Let's revive this group!
I am all for some meetup. I am in San Jose. My name's Jarda, 37. Have K-30, K-3 (very recent), GR. And nice collection of lenses.
I do lot of hiking around but frankly, I often don't even bother taking DSLR with me (although with new K-3, that's bound to change). Don't get that many opportunities to take pics. For picture taking, I usually head to the City. Whether it's murals in Mission or some hidden vistas near Telegraph, there's lot of nice places. Didn't really play with candid but could take GR out for that.
Backpacking in Sierras sounds of course great. But that requires more organizing. We should do some local get together first.
Post if you have any local favorite spots. For me, for hikes, Alamere falls in Marin is great place to play with composition later in the day. Beach with falls, you can't ask for much more. Then again, one can just go to Sutro Baths in the City before sunset and save some driving.