Hi, I’m Mike. I used to ride a bike. But then I discovered: I like to hike.

That’s the short rhyming version. The longer version goes a little something like this. 

I’m originally from near Bristol in the UK. But I’ve been on the road since 2015, building websites and various other internet-based things.

This website is the first time I’ve done something online purely for the joy of it. The first time I’ve properly put my face on anything. Eek!

My obsession with hiking came very recently and very suddenly. One hit of the hike pipe and I was a full-blown addict. 

In early 2022, I was in Bulgaria having a lovely time drinking wine (Bulgarian vino is good) and a friend of mine wouldn’t shut up about the joys of hiking. He was like a dealer pushing his walks on me. “Mike, Mike, you just gotta try this one!” 

To keep him quiet, I agreed to three days in the mountains. We got out the map and created a route from the town of Bankso up into the Pirin Mountains.

By the end of that first day, my mind was blown. I was hooked. By the end of the third, I realised: this is what I wanted to do with my time. Travel the world and hike.

My Hiking Experience

After Bankso, I threw myself into as many hikes as I could find. In the past year, I’ve hiked in Bulgaria, Thailand, Malaysia and all across England. In this time, I’ve clocked up close to 50 walks/hikes/treks.

Over the past few months, I’ve even organised multi-day hikes: like this one and this one, which you can see right here, on this site. (There’s more to come soon. I walk quicker than I can write!)

Like any late bloomer, I’m making up for lost time. During a three-week stay in Kuala Lumpur, I did 9 x day hikes alone. 

Why Should You Trust Me?

I’m no Bear Grylls: I’m definitely not an ex-SAS survivalist with a production team hiding behind a bush. I’m just a regular guy who loves to hike and write about it. 

I’m not an AI bot or a team of writers. Every hike I write about, I’ve done with my own two hairy legs. 

Those pictures you see of me standing on top of hills with a silly grin? That’s me. Mike.

Why Write About Hiking And Not Just Do It?

Three reasons.

To fill a gap: When researching hikes, I realised there are a lot of travel blogs that are inspiring to read but are thin on “how-to” details. 

Or there are dedicated hiking sites that are great on details but are so mind-blowingly dull to read, they put you off doing the walk. 

What I was looking for was something that combined inspiration with practicality. It didn’t exist – so I thought I’d try to create it.

To inspire myself: I’ve been a nomad for nearly a decade. I’ve been lucky to live in places I’d never heard of as a kid. I’ve spent a lot of time in a heap of beautiful places but I’ve also spent a good chunk of that time looking at my laptop. Occupational hazard, I suppose.

Hiking has given me a new way to look at destinations. Now I don’t just look for coffee shops with decent wifi and plug sockets, I look for hills with decent trails. 

Writing about it for this site is a sort of accountability, it forces me to get out there as much as possible. It also forces me to be 100% in the moment when I do. 

To inspire others: I want people (like you) to stumble across this site and think: “That guy is just like me…if he can do it, so can I!” 

If someone has an amazing hiking experience because of this site, that’s awesome. I’ve done my job.

Wanna go for a walk?