Hi everyone, I wanted to ask for thoughts on site improvements. I am in the process of redesigning the database to be more supportive of a number of things. In particular one aspect of the design I am particularly interested in getting feedback involves attributes which should be associated with hikes.

I have thought of the following and am interested in getting more feedback on these or other attributes and their usefulness.

Dogs allowed
Park Pass/Forest Pass
Waterfalls
Old Growth
Trail quality (Rocky, nicely maintaine etc).
Availablility of wather (Yes, No, Maybe)
Snowshoeing (Yes, No, Maybe)
Scramble (Yes, No, Maybe)
Crowded (Very, Average, Not really, Not at all)
Views (Super views, Pretty good, Not really, None at all)
Wildflowers (Yes - Lots, Sometimes, Not really, No way)
Wildlife (Yes - sure to see something, Maybe, Little chance)

Any thoughts


Regards,

John

John, How have you been? I think this is a great idea, especially the crowds and views. I personally don't take my dog with me but I know many do so that is probably another good one. The Pass one can get confusing for some not knowing which one is required. I think you are on to a great idea here. I continue to use your website as my main source for hikes. Thanks.

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Steve Phillips

My preference would be to include pass information, dog info, and general crowd size. Trail quality is nice to know, but as that is everchanging I usually refer to recent trip reports or the forest service website for that. Love the site, I also refer to it often to plan my weekend dayhikes. Thanks!

Can you tell me a little bit more about how you use the forest service website?

Thanks,

John

I check for any trail warnings like lots of blow downs, slides, ect. I also check the road condition if I think it's a ways out there. I drive a honda civic and it doesn't like muddy gravel roads. If they don't have anything recent I'll try to find the trail I'm looking for on another website.

How about child friendly hikes.
I am trying to get back into hiking and there seems to be a dearth of hikes that would be good to take small people on (you know, the ones that don't pack their own stuff). It would be nice if there were hike that weren't too strenuous that kids would enjoy without getting overly tired.

BTW: Great web site.

Thanks
Goran

Thanks for the suggestion Goran, I think a decent proxy for that is the difficulty (the little hiker guys) It sounds like child friendly hikes might be hikes with 1 or two hikers. Any suggestions about hikes you have been on that you consider to be child friendly?

Regards,

John

I think the amount of use is a good idea (crowded, lite or ?) Also if there is much robbing and damaging cars.

Hi John,
Dogs allowed and which forest pass is needed would be very helpful. Also, it would be nice to know if there is a pay station/pay box at the trailhead for those who don't have passes and how much the daily fee is.
Keep up the good work!

Hi John,

I've just registered and logged on and don't really know how to find what I am looking for easily. My husband, 2 kids (ages 14 and 11) and I would like to take 2 3-day hikes/backpack trips in the Oregon/Washington area - out of Portland. It's the kids first real trip like this. We're all avid sports enthusiasts and so are in relatively good shape. We want the trip to be remarkably beautiful and captivating - but not so tough that they're dead and can't enjoy it!

I see that your trips are rated, great. But how do I sort by location? I also like the atribute you've mentioned above about "crowded-ness"; one key criteria for us (coming from a very dense metropolitan area) is that it isn't crowded. Also, wildlife and wildflowers are important!!

We're headed out there after mid-June.

Thanks, super job!!

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All I want is some advice on where my family (husband, myself and 14, 11 year old kids - all in relatively good shape) should go backpacking (2 - 2 or 3 day segments) in June in Oregon or Washington state. Any ideas? thank you very much! - Janice

I am not that familiar with Oregon having only spent a little time down there. If you are going to Oregon, I would check out hikes near Bend which is a very nice area and mostly pinion.

In Washington, I would suggest taking a look at Mt. Rainier - there is a trail called the wonderland loop which goes around the mt in a 96 mile loop. However, this can be broken up into ~20 mile chunks. Might be nice to hike from the Carbon Glacier up through Mystic Lake to sunrise - probably a two day deal. From there if you wanted to do another 2-3 days you could continue from Sunrise around towards Box Canyon. Very nice hikes both of them.

If you are looking to maximize your seclusion I would probably opt for the Olympic National Park since it is generally less traveled, but also not quite as spectacular. If you go there you could consider the Hoh which is a nice 35mile round trip.

If you aren't used to hiking with a pack and the hills/mountains we have here I would err on the easier side of things. It can be quite a shock for those who haven't traveled up hills recently. I am just getting back into the saddle now, and can definently feel the difference a few months can make

Oh and for locational informatio click the Map in the navigation. You can zoom in and out to see where all the hikes are, and then follow the balloon to the review.

Cheers,

John

Okay so I have made some changes to the site. Most obvious is that the left navigation has been simplified. I am interested to know if you find this change useful, or it the old navigation listing all the hikes down the left margin was better.

Please let me know your thoughts.

Thanks,

John

Hey John
The changes are great. It sure beats having to scroll all the way past the list of hikes to get to the content at the bottom of the page. That was always a problem for my browser was in anything other than full screen.
Thanks, and keep up the good work.
Derek

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Relax! You will get over it.

I have again updated the navigation to a drillable menu system which remembers what the state of the menu was. Hope it works out well. It won't work for Safari...I expect these users to see the entire list.

And yes I did go for a hike last week, and no I haven't put up the reviewe yet. Hoping to do that on Saturday.

Thanks,

John

Just to confirm your expectations, I use Safari and the entire list is there. I use it as a carrot on the end of a stick to get out on the trail with so many possibilities.

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Steve Phillips

Hi John,

I think ALL of them will be useful. This last winter I was hoping to find out any information on trails that were good for snowshoeing and think this addition will be fantastic. But the entire list would definitely help me in deciding what trails to hike. Would you also consider adding a cross-country skiing column? Love this website. It has helped me immensely these past couple of years find some of the best hikes. Also love the pictures. Helps to know what to look forward too.

Kathy

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Kathy A. Dawson

I just came across this site. I find it to be the best out there for Washington Hikes. I love being able to browse hikes by difficulty, length, elevation, etc. Having the photos there is also a big plus. I don't need a lot of them, just a couple to really peak my interest in making the trip.

Something you should think about is figuring out a way to standardize the difficulty ratings. Some hikes are more difficult for some people, but not for others. My moderate+ might really be a moderate- for you. I tend to have to estimate by the distance, elevation change, and duration (which can also be objective). I don't have any good ideas, but I just thought I'd put the issue out there.

Also (and you may already have it, I'm new here) you should consider the option to allow users to upload GPS waypoints. That way we can share trips. And if you really want to go the extra step, maybe you can talk with http://www.geocaching.com/ and see if they have webservices you can synch up with to find geocaches in the area.

Just some thoughts!

Brian

Thanks for the though Brian. I have kinda been putting off overhauling the website for a while. Lately I have been thinking tabout how the next version might look. I don't know much about the GPS waypoint stuff, but I have heard a couple people mention it. I will have to look into it.

My main thrust with the next go aroudn will be a cleaner ui and to impove the submission process for hikes. Right now it isn't super attractive, and dealing with multiple uploads is a challenge.

Thanks for the comments. And on the difficulty you bring up a good point about its subjectivity. There really isn't a whole lot you can do about it, in my opinion. Sometimes I find difficult hikes easy and easy hikes difficult. This is why I try to provide elevation and distance information. About the most objective measure. Still those topos can hide a lot of ups and downs.

Thanks,

John

John,

Thank you very much for a useful site.

Is there a way to flag reviews for possible deletion such as "Dangrouse Hike" for the big 4 ice caves?

Regards,
Stephan

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Stephan