwoods State Park
Unlike the first 3 listed hiking spots, you will find more peaceful soul in Portola Redwoods State Park. You will not see too many hiker in trails. Portola Redwoods State Park has 9 great hiking trails, trail running trails, dogs no trails and more, with hand-curated trail maps and driving directions. There are easy trails in Portola Redwoods State Park ranging from 0.9 to 1.6 miles and from 367 to 757 feet above sea level.
3-5. Coyote Point Recreation Area
Robert Woolley Park Trail in Coyote Point Recreation Area is a 0.7 mile moderately trafficked loop trail with nice ocean view and wind.
4. Hiking checklist
In addition water、Energy snacks, to save you some time doing research on the best daily hiking equipment or camping things. I did the quick research in Amazon and think it would help!
4-1 Headlamp
We had the experiences to walk in the dark of forecast. The worse, one friend fall down on the road because of dark. So I listed headlamp to the 1st list to check. It would be more comfort to walk in the dark road and no worry about phone flashlight is run out the battery.
4-2 Backpack Pack with Bladder
This simple but sturdy backpack will fit everything you need for a day hike. Included 70-Ounce (2 Liter) BPA FREE FDA APPROVED food grade hydration bladder. And it also Included 3 storage compartments that will fit your clothes, keys, purses.
You will not worry to open the backpack, look for bottle in some hard trails. The design is very creative and friendly use!
4-3 Hiking shoes
Even for a simple day hike to hard many days hike, I would suggest to need a comfortable pair of hiking boots that can survive slippery trails or high elevation gain trails. You could find the hiking shoes in Amazon, Nordstorm Rack, Macy, etc. I bought Soloman hiking shoes and it went very well in previous hiking.
4-4 Lightweight jacket
Check the weather, elevation gain before the hiking journey. And the lightweight, waterproof, windproof jacket will protect you during hiking or camping trips. 
4-5 Outdoor Camping Gear
Please refer to Camping checklist
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