I’m aware this site looks all messed up in Internet Explorer (or IE6, at least), and am working on a solution. I should have it fixed by this weekend.
Thankfully, my readers appear to be quite tech-savvy, though. A recent check found 60% of Modern Hiker readers use Firefox as their Internet Weapon of Choice, with another 13% opting for Safari and Opera. Give yourselves a pat on the back for using decent browsers!
Still, I’m going to mess around with code for the remaining MSIE fans. It just may take a little while.
I hate to do two Google Maps posts in a row — OK, no I don’t. I love Google Maps.
But this week they’ve also unveiled a new beta feature on Google Maps mobile that will allow you to see your current location on a Google Map, even if you don’t have GPS in your phone or handheld.
The feature uses cell phone towers to semi-triangulate your area and display it on your map — and it does it faster than GPS, too. Maybe you’d like to see Google explain it themselves, in this playfully produced video:
Obviously the service varies depending on your cell phone coverage, and may not be the most helpful thing if you’re, say, in the middle of the San Gabriels. But it’s at least helpful in getting your car to the trailhead — and potentially finding some good grub when you’re done pounding the dirt.
Yesterday, Google pulled back the curtain on Google Maps’ new “Terrain Mode.”
It takes everyone’s favorite driving directions / traffic advice / stalking tool and gives it a fresh new layer for us outdoorspeople.
Terrain Mode will basically take the underlying topographical data and render a 3-d shaded image that looks pretty dang close to those fancy shaded trail maps you can pick up at your local REI for 9 bucks. I was surprised (and pleased) to see that prominent peaks and features are clearly labeled, as are Forest Service roads. No trails, though.
It’s definitely not a replacement for actual topo maps … but given Google’s track record of adding features and the internet’s track record of coming up with great Maps mashups and hacks, it’s probably not too far off.
Those who know me know my white-hot, searing, intense hatred of Las Vegas.
I don’t know what the big deal is. I just happen to think it’s a cesspool of indulgence and waste - a sprawling and unholy combination of everything bad about urban life that shouldn’t even exist in the first place. ‘Just sayin’.
But people have told me there’s some good hiking in the area, and now there’s a great resource for looking up said non-gambling experiences on the internets — Hiking Las Vegas.
There’s a free, well-updated blog with hike synopses and pictures, but if you want any sort of detailed information you’re going to have to spring for a site membership - 50 bucks for the first year and less each after that.
On the sample pages, it looks like these write-ups are pretty damn detailed. And they’re formatted so you can just print ‘em out and pack ‘em up with you.
I don’t know how much I dig the whole charging-for-information thing. Here at MH, we give it away for free … but we’re also broke. Chalk it up to that 40% granola.
A leg-busting ascent to the highest point in Los Angeles County, with a neighboring mountain thrown in for good measure. This is a classic hike through some incredible subalpine scenery, and is a MUST HIKE for anyone who lives in or is visiting Southern California.
I’m still hard at work on the site design — fighting things like Wordpress plugins and ISP outages. But there has been some progress.
All of the categories are working now, and I’m going to be working on making the site more visually interesting and creating a centralized page for all the hikes I’ve written-up over the past year. Longer term projects include making the page play nice in Internet Explorer (damn that browser!), figuring out why the Google Maps page doesn’t work anymore (or just finding an alternate), and writing up a recent hike of Mount San Antonio.
Also, trying to do all this while my PC’s wireless card craps out every seven minutes.
Please feel free to let me know what you think, and add suggestions. I’m looking forward to getting everything running together so I can get back to writing!
So it looks like everything is back up and running semi-smoothly. Please be patient with the site, as I fool around with some redesigns, streamlining, and other fun kinds of modernization. Feel free to comment here with suggestions and opinions. What do you want to see more prominently? What do or don’t you like about the design? Is it easy enough to find what you’re looking for?
All that sort of stuff.
Also, the Trail Map is broken for the time being. There’s some coding issue with the new WordPress and Cyberhobo’s awesome GeoMashup plugin - and they’re working on them. I’m no code-wizard, so I’m just gonna sit back and fix what I can on my end first.
Also — be sure you’re updating your links from modernhiker.dreamhosters.com to just plain ol’ modernhiker.com. The mirror should work for a little while longer, but I’ll be taking it down soon.
look up at your address bar. If it says “modernhiker.dreamhosters.com” in there, please update your link or bookmark to simply “modernhiker.com.” I’ll be shutting down the mirror site soon, and I don’t want all your links to break!
So even with all this site trouble going on, I was still named one of the Top 100 Health and Wellness Blogs by the Nursing Online Education Database. W00t!
Now, the site says the winners are listed alphabetically in the arbitrarily listed subcategories, but I’m seein’ the number 47 next to “Modern Hiker.” If I had a press secretary, he would spin this as “Modern Hiker is in the Top 50 Health and Wellness sites on the internet!” Or, since there are only ten entries in the “Walking and Hiking” category, perhaps “Modern Hiker is one of the top ten hiking sites on the internet!”
Thanks, Nurses!
One quibble — the show I write for is national, not local. Just sayin. Also, can ya take out the dreamhosters bit?
Still, it’s great company to be in!
Search
Click here for a Google Map of Los Angeles hiking trails.
A leg-busting ascent to the highest point in Los Angeles County, with a neighboring mountain thrown in for good measure. This is a classic hike through some incredible subalpine scenery, and is a MUST HIKE for anyone who lives in or is visiting Southern California. 
I’m still hard at work on the site design — fighting things like Wordpress plugins and ISP outages. But there has been some progress.
So even with all this site trouble going on, I was still named one of the 
Web Hosting by ReadySetConnect
Latest Comments