San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
2 startups seek to ease planning of outdoor trips
If you’ve ever missed out while trying to land a Half Dome hiking permit or state park campsite, you know that reserving getaways in California’s uberpopular outdoor areas is practically a competitive sport. In many cases, campsites and wilderness permits at desirable places made available online six months in advance are snapped up within seconds of being posted.
It’s only become tougher during the past 17 months, and the coronavirus pandemic is causing more Californians to explore the outdoors closer to home for a second straight summer. Parks and campgrounds around the state, not to mention adventure tour companies and guides, have reported receiving record interest and sales.
The demand has put aspiringbutinexperienced outdoor enthusiasts at a disadvantage. Recognizing this issue, two new startups aim to streamline the sometimes arduous logistics involved in the simple act of getting outside for a weekend in California.
Somewhere Outside:
Kendra Cobourn, 28, left her San Francisco job managing supply chains and operations for lifestyle brands last year to found Somewhere Outside, which provides customized backpacking, hiking and camping trip itineraries on commission. A twoday weekend camping trip for two to four people in Lake Tahoe, for example, costs $200. That includes pretrip planning: an itinerary, maps, gear recommendations and permitting information.
California’s dizzying web of permit lotteries and reservation websites for state parks and national parks, which was designed to lower the bar for access, has in some cases created a booking race that discourages people from planning weekend trips.
“Those are barriers that can keep people away” from exploring the outdoors, Cobourn said. “There are so many people who want to do these trips nonguided. They don’t want to pay a massive premium, they just want to know how to start.”
Cobourn, a former snowboarding instructor, has spent the past five years taking weekend backpacking trips across the Sierra and says she has learned the tricks to pulling off great weekend trips both in beautiful, remote destinations and some of the iconic parks as well.
The top inquiries to Somewhere Outside include car camping and backpacking the Lake Tahoe region, twoday Yosemite itineraries, John Muir Trail overnights and trips in Inyo National Forest, she said.
Planning custom trips is timeconsuming and laborious — a factor that has kept the field of adventure concierge services relatively sparse — but Cobourn hopes to create a foundation of itineraries that will serve her in the years to come.
Bewilder:
Yvonne Leow has a similar story. She quit her San Francisco job as a consultant for journalism organizations last year, relocated to the picturesque town of June Lake in the Eastern Sierra, and started a venture called Bewilder. In its first iteration, it offered personalized camping and backpacking itineraries for California destinations.
One of the immediate challenges was keeping the information up to date as wildfires tore through the state, forcing shutdowns at trails, campgrounds and parks.
“There’s a need when the information is so scarce and changing so quickly,” she said. “And the reality is that so many people don’t have the time to figure this out.”
But Leow says she quickly learned that the economics of planning oneoff trips didn’t make sense and pivoted to publishing entrylevel excursions geared toward firsttime campers and backpackers, and families with small children. Now, Bewilder’s function is as a free newsletter that encourages the uninitiated to take their first journeys into nature.
“My goal at this point is to try to make this information more transparent and easier to understand,” Leow said. “I want to excite people about the outdoors and show them these incredible places.”
Her website features illustrated guides for “A Romantic Camping Getaway In Big Sur” as well as “A Backpacking Paradise In Point Reyes National Seashore,” with expert tips on the history and ecology of the places that make for a richer vacation. Leow and Cobourn didn’t know each other when they launched their respective services but met online after learning about one another. In June they took a hike together near June Lake and swapped ideas. A collaboration could be in the works in the future. But for now, they’re trying to get their individual ventures off the ground.
“I think we both can appreciate that we’ve taken a leap of faith in trying to make the outdoors more accessible,” Leow said. “We’re just coming out of COVID times and we’re both excited to see what that looks like.”