About nine months ago, we finally moved to Denver. One of the first things we did was hit the trails, and writing down where we were going, how far, and what we were doing there. Starting with a hike in El Dorado Canyon State Park where our footwear didn’t quite fit the bill, up through our most recent trip to Rocky Mountain National Park. Eventually we decided to make a website showing off our progress, memorializing every trip online.
We’re keeping a log of everything we do together, even if someone else was with us, whether it’s a hike, a snowshoe, a backpacking trip, or a bike ride; no matter if it was in Virginia, Michigan, Colorado, or Wisconsin; nor if it’s a state park, national park, national forest, or national wildlife refuge. If it’s outside, and we did it together, its there.
The homepage is a slippy map with markers showing (roughly) the starting point for each hike. If you click through, you get a close-up on that area, or a path of the actual hike (if it’s available). Check it out, and if you like it, you can even make your own.
About the tech:
The site is generated with Jekyll. Each activity is listed in the _hikes directory with some basic frontmatter. An API is exposed with all the activities in GeoJSON format. The maps are powered by leaflet with tiles from Stamen. The repo needs a license file but it’s open source under an MIT license. Share and enjoy!