I'm Alexandra Kenin and I’m the founder of Urban Hiker SF. Originally from New Jersey, I've lived up and down the East Coast in New York, Philadelphia, and Washington, DC. While living in New York in 2004, I took a vacation to San Francisco and realized I didn't want to come home. It took three years, but I finally moved to San Francisco in 2007. When I bought my one-way ticket out west, my father bought me a copy of Adah Bakalinsky's Stairway Walks in San Francisco. At the time, I was a marketing manager at Google and would commute up to three hours a day. On weekends, inspired by the Stairway Walks book, I would take off to explore my new home on foot. One fateful day, a native San Franciscan friend brought me on a walk to the Embarcadero via the Vallejo and Filbert Street Steps. I loved the views from by the stairways, I loved the exercise I got from climbing them, and I loved how they seemed to be a secret to most. From that moment on, I was hooked on urban hiking. Since then, I have fallen into an entire band of urban hiking enthusiasts. A group of us now goes on monthly day hikes - up to 30 miles in distance. We love finding new secret spots in the city and now I want to share our findings with you!