About The Smart Hiker
Welcome to The Smart Hiker, your go-to source for all things hiking, camping, and backpacking. We provide educational (and fun) content to help you level up your outdoor skills. We also provide high-quality, unbiased reviews on the latest and greatest hiking gear, outdoor equipment, and the best hiking trails the world has to offer.
Whether you want to:
- Try a new outdoor activity
- Conquer your first mountain
- Embark on an epic backpacking journey
- Plan a memorable camping trip; Or
- Level up your gear
The Smart Hiker is here to help you make it happen safely and responsibly.
Our Mission
Our mission at The Smart Hiker is simple:
As your go-to source for hiking, backpacking, and the great outdoors, it is our belief that life should be lived offline and outdoors. That’s not an easy feat in a world of hustle and bustle, push-button deliveries, attention-grabbing entertainment, and high-powered technology.
We aim to improve lives by helping our readers disconnect with life and make a connection with the great outdoors by making you a smarter, more prepared adventurer.
Are you up for the challenge?
Why Trust Us?
At The Smart Hiker, we believe in our mission of improving lives. It’s not just about making you a more prepared outdoor adventurer, but being a responsible one.
After all, a smart hiker is a responsible hiker and a responsible hiker is a happy hiker. And isn’t that what life is all about? Happiness and the great outdoors! It should be.
Essentially, we believe you should treat nature and people the same way:
Leave them better than you found them.
Here are our core principles and what we stand for:
Sustainability
We prioritize the conservation of wilderness and natural habitats by taking responsibility. That’s why we go to great lengths to preserve our planet for generations to come by supporting programs like Leave No Trace & 1% for the Planet.
Expertise
Our team of contributors provide first-hand information wherever possible. Our reviews, hiking guides, and product recommendations are accounts from real experts providing practical information based on experience and testing. If we lack experience, we make up for it in research and inform our readers upfront.
Transparency
The Smart Hiker believes in editorial integrity. That’s why we have stringent review guidelines and only use trustworthy, reliable sources when conducting research. Our biggest asset is our community who put their faith in us. This is why we’re dedicated to providing them with the most accurate and up-to-date information
Community
The Smart Hiker is a diverse group of hiking enthusiasts, backpackers, and adventurers who believe in leveraging the power of community. Our goal is to be your go-to resource for hiking and backpacking so you can connect with the great outdoors. We couldn’t do it without learning from others which is why we value people over profit.
Our Story
Hey there smart hikers! We’re Ron & Ava, a binational couple and the Co-founders of TheSmartHiker.com.
Ron’s Story
As an 80s kid growing up in South Florida, I was happiest spending time outdoors soaking up the sun and doing something active with friends.
At the age of 19, I joined the United States Army and found myself doing a lot of my training outdoors. Specifically, field training exercises and 12-mile (19.3 km) ruck marches with full gear.
As life went on, and my responsibilities took over, I found myself veering away from life outdoors.
It was at this point in my life that I realized how incompetent and inexperienced I was when dealing with nature.
Although I enjoyed the wilderness, I constantly suffered from heat stroke, heat exhaustion, blisters, fatigue, muscle soreness, and more.
This led to me feeling intimidated and fearful. As a result, I started spending more time online and prioritized playing video games, and bar hopping over enjoying the great outdoors.
Fast forward to 2016 when I made a big life decision. I started traveling the world working remotely and made a conscious choice to reconnect with nature.
I found that I still had a lot of fears about my health and made a lot of bad decisions regarding my gear, hydration, and lifestyle that put me far from being the outdoorsman I wanted to be.
After much research and lots of trial and error, I felt lost navigating the void of information that existed on the internet. This led me to a realization — that there needed to be a reliable source of information that hikers facing similar issues could tap into.
Out of that realization, The Smart Hiker was born. Now at 40, I’ve conquered mountains with my wife, Ava, in some of the most beautiful places around the world including the United States, Thailand, Greece, Montenegro, the Philippines, Albania, and Taiwan.
We now serve thousands of readers looking to disconnect from the busyness of life to conquer their fears, level up their skills, and become smarter, more prepared adventurers with our outdoor gear reviews and hiking guides.
Ava’s Story
Hi! I’m Ava. I grew up in Taiwan, an island country with over a hundred mountains and surrounded by ocean. Since I was a kid, I’ve loved outdoor activities such as hiking, biking, camping, and fishing (Thanks Dad!). I find the best activities are hiking with friends and camping in the wild.
My favorite thing about hiking is that you can see beautiful things on foot that you would never get a chance to see traveling by car. However, there are a lot of details that you need to pay attention to in order to enjoy the whole hiking experience safely.
When I first started hiking, I made a lot of mistakes. I didn’t choose the right shoes, was literally feasted on by many unknown bugs in the mountains, and didn’t know simple things like how much water to bring, how to go to the toilet in the wild, etc….
Thankfully, in 2019, I met my husband, Ron, who, along with other hiking friends, showed me the way.
I’m grateful that I get to travel the world and see all the beautiful things that Mother Nature has to offer. As such, I feel it’s my duty and obligation to pass on my hiking tips and outdoor experience so you can easily find the right equipment for yourself and enjoy your time with family and friends connecting with our beautiful world.
Meet the Team
Ron Tuch
Editor-in-Chief
Ron is an experienced publisher, co-founder, and editor-in-chief at The Smart Hiker. He fell in love with hiking while traveling the world with his wife. Since then, he’s had one goal: to make your hiking and camping adventures easier by making you a smarter, more prepared outdoor adventurer.
When he’s not out on the trail, you can find him exploring the four corners of the globe on a quest to find the best beaches, food, and culture that life has to offer.
Ava Tuch
Visual Artist
Ava is a talented graphic designer, video editor, and co-founder of the Smart Hiker. She is responsible for all of the aesthetics and beautiful imagery that you find on our site. She originally hails from the mountainous region of Pingtung, Taiwan. Her favorite hike is Mt. Ida also known as Psiloritis on the island of Crete in Greece.
Outside of hiking, she enjoys art, cooking, dancing, and traveling.
What To Do Now?
If you’re here, it means you’re also looking to become a smart hiker by getting offline and outdoors, connecting with nature, and becoming a more prepared outdoor adventurer.
So, what do you do now? I’m glad you asked!
From here, you can either:
- Level up your skills by reading our hiking & backpacking guides
- Level up your gear by checking our outdoor gear reviews
Need a Tent? Check out your camping tent options as well.
The Smart Hiker has you covered on all fronts.
Thank you for being a part of our growing community. We hope you enjoy the content we’ve worked so hard to put together for you. If you have questions, ideas, suggestions, or just want to drop us a line, feel free to contact us or send us a message at hello@thesmarthiker.com.
The Smart Hiker Team
