Papa Bear
New member
Hobby to Hobby to Hobby
Like many of us, I came to hiking from a love of nature and a history going back to childhood. But my hiking has evolved and probably will continue to do so.
Hiking: After retirement, I went back to my old love of hiking and spent a great deal of time on it, eventually hiking much of the northern section of the Appalachian Trail. In a natural metamorphosis, this hobby turned into a related one; Peakbagging. But more than just climbing peaks, but pursuing a lists (many lists) of them. Does this sound familiar? Some time along this path I found this web site and have been active here for years.
Peakbagging: So I climbed the highest peaks in New England, and an assortment of other lists. Along the way I became aware of survey markers, at first because many peaks had such markers at their summits. Such was the transition to another hobby, Benchmark Hunting.
Benchmark hunting: Sooner or later I found another web site (geocaching.com), and lo and behold, there were lots of folks doing it and furthermore they seemed to have the same Obsessive Compulsive need to find the most in a county, the oldest, the furthest north, the highest, etc. Wow, just like Peakbagging (or bird watching, another hobby of mine).
But I digress, what about the reports as suggested by the title.
My Reports: In all my hiking and Peakbagging, I was (still am) a prolific report writer. My home pages has dozens, nay hundreds of such reports. They follow a similar format and have a narrative emphasis, in other words they tell a story about this hike or that mountain. Those who like them say "I enjoyed your such-and-such report. I felt like I was there" (well, some one might have said that
).
But this narrative, story telling format, didn't seem appropriate for finding (or failing to find) survey markers. So I played with using maps and indexes and county lists, etc. but the result didn't excite me or my audience (which is a few loyal friends, my wife and maybe a few strangers ).
So I'm trying to consolidate my reports to include the several aspects that interest me into a common format. My target audience is 1) fellow hikers/peakbaggers, 2) fellow benchmark hunters, and 3) friends and the occasional stranger who might find them on my web site.
My design goals (subject to change) are
1) break long narratives into small sections, one for each peak, group of survey marks, etc.
2) consolidate the pictures and maps into an embedded "picture frame" in the story. generally one frame for each section.
3) introduce interactive Google maps, both mine and Google's driving directions in the frames.
4) provide means to leaf through the photos, make them bigger or smaller, start or stop a slide show, etc. - and do all this without disrupting the flow of the sections of the narrative.
5) provide links into the report so someone can link to a specific peak or specific survey marker from an external list I might provide.
I've taken an old report from 2006 and redone it using the above design goals. Consider this a prototype.
Here's the link: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/..._NH_Border.html
Please bring it up, look at it, try to navigate through it, click on the photos, etc. etc.
1) is it obvious what you need to do to get through it?
2) are the methods for controlling the photos and maps clear?
3) are there any obvious glitches, typos, apparent errors?
4) would you rather things had been set up differently? how then?
A word on the content: it's basically an old report reformatted. When I put together future reports I would endeavor to make a clearer distinction between hiking aspects and benchmark hunting aspects, but hopefully in such a way so I don't disrupt the narrative. Who knows - I may get some hikers interested in survey marks or some benchmark hunters interested in hiking.
About links and indexes, here's a couple of sample links that illustrate that. Basically you are taken to a specific section of the report, and you can do what you like from there.
Link to a Peak: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/...der.html#salmon
Link to a PID: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/...der.html#QH0625
Check them out.
And in case anyone is interested, here's the old version of the report: Old version. You'll find it's not much different content-wise, but is just one long rambling narrative.
One more thing: the internet is not what it used to be. I used to put little thumb nail photos in and if you clicked on them you would get a bigger photo in another window. Now with the bandwidth available, I just put the photos in the way they look best (to me), or as someone once said "D*mn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". But you can still make them larger or smaller - but no more tiny thumb nails.
P.S. If you have some scathing criticisms and are too kind to put them here before the public, please email them to me. But better still put them here. I have thick skin.
Like many of us, I came to hiking from a love of nature and a history going back to childhood. But my hiking has evolved and probably will continue to do so.
Hiking: After retirement, I went back to my old love of hiking and spent a great deal of time on it, eventually hiking much of the northern section of the Appalachian Trail. In a natural metamorphosis, this hobby turned into a related one; Peakbagging. But more than just climbing peaks, but pursuing a lists (many lists) of them. Does this sound familiar? Some time along this path I found this web site and have been active here for years.
Peakbagging: So I climbed the highest peaks in New England, and an assortment of other lists. Along the way I became aware of survey markers, at first because many peaks had such markers at their summits. Such was the transition to another hobby, Benchmark Hunting.
Benchmark hunting: Sooner or later I found another web site (geocaching.com), and lo and behold, there were lots of folks doing it and furthermore they seemed to have the same Obsessive Compulsive need to find the most in a county, the oldest, the furthest north, the highest, etc. Wow, just like Peakbagging (or bird watching, another hobby of mine).
But I digress, what about the reports as suggested by the title.
My Reports: In all my hiking and Peakbagging, I was (still am) a prolific report writer. My home pages has dozens, nay hundreds of such reports. They follow a similar format and have a narrative emphasis, in other words they tell a story about this hike or that mountain. Those who like them say "I enjoyed your such-and-such report. I felt like I was there" (well, some one might have said that
).But this narrative, story telling format, didn't seem appropriate for finding (or failing to find) survey markers. So I played with using maps and indexes and county lists, etc. but the result didn't excite me or my audience (which is a few loyal friends, my wife and maybe a few strangers
).So I'm trying to consolidate my reports to include the several aspects that interest me into a common format. My target audience is 1) fellow hikers/peakbaggers, 2) fellow benchmark hunters, and 3) friends and the occasional stranger who might find them on my web site.
My design goals (subject to change) are
1) break long narratives into small sections, one for each peak, group of survey marks, etc.
2) consolidate the pictures and maps into an embedded "picture frame" in the story. generally one frame for each section.
3) introduce interactive Google maps, both mine and Google's driving directions in the frames.
4) provide means to leaf through the photos, make them bigger or smaller, start or stop a slide show, etc. - and do all this without disrupting the flow of the sections of the narrative.
5) provide links into the report so someone can link to a specific peak or specific survey marker from an external list I might provide.
I've taken an old report from 2006 and redone it using the above design goals. Consider this a prototype.
Here's the link: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/..._NH_Border.html
Please bring it up, look at it, try to navigate through it, click on the photos, etc. etc.
1) is it obvious what you need to do to get through it?
2) are the methods for controlling the photos and maps clear?
3) are there any obvious glitches, typos, apparent errors?
4) would you rather things had been set up differently? how then?
A word on the content: it's basically an old report reformatted. When I put together future reports I would endeavor to make a clearer distinction between hiking aspects and benchmark hunting aspects, but hopefully in such a way so I don't disrupt the narrative. Who knows - I may get some hikers interested in survey marks or some benchmark hunters interested in hiking.
About links and indexes, here's a couple of sample links that illustrate that. Basically you are taken to a specific section of the report, and you can do what you like from there.
Link to a Peak: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/...der.html#salmon
Link to a PID: http://members.bellatlantic.net/~vze2h6gy/...der.html#QH0625
Check them out.
And in case anyone is interested, here's the old version of the report: Old version. You'll find it's not much different content-wise, but is just one long rambling narrative.
One more thing: the internet is not what it used to be. I used to put little thumb nail photos in and if you clicked on them you would get a bigger photo in another window. Now with the bandwidth available, I just put the photos in the way they look best (to me), or as someone once said "D*mn the torpedoes, full speed ahead!". But you can still make them larger or smaller - but no more tiny thumb nails.
P.S. If you have some scathing criticisms and are too kind to put them here before the public, please email them to me. But better still put them here. I have thick skin.
