Lisa on South Fork ER Bridge

Hello! I’m Lisa Maloney, author of the award-winning guidebooks Day Hiking Southcentral Alaska, 50 Hikes Around Anchorage, and Moon Alaska.

They say to “write what you know” and that’s exactly how I got my start, penning a hiking column for a weekly newspaper, the Anchorage Press, back in 2005. Within a few years that had ballooned into a full-time writing career and a guidebook deal, and I haven’t looked back since.

(Well, except that one attempt at becoming a flight attendant… but we don’t talk about that. Much.)

In the years since that newspaper column, I’ve served as senior editor at Alaska magazine, worked as an editorial consultant for the state of Alaska’s official travel website, TravelAlaska.com, and covered a nationwide hiking/backpacking beat for About.com. I’ve also published hundreds of articles in print and online about all things outdoors- and travel-related, from trail and destination write-ups to gear reviews.

I also write about other things: You can get a more general overview of my work on my main website, Maloney Writes.

But since you’re here on my hiking website, perhaps you’d be interested in some general statistics on my hiking adventures. Here’s how many times I’ve…

  • …gotten really, truly lost: 3
  • …failed to get unlost and had to spend the night outside: 1
  • …stopped somebody to ask which mountain I’m on: 3 or 4
  • …nearly been hypothermic on a bluebird summer day: 1
  • …fallen into a not-that-frozen river at below-zero temperatures: 1
  • …gotten seriously injured on the trail: 0
  • …been charged by moose: 1
  • …been charged by a bear: 0

Fun statistics aside, I created this website as a companion to my hiking guidebooks. Even the most frequently updated guidebook goes at least a year or two between editions, and in that time a lot of things can change. So I’m building this website to cover any updates to my existing hikes, and everything else that falls under the purview of hiking in Alaska: Skills articles, gear reviews, trail write-ups and more.

If there’s something you think should be on this website but isn’t, please let me know!