Mini Trail Guide #51: Tiny hike to the beach for winter tides
Time it right to be able to visit the beach and tidepools!
Bear with me for a moment as I explain the changes coming to OC Tiny Hikes subscriptions for 2025! You don’t need to do anything today!
How did OC Tiny Hikes start in the first place?
If you’ve followed me for any length of time, you know I do things on a whim when creativity strikes!
In October of 2023, I had a list of almost 100 family-friendly hikes set up to publish in ONE massive blog post. Each hike got one short blurb and one photo.
But there was so much more I wanted to say about these tiny hikes (really, more like nature walks than “hikes” hence the “tiny hikes” name) — and more guidance to give for those families who were beginning tiny hikers or hesitant tiny hikers with young children.
At the same time, I was going to be forced to switch email providers because they were starting to charge me for sending my weekly emails. That, or limit the number of subscribers for my weekly emails.
So on October 5th, 2023 — I moved everything to Substack and launched OC Tiny Hikes as a paid option/upgrade to the weekly free email.
Since then I’ve scouted and sent out 50 weekly mini trail guides with only a short pause during the hottest months of August/September 2024.
Why is the subscription changing?
The scouting has been so much fun and I’ve brought so many friends and family (my dad in the photo above!) out on the trails. And I have more of you on my list that I owe a tiny hike — you know who you are!
However, it’s time for a change because:
The pacing is incredibly hard for me to squeeze in! Each of those 50 trail guides required a scouting trip + time to write the trail guide. EACH week! With no breaks except for the summer heat. Also, I’m still maintaining the FunOrangeCountyParks.com blog for you and sending that separate free newsletter. It’s A LOT. I love it so much AND it’s too much for my family life & schedule.
I’m so incredibly thankful for those of you who DID subscribe and have enjoyed getting to know you through this experience. Unfortunately, the subscription has not scaled enough to make a sustainable income considering the time invested. We only made it up to a TINY group of Tiny Hikers!
And, finally (of course, I knew this would happen from the start), there comes a point, not when I run out of tiny hikes exactly — but a point where I run out of tiny hikes that stand out from other tiny hikes and that make sense to publish as a weekly trail guide. I always want you to get value from your $5/month or $39/year subscription! I feel like that value will start to suffer if I drag it out through next year.
I believe that by the end of December, I will have pulled out my very favorite 54 family-friendly nature walks from that big list of 100+! You will have received the best of the best, including this week’s Mini Trail Guide #51 and 3 more after that throughout the rest of December!
Why should you stay subscribed at all?
So what will you get for continuing to invest in this subscription once 2025 rolls around?
A good feeling knowing you are supporting one of your favorite websites which has so many free community resources promoting park tips and play trips while also supporting one of your favorite content creators (Michele) who really cares about you and works to empower all OC families to prioritize play and nature time.
Exclusive content only for paid subscribers inside the ONE newsletter per week (the free one) with some play-filled extras hiding behind a paywall where you’ll have full access.
You will also maintain full access to the Trail Guide Archive so you can search up tiny hikes any time you want.
If you are monthly subscriber: I hope you will stay subscribed for those three perks above. Also, because your $5 adds to another subscriber’s $5 + another subscriber’s $5 and on and on — which all supports creating the kind of content you know & love from me. I may not always be consistent on social media, but I’m sure dedicated and devoted to YOU and very regular about being a trusted friend who comes to you each week in these newsletters.
What else do I get?
In talking to YOU, my most dedicated subscribers, you’ve told me over and over that you would like a tiny hikes book. A hiking guide. You’ve said that you’d want a book for yourself and you’d even purchase more books to gift to your friends!
As the owner of many a hiking book, I get it! I would like to make this happen for you, so you will be able to keep these hikes in one organized spot (a downloadable & printable book!) and re-visit them easily as the years go by.
I love that you want others to feel the joy these tiny hikes bring to your family. And I’d like for the barrier of them coming via email to disappear. (I get that not everyone wants an inbox full of trail guides to sift through — or has the time to do them on a weekly basis!) But I hope you feel good knowing YOU supported 50+ of them being written at all with your subscriber dollars. So thank you!
2025 will be the year of downloadable, printable guidebooks released by season: Winter, Spring/Summer, and Fall!
It won’t be exactly the same as you’ve already received via email. I’m striving for better. I have ideas! These guides will provide added value for you and give me a little room — in terms of a seasonal schedule instead of weekly schedule — to create something that delivers all that good stuff in book form. I’m also hoping more people are interested in this format over the newsletter version.
ONLY annual subscribers will get to download those 3 books a year as part of your subscription! Basically, the cost of your $39/year subscription into 2025 will get you 3 seasonal guidebooks for the price of 2! You’ll get a MUCH richer resource that you download and keep!
The guide books will be full of info in an easy-to-access format and also be available as stand-alone purchases without a subscription for about $20 each. Anyone will be able to purchase them at that price, you just save $ when you are a subscriber.
What if I want to upgrade to an annual subscription?
Yay! You can do that by going to the Settings page.
What if I don’t want to stay subscribed?
***FIRST - if you have an annual subscription, please email me directly (by replying to this email or messaging me) to find out when your annual subscription renews! Because of the pause, it may be later than you think! That way, I can directly send you instructions on HOW to cancel (and let you know WHEN to cancel to get the most benefits!). I don’t want you to miss out by unsubscribing too soon!***
Thanks for your support up until this point! Many of you signed up and got the FULL year of weekly-tiny-hikes-experience and about half of you trickled in along the way. I’m still planning to send out Trail Guides #51 (this one) and three MORE on the regular weekly schedule through the last three weeks of the month, so I hope you stick around through December. I just wanted to give you plenty of notice of changes happening in 2025.
Thank You!
Thanks for being part of this community and contributing to building this collection of mini trail guides for tiny hikes in Orange County! I can’t wait to bring annual subscribers special guide books of not only tiny hikes, but also special play trips throughout the year. I’m also excited to add play-filled extras to the regular newsletter, too!
Trail Guide #51 takes you to the beach for winter tides, but you don’t even have to touch the sand to see the beauty! It’s all waiting beyond the paywall below!