A New Approach and New Page Additions

Toward the end of last year, I began thinking about the history of this blog/website which I started close to five years ago and how it has changed over time. For the most part, my overall goals haven’t changed much. However, what I’ve learned that I can actually get done at a reasonable and regular pace for me is significantly less than I anticipated. Many things are more cumbersome to achieve than I initially realized. In addition, gaining additional experience hiking, blogging and sharing via social media has given me a better perspective regarding what has potential to be helpful to others in both the short term and long term. I see now that my long term vision will be better achieved and more helpful to others if I change my approach and share smaller and more manageable pieces more consistently, which I’ve already started chipping away at doing.

A good example of what I mean is what I’ve been able to do in terms of sharing the different routes I take through the forest. When I started this blog/website in February of 2012, I had hiked about 60 different routes since I started hiking regularly in January of 2011. Last fall, when I reviewed my hikes by distance page, the reality that I had only shared 54 (additional other routes to peaks are loosely described on peak pages) caused me to rethink my approach. As of this writing, I’ve hiked 182 different routes making me feel further behind in sharing them than when I started. In addition, I didn’t start GPS tracking my hikes until 2015. As a result, only some of the hikes I’ve shared have GPS tracks.

I realized I could comparatively quickly create a page (like this one) for each hike that simply has a step by step route description and a track map as a foundational start toward my desired end result which would include links to other information like photo galleries and trail segment pages. This approach takes considerably less time and will allow me to add or update hike pages soon after going on hikes. I decided to completely redesign my Hikes by Distance Page so that I could share hikes publicly and give viewers a quick overview of what level of completion each hike page is currently at. A typical entry looks like this:

⇒6 miles, 1,250′ of gain and loss. Trailhead: Mt. Waterman. Route: Mt. Waterman Trail to Mt. Waterman and back the same way. Hike page information includes:

Track Map.
Step by step instructions with trail segment pages.
Links to trail photo galleries.
Link to peak photo gallery.
Link to blog posts
Link to reference pages

Since I’m committed to creating a page for each route, I’ve changed the design of my 2017 Hikes Page (a journal of all my hikes as I do them) to include a link to the associated hike page which will always include a track map and step by step route instructions. On Facebook, I’ll post a photo of each hike I do and add a link to the associated hike page in the comments. Instagram and Twitter will get a different photo of each hike.

Finally, blog posts will be more prevalent this year. For those, I’m going to focus mostly on writing about each peak in my 12-Peak Challenge. Last year, I only did two posts that could be considered even close to what I intend to do for the 12 peaks. These will appear roughly once per month. I will also continue to post a quarterly update of new page additions like what follows in the list below of new and updated pages for this blog between October 2016 and Mid-January 2017.

My favorite hike in Angeles Forest in the past few months was my first trip to Millard Falls after a storm. Seeing that much water in Angeles National Forest after so much drought was heartening for me.

Clicking on links below will open the page in a new tab so that it will be easier to follow links on those pages and still get back to this one.

Hiking Journal

Added hikes #1 through #4 on my 2017 Hikes Page.
Added hikes #58 through #70 on my 2016 Hikes Page.

New Hike Pages (also updated on My Hikes by Distance Page)

Updated Hike Pages (also updated on My Hikes by Distance Page)

East Fork to Bridge to Nowhere added Track Map.
Red Box to Strawberry Peak added Track Map
Red Box to Valley Forge added Track Map
Upper Sunset Ridge to Echo Mountain added Track Map
Silver Moccasin Trail from Shortcut Saddle to Vetter Mountain added a Track Map.

New Hiking Angeles Forest 12 Peak Challenge

12-Peak Challenge Page with a description of the challenge.
12-Peak Challenge Thru Hike Page with a description of one thru-hiking option.
12-Peak Challenge Registry of Official Finishers Page
My 12-Peak Challenge Page.

New 52 Hike Challenge 2017 Page.

Added hikes #1 through #2 on my 52 Hike Challenge 2017 page. Note: I’m only including different hikes in Angeles National Forest that go to one of the 12 peaks in my 12-Peak Challenge.

Updated 52 Hike Challenge 2016 Page

Added hikes #41 through # 52 on my 52 Hike Challenge Page. Note: I’m only counted different hikes in Angeles National Forest starting in February for the challenge.

New Peaks (also updated on My Peak Bagging Routes Page)