[sfharper]

Friends of ours are long-time Mountaineers, a hiking, climbing etc. club in the Seattle area. From them, we learned to just e-mail all our friends when we were going on an outing, tell them time, meeting place, hike length, what to bring and wait to see if anyone decided to go along. It works well because you do what you want and sometimes have a lot of fun as a group. We always provide a map of the trip for everyone that signs up. Are you members of any clubs? Have any safety tips?

[sfharper]

Wear or at least bring shoes and a spare pair of socks. I don't know how many times I've seen people wearing sandals going down a trail, especially in mountainous areas where the weather can change. This is very dangerous behavior, as it going without sun protection. Clothing can be the best.

[seeemilywrite]

If you're going on a long hike in a semi-secluded area I would suggest walkie talkies. I've gone on quite a few hikes where the group has gotten seperated and these have been extreamly helpful. Walkies, and of course matches, so if all else fails you can build a fire and stick it out for a while.

[sfharper]

We used fancy ones on an Earthwatch trip. But where do you get yours? Are they multi-channel?