Kathleen Dodge first shouldered a backpack at the tender age of 10, when her dad forced her to walk around the neighborhood with a pack full of encyclopedias to prepare for an overnight outing in Yosemite. From the first heavily-laden step, a love affair was born. A thirst for backcountry adventure has led Kathleen to decades of starry nights in her native California's Sierra Nevada mountains.
When not hitting the trail, Kathleen can be found leading hiking and biking trips around the globe, travel writing, or holed up in an Oakland café with a great book. She has written for Fodor's, Lonely Planet, and Moon, among other publications.
Jordan Summers, a native of North Carolina, grew up in the Smoky Mountains of Tennessee and the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia. Moving to La Jolla, California, as a teen in the 1960s opened up new terrain to hike in and became the stage for his introduction to the Sierra Club. Settling into a hi-tech career in southern California, Jordan sought the mountains for hikes of all kinds at every opportunity: day hikes, ultralight, or weeklong. As friends asked Jordan to arrange and guide them on trips, it seemed like an appropriate time to take on some new skills. A monthlong expedition in Wyoming's Wind River Range with the National Outdoor Leadership School not only enhanced those skills but also taught Jordan how to safely share the outdoors experience using Leave No Trace practices. By 1991, Summers Trails was leading clients on treks into wilderness areas of Oregon and California using a string of trail-friendly llamas to transport gear. Leading treks, Jordan enjoyed introducing novices to the outdoors in a way that made it accessible. He served as a local Chapter President of the Sierra Club, returning the favor of its earlier outdoors introduction. Sacramento has been Jordan's gateway to the Sierra and coast ranges for 10 years.
