Hiking from Your Own HomeWritten by Monica Marty
Picture this. You are stuck at home knee deep in household chores. Your mind wanders from taking out trash to hiking on a scenic trail with heart pumping terrain. You are an avid hiker and yearn to strap on your hiking gear and hit trails. Unfortunately, a hiking trail adventure is not in cards for you today, but you can find next best thing by logging onto your computer. The Internet is filled with interesting websites dedicated to hiking and outdoor sports. Many hiking websites are packed with information about hiking gear, trails, and hiking vacation. However, you want more then just basic information. You desire to connect with other hikers. You are hungry for more information, experience, and friendship of other hikers. Seek no further than hiking discussion boards and forums on Internet. You can swap hiking stories with pals from around globe. Discussion boards and forums allow you to ask hiking questions and receive many insightful answers and perspectives. Most importantly, you will feel a part of hiking community even when you are unable to make it out to trails. There are a myriad of hiking discussion boards and forums to participate in. New forums pop up everyday as more and more people link up to global community on Internet. Some discussion boards and forums are free while others require a small fee. The key is to take advantage of personalized forums and learn from fellow hikers. Often times you will hear “true” story regarding hiking gear, trails, and vacations. For example, you are interested in taking a hiking trip out West. You’ve scanned through different websites for information, but you want an insider’s guide to trip. Read through discussion boards as many forum members can provide an unbiased account of their trip as opposed to a hiking advertisement that depicts hiking vacation as spectacular. The “true” story may not always be negative, in fact it may be better then advertisements claim. You can also garner tips from discussion board to make your hiking adventure best it can be.
| | A Kayaking Community at your FingertipsWritten by Monica Marty
Do you have questions about kayaking? Do you want to seek advice of kayakers that are more experienced and relate to kayakers that are at your level? Wouldn’t it be nice to connect with other kayaking enthusiasts? The Internet can supply you with robust information about kayaking such as necessary equipment, costs, and travel destinations. However, Internet also provides forums and discussion boards dedicated to sport of kayaking. Hop online and plug into kayaking community.Several kayaking websites provide message boards. Many websites allow free access to these forums; however some require a small fee. Let’s take a look at three websites that will be of interest to kayakers. They offer discussion boards to post and answer questions, comments, and concerns. Boatertalk.com: (http://www.boatertalk.com) Boatertalk.com has a bounty of boating and kayaking resources including forums, articles, gear swap, and events. Forums range from Boatertalk to SurfZone and RaftZone. Each discussion board is filled with helpful hints, information, and personal experience. To post to boards you must pay a small membership fee. There are different types of membership ranging from $6 to $36. Paddler Magazine online: (http://www.paddlermagazine.com) They have a bulletin board with industry news and several discussion boards. The discussion boards are broken down into whitewater, squirt, touring, and gear swap. Under “touring” you can find a kayak forum. This forum is for sea kayaking and discusses trips, kayak building, technique, and design. It is a public forum so you can read messages on it. Your name and email address are only requirements to be able to post on discussion board.
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