October 5th, 2007 Sandra Friend
This summer’s hiatus paid off with a new look and new complexity for the main Florida Hikes! website … hikes now have embedded Google maps, which you can print as you print off the hike information, and I’m learning how to embed my GPS tracks into the maps so they’re available too. The new website is more flexible, so I can post news snippets and articles as well as hikes, and I’ve added a much more robust forum for you to chat about Florida hiking.
Alas, because of the problems I had with forum spammers this summer, you must register to use the forum. However …. if you register, and send me a little detail about yourself (link to your own website, info about your hiking interests, etc), I will bump up your registration status to that of “author” so you, too, can submit your own pieces of content for the website: hikes, trip reports, articles, photos, whatever you like! You’ll see the option on the user menu after signing in. Hope you enjoy this new and improved version of Florida Hikes!
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September 9th, 2007 Sandra Friend
For those of you wondering why I haven’t updated the site much, I’ve been busy at work for the past month behind the scenes building a new home for Florida Hikes! with plenty of new and useful features, such as a truly interactive forum (where you can upload photos and post trip reports), integrated Google maps with trailheads and, as I get them converted, the tracks of the trails themselves, a better interface, electronic postcards, and more! Keep tuned, I’ll be switching everything over by October 1 at the latest. If you’ve registered here with a user id, I’ll move it to the new site and send you a starter password.
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June 2nd, 2007 Sandra Friend
Today’s National Trails Day hike on the Florida Trail at Withlacoochee River Park marked my return to the hiking life. I’d been offline for more than a month squeezing every moment of my spare time into the completion of Exploring Florida’s Botanical Wonders, my latest book. It’s done! It’ll be next year before it hits the bookstore, but meantime, my new work with Johnny Molloy has hit the bookshelves: The Hiking Trails of Florida’s National Forests, Parks, and Preserves. Check it out!
Also, you might have noticed the revised look to the site. I’ll be adding new hikes AND making some radical behind-the-scenes changes this summer to make this a truly useful online resource. Stay tuned!
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May 1st, 2007 Sandra Friend
As much as I would like to continue adding three hikes a week to the site, I’m severely pressed for free time to complete my current book project. It is due the end of this month and I’ll be putting all my efforts towards it until completion. But once it is out the door, I’ll be back with more!
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April 22nd, 2007 Sandra Friend
I’ve been doing a lot of hiking, driving, and writing the past couple of weeks, and still working on wrapping up my latest book. Still, I’m keeping up with adding hikes to the site, just no time to do much blogging. Here are the new hikes in the past week:
Garden of Eden Trail at Apalachicola Bluffs and Ravines Preserve, Bristol
Six Mile Cypress Slough Preserve, Fort Myers
Juniper Springs Nature Trail, Ocala National Forest
The Yearling Trail, Ocala National Forest
I spent this morning on a foray into the Forest with folks from the Florida Native Plant Society. It let me look at my favorite habitats in a very different light, plus explore a number of places I hadn’t seen before.
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