Love this idea, I'm such an outdoors person and always looking for new hikes. I find it really interesting that this is an open-source, Wiki kind of site... if the makers see this, how do you plan on keeping the entries high quality?
@cmrberry Really appreciate the kind words! Anyone can submit a change, but before it goes live for all users, it goes through a review process. Basically, I get an email and can either approve or reject the change. So that should keep the spam out, but keeping quality high is trickier because there is a lot that goes into it. Are the pictures high quality? Is the description written in an appropriate tone? Etc. Currently, to fix those sort of issues, I'm manually cleaning things up.
I think ideally it would be run like Wikipedia where there are guidelines on things should be done, and a team of moderators ensures high quality.
Beautiful website! As an avid hiker/nature dude, I have some thoughts on this topic because I've never found that "awesome" trail search.
- It's cool that it allows community to curate :)
- I like the information about Trail length, elev gain, and permits.
- It would be cool to see some neat things about at trail, like interesting fauna/flora to look out for
@_zaknelson I'm curious why you chose to use Google maps and not something like Mapbox?
@narekk Thanks! A few of the hikes on the site cover flora and fauna in the hike's description (e.g. http://hike.io/hikes/dungeness-spit). But I agree, it would be nice if more hikes had this info.
I think the original reason I chose Google Maps over Mapbox was performance on mobile. Although I should mention that I've heard Mapbox performs much better on mobile now, but haven't had a chance to check myself. Another big difference for me was Google's APIs for converting a user's query to location, which is very robust. And it also handles typos which is awesome.
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Hunter
@corleyh can we get the creator added to the discussion? He says he doesn't have comment rights. Thanks!
We are spoiled with beautiful hikes here in the Pacific NW. The number of hikes are very limited on the site right now so I can's see anyone from my circle using this as their primary source. It would be nice to know when new ones are added to the list.
@kutlay Agreed, I love living in the PNW. How do you think I should let people know that new ones are added? RSS? Twitter? Email?
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@kutlay@_zaknelson It seems like you could (even semi-) automate the notification process using all of the above. 'Subscribe to new hikes with whatever method works for you.'
Depending on what volume looks like, I'd lean toward every week pulling the new hikes into a summary post (could maybe put them under regional headings) on a blog. That post gets emailed out automatically (rss>email), and tweeted/facebooked/etc.
Nothing near Sacramento? And only one in the Bay Area? Northern CA people - get on this.
My wife used to hike in Del Valle a lot until she she twisted her knee close to the summit and had to be helicoptered out. You see those rescues on the news, she was one of them. Yet she still likes hiking, so hopefully this'll give her inspiration.
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I found myself recently traveling to locations and realizing that I am surrounded by mountains(Banff in Calgary, and Salt Lake City in Utah). Naturally I feel compelled to climb to the highest point, to get a look at the incredible scenery these destinations have to offer. So I find myself spending an hour beforehand on Google looking on the maps and via search to find a nearby location to hike, which is so tedious. I really like the discover interface of Hike.io, I assume you guys are also considering a light weight and simply designed app?
Love the idea, I'm an avid hiker and would happily add routes but got a bit deterred by the second add screen. Just required a bit too much info from me to complete the process easily. Would be good if you could add minimal info and save on your account for yourself (or others) to add more relevant data later.
@shylands The second screen is entirely optional, but maybe I should make that more clear. Although if you stop there without a description or pictures, it does leave the resulting page barren (e.g. http://hike.io/hikes/carnarvon-g...).
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