welcome to the "real" urban hikers blog.

this is the first post for the urban hikers.

the reason we've called it "realurbanhikers" is because so many other urban hiking-related names were already taken by others, yet most of them hadn't been updated in over a year. others, more recently updated, talked about walking on man-made "nature trails" that are located in cities. while this is all well and good on it's own, we aren't sure that it meets our description of "real" urban hiking, thus the name.

when we're urban hiking, we're treating the city just like we treat the woods or the mountains when we're on a "regular" nature hike. that is, we're taken in by the beauty of the landscape, we walk every step with awareness, and we usually don't have any specific agenda in mind.

it's not always an option to just go up into the mountains when you live in the city, so this evolved as a way to get our hiking fix without having to drive 2 hours to a specific hiking location. as the phrase has picked up steam over the past few years, we've noticed others are starting to feel the same way too. we traded mountains for skyscrapers, streams for gutters, caves for retail shops, and grassy meadows for city squares. while we still love to get out into nature once inawhile, the city is where we live and we want to get the most out of it that we can.

so many people live in a city, town or village without ever going past their own neighborhood. urban hikers get out and visit every nook and cranny of a locale at least once, if only just to say that "they've been there". we encourage comments and feedback, and will welcome your stories and posts. just email them to us, we'll edit spelling and the like, then they'll be posted within a day or so.

we've also established a photostream on flickr, which you can join at flickr.com/groups/urbanhikers , and we have a Twitter feed called @urban_hikers , where we post links to the best gear, routes and tips to enhance your urban_hiking experience.

let's share the experience of the city with everyone!