Stephanie Keenan is a personal trainer, Spartan SGX Coach, OCR athlete, author, host of the OCR Radio podcast and founder of the AthElite Training Program. Keenan starred in season 1 of Spartan: Ultimate Team Challenge and recently auditioned for American Ninja Warrior.

After moving from Charleston, South Carolina to San Diego, CA, the fitness entrepreneur took a liking to hiking the technical West Coast terrain, going on treks four days a week. She also trains her clients exclusively outdoors on trails. In this article, Keenan will provide her top tips for staying safe while hiking plus three of her favorite California mountains to explore. Find out some useful tips on how to plan a hiking trip.

What is good amount of time to allot to a beginner hike?

I like to look at the All Trails app, which shows you what the distance is, the trail map itself and it lets people write reviews. On those reviews, you’ll see people’s average times. Reviewers will say things like “This was a 7-mile hike and it took us 5 hours.” It depends on the terrain and climate. A hike in July is going to be different than a hike in January. Elevation gain is a factor too because you’re looking at where you start and finish and everything between. If there’s a large elevation gain and the trail is technical, you’re going to take longer than usual.

Being aware of how much water to bring is important too. A lot of people think, “Oh, there’s a parking lot there, there’s several cars in the lot, and there’s park rangers, I should be safe” but people wind up getting themselves in trouble with not enough water.