Authors

Reid Marshall
Wombat

Author of Day Hikes Tasmania, Trail Running Tasmania (#1 and #2 non-fiction bestsellers in Tasmania’s largest book store), Day Hikes SEQ, Trail Running SEQ, and Trail Running Utah’s National Park.

As co-founder of Challenge & Beauty, I am very passionate about removing hurdles for people to get outdoors. I believe that contemporary guidebooks filled with topographic maps, amazing photos, and up-to-date trail descriptions are a great place to start.


My love for hiking and trail running comes from my search for challenge and beauty in everyday life - I believe that hiking and trail running can offer the most challenge and can take you to the most beautiful places on earth. Some of my most challenging and beautiful moments include:


  • Summiting Springer Mountain after 99 days thru-hiking the 3,500km long Appalachian Trail.

  • Earning a silver buckle at the UTA100 after running 13 hours through the picturesque Blue Mountains (it even snowed!).

  • Racing my family across the Grand Canyon (I took the Rim-To-Tim Trail, they drove around).

  • Surviving the scorching desert during my out of season thru-hike of the Larapinta Trail.

  • Running along trails that I know like the back of my hand to win 1st in category at The Guzzler 50km 2021.

Marina Santiago
Brown Eyed Girl

Author of Day Hikes Tasmania, Trail Running Tasmania (#1 and #2 non-fiction bestsellers in Tasmania’s largest book store), Day Hikes SEQ, Trail Running SEQ, and Trail Running Utah’s National Park.

Marina has been running away from her day job to go wander around the mountains as often as possible since the moment she got her driver's license. While she works as a scientific consultant in order to fund her adventures, she has been hiking, backpacking, and trail running her entire adult life. Some of her favourite outdoor accomplishments include winning an ultramarathon on her first try (because the weather was really bad and almost everyone else quit), hiking the entire Appalachian Trail from Maine to Georgia, climbing all the 4,000 footers in New Hampshire, and co-founding Challenge & Beauty. Today, she lives in Missoula, Montana in the United States. In her free time, she enjoys trail running the local mountains, getting out into the back-country, and hanging out with her cat. It's hard to choose a favourite trail from these books, but Marina loves the Scenic Rim region in general. Her favourite trail of all time is also hard, but the Cirque of the Towers in the Wind River Range of Wyoming is one of the most fantastic trails ever.

Alice Twomey

Author of Overnight Hikes South East Queensland

I started hiking with Girl Guides in South East Queensland when I was seven years old and never stopped. I collected all the Queensland hiking books I could find in my late teens, especially interested in the out of print books I could find in op-shops. I would spend hours poring over the maps identifying trails that did not appear in the most recently published books, and in my early twenties, I set out to find them all. I quickly started looking further afoot for adventures. I took on the Western Arthurs and the Overland Track in Winter in Tasmania and hiked through Italy's Dolomites and the French-Swiss Alps. However, no matter how far I travelled, I always returned to South East Queensland and found something new to explore. For me, this book was an opportunity to shed light on some of the lesser-known remote bush camps and help make overnight hiking more accessible for those willing to challenge themselves. My favourite multi-day hike in our book is definitely the Girraween Eastern Peaks Circuit as there are so many caves to crawl through and boulders to climb, I discover something new each time. Further afield, I can't wait to hike again through the surreal barren mountainscapes of the Via delle Bochette in the Dolomites. It's unlike anything I've seen in Australia but I have a few more Australian bucket list items to experience first.

Miranda Fittock

Author of Overnight Hikes South East Queensland

I jumped into hiking just over six years ago, tackling some of Tassie's best multiday hikes. The natural beauty I saw on that trip blew me away- and I never looked back. Since then, I have been hiking and climbing my way around Australia and New Zealand, photographing anything and everything. Photography has long been a passion of mine, as I see it as a way to show others the hidden wonders that surround us and the incredible aspects of our natural world. It is always my hope that increasing people's appreciation for nature will make them more aware of the environment that we depend upon. Every free day I have is an opportunity to go a little further and deeper into the wild to photograph something new. I love every minute of every trip, even the uphills when I'm lugging an extra 7 kg+ of camera gear. My favourite hike from our book goes to Running Creek Falls (via the Stretcher Track)- it is long, steep and downright brutal, but you are rewarded with a waterfall like none other! While SEQ will always be close to my heart, I cannot wait to return to the rugged and harsh wilderness in Tasmania and explore deeper inter the Tarkine region.

You can see some of Miranda's awesome photography on her website linked below.