5/23/13

Today I hiked in the tilden hills behind my house. I went on a loop that startred near the little farm, went through the forest, and ended up running down a sunny hill. I really liked this hike because it had a variety of landscape, uphill, downhill, and I saw a lot of dogs. Here are some pictures from my hike yesterday:

After my hike I really buckled down and worked on my website. I posted 3 pages and worked on my maps section as well. I also worked on my presentation.

5/23/13

Today I hiked the steep ravine trail to Stinson beach and back with avalon. It was a really beautiful day and the hike was extremely nice. Once we got to the beach however, it was super windy and crazy so we didn't really stay there that long. I was really glad that I packed layers on this hike because the temperature kept varying. Here are some pictures from my hike with Avalon.

When I got home I edited my pictures and continued working on my blog posts.

5/22/13

Today I hiked abbots lagoon in Point Reyes. It was sooo windy today! While on the hike I saw lots of birds like quail and songbirds and turkey vultures. I think I took some of my best pictures today and when I edited them I really felt very proud of them. I also just feel accomplished all around about my project. As time goes on I am finally beginning to see my vision in real life. I am more and more happy with my blog as I build it. Here are some pictures from my hike today.

After my hike I went home and worked on my blog. I completed two hike blog posts and worked on the layout of my "maps" section. I also began to research different trailmix ideas to talk about on my blog. Overall today was successful and I feel accomplished. Tomorrow I will be hiking again!

5/20/13

Today I hiked in Lands End. I think it was a really good idea to include this hike in my blog because it is so accessible to teens in san francisco. It was about a 3 mile hike and it was nice and warm today, almost too warm! I went down to the beach and then took a trail all the way to eagle point. Here are some pictures from today.

After the hike I went home and wrote and uploaded my Sibley hike.

4/16/13

Today I was pretty busy working on my blog. I created my "safety" page which covers being aware in the wilderness, not messing with wildlife, packing correctly, etc. I then worked on my "maps" section adding maps from tilden, sibley, and point reyes. Then I began writing my "leave no trace" page that talks about what exactly this concept is and why it is so important to preserve the places we visit. I did not have any time to go hiking today because I am packing and getting ready to go on the Catalina trip. Instead I read a bit more and started planning my "teen health" section which will go over the importance of staying active and the beneficial influences that nature walks can have on teens' minds and bodies.

Because I am going on the Catalina trip which spans from tonight to sunday I will not be able to do anything for senior project tomorrow. 

4/15/13

Today I spent the majority of my time exploring and scrambling around Sibley Volcanic National Reserve. While I was having fun at the same time I really got a good chance to gather information, experience, and photos for my other blog and trail guide. During my time at Sibley I found 3 labyrinths that were really fun to explore and shoot pictures of. I also climbed up to a peak that overlooked Mt. Diablo and some of the East Bay hills as well. Here are some pictures from my hike today at Sibley:

When I got home I edited my pictures and worked on my other blog for the rest of the later afternoon. 

5/14/13

Today I was supposed to go on a hike at Sibley Volcanic National Reserve but when I got there I realized that I forgot my hiking shoes! It was so disappointing because my house is not that close to the trailhead so I couldn't just go back and get them and I couldn't hike in flip flops. Because of this I went home and worked on my other blog all day. I completely changed the way it looked and spent a lot of time customizing it. I then completed my "what to wear" section. I also redid my "mission statement" section and made it into a "deer teen" letter. I think that this made my blog a little more personable and teen friendly which is what I am striving towards anyway. After that I completed my blog post for the Tennessee Valley hike I did last week. Even though I did not get to hike today I feel very accomplished because my site looks really good now and I put up three sections!! I plan on hiking point reyes tomorrow :)

5/13/13

Today I went on the longer loop at Sea View up in Tilden Regional Park. This was a 5 mile hike that overlooked both the bay, city, Mt. Diablo, Mt. Tam, and reservoir. It was a beautiful blue day and turned out to be quite war. This meant a lot of uphill hiking in the heat so lots of sweat! I found a really cool labyrinth on this hike also that was a sweet find! This hike was fun because apart from the beauty of it I had time to look at the map and see how the trail I was taking would run into the one I took before so I could give an honest and thorough explanation on my other blog. 

Here are some pictures from today :)

Later when I got home I researched other tips or blogs for teen hiking and I found some interesting/helpful stuff. Here is one website that has tips for hiking with teens. It's nice to read things like this because it reminds me of aspects I should incorporate into my final product and also just helps me brainstorm.

http://www.thetrailmaster.com/the-trailmaster-blog/the-trailmasters-ten-tips-for-hiking-with-teens

reflection on goals for week 1

This week I feel pretty accomplished. I went on a three hikes and took lots of pictures and a little bit of video. The video situation on my wordpress site was probably the most frustrating thing I dealt with because it was a lot of researching on the internet and looking around only to find that I couldn't upload videos straight to my blog site. Besides that I think that its just been interesting seeing how hard it is to find the balance between creating a good thorough trail guide and creating one that is easy for teens/motivates them. I'm at a place right now where I'm a little worried that no teens will really care about this or want to hike any of these trails but I guess I just have to go for it and see what happens. Next week I hope to write more and continue building my blog site with more information for new hikers and pictures and tips. I also hope to hike three more hikes and do-over one of my hikes I did last week (sea view). For this one I just want to take the longer loop to include that in my blog as well. Overall good week but I still have a lot to do.

5/10/13

Today was a hiking day for me. I got up and worked on my "mission statement" and "maps" section of my final product. This took a bit of time because I wanted to write something that sounded profesional and that adults could understand but then I realized that the website is for teens so I think I'm going to have to change it up a bit before its completed. Then I went to a hike in the Tilden Regional Park called "sea view". This took up a good chunk of my day and I ended up taking my dog with me who loved it! Here are some pictures from the hike. Then I got home uploading my pictures and began editing them.

5/9/13

Today I continued working on my other blog for my Tennessee Valley Trail. This was a lot of trial and error with blog formatting and picture editing. After this I continued working on the "for beginner hikers"and created a vimeo account that I can upload my videos to and put the link in my blog. I started brainstorming the questions I am going to put in my survey as well. 

5/8/13

Today I went on a hike at Tennessee Valley. It was very nice but a little bit chilly. While on the trail I took videos and pictures and mapped out what I'm going to put on my other blog. Here are some pictures from the hike

 After I got home I started to plan out my "for beginner hikers" page.  This entailed writing about clothing, food, shoes, etc.

5/7/13

Today I worked on my first post to my blog! This entailed editing all the pictures I took yesterday and writing my first trail guide. I had some problems with photo uploading and realized that I won't be able to upload videos straight to the blog. This means I will probably have to create a vimeo account and cut and paste the url to a page on my blog. Here are some of my pictures that I edited from yesterday.

Also, the url to my other blog:
http://takeahikekids.wordpress.com/

5/6/13

Today I hiked arch rock in pt. Reyes. It was an 8.5 mile hike and during it I took photos and videos.After I  went home and did some research on teen health. 

Goals for week of 5/6/13

In this week I hope to go on three of the nine hikes that will be on my blog.  At each location I want to take pictures, gather data, and talk to people on the trail.  Then the rest of the week I will be working on creating my blog.  This will entail working on the aesthetics and the content.