Grayson Highlands Trip

[blackbishop351]

Ok here goes: my first attempt at a decent-looking web page AND a trail journal! Link:

http://www.uncg.edu/~jkthomas/GH_AT_06_day1.html

I'm totally open for suggestions/criticisms as far as content, format, presentation, whatever, so have at it!

[Heater]

Ok here goes: my first attempt at a decent-looking web page AND a trail journal! Link:

http://www.uncg.edu/~jkthomas/GH_AT_06_day1.html

I'm totally open for suggestions/criticisms as far as content, format, presentation, whatever, so have at it!

Well it was working with the maps then the pony pic links were bad. I refreshed and got broken lins to all the pics. I'll try again later.

[Lone Wolf]

Can't see jack *****t.

[blackbishop351]

Crap...sorry about that, guys. Geocities is being a PIA. Problem will be fixed ASAP.

[blackbishop351]

OK - Should work now. I transferred everything to the campus UNIX server, so no more Geocities issues. If it doesn't work, try clearing your browser's history.

[hammock engineer]

Looks good. I can't wait to get to that section next year.

One suggestion. When you click on the link at the bottom of the page to go to day 2, it opens in a new window. Not a big deal for a 2 day trip, but it would turn into a pain for a long trip.

[Kerosene]

Very nice. Here are a few suggestions if you want to enhance:

Don't put your pictures side-by-side, forcing the viewer to scroll right to see them. Either stack them on top of each other, or reduce the size or crop so you can pack them tighter (use something like Adobe Photoshop Elements or a freeware utility). These utilities can also enhance pictures to bring out the true colors better (usually called something like Auto Fix).
Black font on a green background can be tough to read in low light.
As hammock engineer suggested, don't have Day 2 pop up a new browser window.
Include approximate mileage and perhaps elapsed time for each section.
Nice pictures of Allison, but where are you? Get someone to take your picture, or bring along a mini-tripod (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/gorillapod_joby.html) if your camera can take time-delayed pictures.
Advanced Assignment: Re-design the site based on your trail map. The user would see just the map, which would have hot links with descriptions from each point along the trail where you have comments and pictures. Clicking on a hot link (not necessarily underlined text but a hot-linked graphic) would bring up one or more pictures and associated comments, ideally in the same window.Have fun!

[Kerosene]

Also, consider posting some of your better pictures to the WhiteBlaze photo gallery.

[Frolicking Dinosaurs]

Good job on the web site. The male dino and I did a similar trip this spring. The getting to interact with the wild ponies is worth thru and long distance hikers planning on spending a half day or so at GHSP.

[blackbishop351]

Very nice. Here are a few suggestions if you want to enhance:

Don't put your pictures side-by-side, forcing the viewer to scroll right to see them. Either stack them on top of each other, or reduce the size or crop so you can pack them tighter (use something like Adobe Photoshop Elements or a freeware utility). These utilities can also enhance pictures to bring out the true colors better (usually called something like Auto Fix).
Black font on a green background can be tough to read in low light.
As hammock engineer suggested, don't have Day 2 pop up a new browser window.
Include approximate mileage and perhaps elapsed time for each section.
Nice pictures of Allison, but where are you? Get someone to take your picture, or bring along a mini-tripod (http://www.backpackinglight.com/cgi-bin/backpackinglight/gorillapod_joby.html) if your camera can take time-delayed pictures.
Advanced Assignment: Re-design the site based on your trail map. The user would see just the map, which would have hot links with descriptions from each point along the trail where you have comments and pictures. Clicking on a hot link (not necessarily underlined text but a hot-linked graphic) would bring up one or more pictures and associated comments, ideally in the same window.Have fun!

Hmm...well...

The pictures SHOULD auto-size to fit the user's screen. I had to put them in a table to get the captions the way I wanted, and the table is relative-sized (width="100%"). Not sure why that isn't working...maybe your browser doesn't like tables?

Different font color suggestions? I kinda like the green background (reminds me of here :D ) or some close variant of it.

Definitely going to include mileages/times - thanks!

Allison took pix too, and I think I was in a couple - but I haven't gotten ahold of her since to get those. I'll update when I can.

The clickable trail map was the original idea - that's why I scanned it in the first place. I ran into a problem though. All the images/tables are relative-sized to accomodate different browser sizes. When you create a clickable map, however, the tutorial I read requires that you specify the link locations by the pixel map in the image. Which means, when different people view the map and it resizes to compensate, the links end up in the wrong places. I looked around for a way to locate the links relatively, but couldn't find anything. Help, anyone?

Thanks for the thorough appraisal! I'll get right to work! :D

[Alligator]

Hmm...well...

The pictures SHOULD auto-size to fit the user's screen. I had to put them in a table to get the captions the way I wanted, and the table is relative-sized (width="100%"). Not sure why that isn't working...maybe your browser doesn't like tables?Doesn't work for me either. The pictures are the only objects extending out to the right. IE 6.0.


Different font color suggestions? I kinda like the green background (reminds me of here :D ) or some close variant of it....
I thought it was ok, but maybe just a little lighter on the green.

[blackbishop351]

Ok I just tried viewing the page in IE and I see what you guys mean...not sure what's causing that. I'll get to it!

[blackbishop351]

Update - The IE problem should be fixed; I reformatted and checked it, so I really hope it works now. Sorry about the problem, but I never use IE anymore and didn't think to check it!

[Alligator]

Working fine.

[chicote]

looks good. Why not have a set pixel width for the whole thing (put a table tag around that sucker!). some people have really big monitors and when the page opens up full screen it makes it hard to read. Also the green could go darker so the type is less painful on the eyes. It's great to see you post something and I like the captions for the photos.

[blackbishop351]

Update - Darkened the background, and made the type a grey color. I tried both a lighter green background and a white typeface, but both were too bright for my liking.

I realize this is kind of a petty thing to be posting about, but I'm planning on making page reports like this on every trip from here on out, and I'd like to find a format I can use for all of it.

Thanks for all the input guys!

[Ewker]

I was up there last weekend. I forgot my camera and ended up buying a disposable one. I will post some pics within a few days.

[slowhike]

mt rogers recreation area is one of my favorites. been there many times, but i haven`t been in from elk garden untill this year. i went in that way the 1st weekend of sept.
i was cool looking at your trip report. sorta like i took a trip & never left the chair <G>
you did a good job of knowing & showing were you were on the map.
i may try a site like that. would it be difficult for someone w/ limited computer skills? & does it cost? ...tim

[blackbishop351]

mt rogers recreation area is one of my favorites. been there many times, but i haven`t been in from elk garden untill this year. i went in that way the 1st weekend of sept.
i was cool looking at your trip report. sorta like i took a trip & never left the chair <G>
you did a good job of knowing & showing were you were on the map.
i may try a site like that. would it be difficult for someone w/ limited computer skills? & does it cost? ...tim

I just started learning HTML about two weeks ago. It's by far the easiest language I've learned yet - but then again, I've been writing different kinds of code for quite a while - which probably made it easier. Overall though, it's definitely something you can self-teach.

This site is very helpful: http://www.htmlcodetutorial.com/

I also borrowed an old copy of "HTML 4 Dummies" - it's a really nice thumb reference.

As far as the host I'm using, the University provides 10 Mb of UNIX server space for anyone to host a page. It was really easy to set up, but unfortunately it's also only available to faculty/staff/students. It's also not much space really, but I've been exploring "creative" ways of getting around that. :D

[Earl Grey]

That looks good. You should look at styling with CSS. Its VERY easy and I picked it up after reading some tutorials. Its how I did my site.

[Just Jeff]

Looks great, blackbishop! I'd second the CSS thing - I've played with it and I'll eventually change my site over to it but I'm too lazy.

Great pics, too.

[blackbishop351]

Update - Page reformatted (again!) and relocated here:

http://www.uncg.edu/~jkthomas/GH_AT_06.html

I did this to save space on the UNIX server at school - I won't say HOW because I might get myself in trouble! :D

[hammock engineer]

Looking at your trip report really has me looking forward to that section next year. I think I will be planning a zero there per the dino's suggestion.

[Just Jeff]

Still looks good. Too many clicks for my taste, though - I like to get a lot of info with each page loaded. Just an opinion. I know I need to break some of my pages up more, though...too much info on one page is just as bad as not enough!

[blackbishop351]

Still looks good. Too many clicks for my taste, though - I like to get a lot of info with each page loaded. Just an opinion. I know I need to break some of my pages up more, though...too much info on one page is just as bad as not enough!

I'm with you there, man....I'd rather leave it like it was. Unfortunately, that would have meant leaving all those image files on my UNIX disk space - and no additional room for more pages later. So, I guess we all make compromises :D

[Earl Grey]

I'm with you there, man....I'd rather leave it like it was. Unfortunately, that would have meant leaving all those image files on my UNIX disk space - and no additional room for more pages later. So, I guess we all make compromises :D

You can resample them so theyre not as big and dont take up as much room.

[blackbishop351]

You can resample them so theyre not as big and dont take up as much room.

I already did that - they're all less than 100k, most around 50k. Any less than that and I really started losing quality. They really don't take up THAT much room, but I've got more than just camping pages in the works. Not to mention that a couple of trip pages like this would have enough photos to fill 10Mb in a HURRY, even with the small filesize.

[blackbishop351]

OK so....things have gotten screwy again, so I'm reverting BACK to the original page:

http://www.uncg.edu/~jkthomas/GH_AT_06_day1.html

if anyone cares. Bloody Yahoo!! :mad: