Choose your favorite trails website in our latest poll.

A new trail-related poll was unveiled on the trails network blog yesterday. The poll is located in the left hand column of the blog and allows participants to make more than one choice. The topic for this month's poll is: What is your favorite trails website? And of course, the trails network blog is one of the choices but, hey, no pressure... did I mention you can make more than one choice?

If you want to find out more about each of the trail websites, here are some links to check out:

Oops... I forgot to add
a cute graphic to the
blog on Valentine's
Day, so here it is.

www.traillink.com

www.trailsnet.com

www.everytrail.com

www.trails.com

www.... well, you're already at the trails network blog, so a link here would be rather redundant.

I would encourage you to vote early and often, but you're only allowed to vote once, so just vote early.

Choose your favorite trails website in our latest poll.

6 Tips for Choosing a Hiking Trail

If you're thinking about getting into hiking, whether as a hobby, as part of a health plan, or just because you've got too much time on your hands, (I can't relate to that, but...) the hiking & trails website has a list of tips to help you choose the trail that best suits your needs:

Get on Track: 6 Tips for Choosing the Best Hiking Trails

Wondering how to choose hiking trails that are right for you? Here are some considerations...

1. A great place to start is a hiking trail without any big changes in elevation, like a flat trail around a pond or along a shoreline.

That was just the first tip. Visit the hiking & trails website for more information/tips.

6 Tips for Choosing a Hiking Trail

Big trails website change

Your trailsnet blogging experience has just gotten a little easier.
Starting on December 1, 2010, the trailsnet blog and trailsnet home page have become one in the same. So now, instead of entering www.trailsnet.blogspot.com to visit the blog, you just need to visit www.trailsnet.com

Don't worry, if you forget, or you had the blogspot address bookmarked, you'll automatically be redirected to the correct page.

This one move solved four problems.

1. My old home page on the main trailsnet website was not exactly up-to-snuff with the rest of the awesome site. Now, it is much more functional and pleasant to view.
2. It was a pain to have to enter that whole blogspot URL to get to the blog, not to mention it didn't sync with the rest of the trailsnet website.
3. Now, I don't need a separate blog page in the website since the index page is both the home page and the blog combined.
4. The oodles of content on the blog is going to improve the trailsnet website SEO, so more people will be able to find the wealth of information about trails that is located on trailsnet.com.

In the meantime, there will be a short period of time where the trailsnet blog page will be inoperable. Hopefully it won't be too much of an inconvenience and will be back online quickly.

Thanks for your patience.

Big trails website change

How to Improve Michelle Obama's Fight Against Childhood Obesity

I love Michelle Obama's goals for fighting childhood obesity. I think it is a great campaign and a wonderful choice of causes for our First Lady.

I am especially happy that "Increasing Physical Activity" is one of her major goals in the battle against childhood obesity. But those of you who follow my blog, Twitter posts, and trails website know what I'm going to suggest.

Within First Lady Obama's "Increasing Physical Activity" section, I hope she adds a goal for increasing access to American Trails. I especially appreciate the goal of Rails to Trails Conservancy: "to have 90 percent of Americans live within three miles of a trail..."


I encourage Ms. Obama to add this goal to her plan. And I encourage you to encourage her. In fact, I would like to suggest that Michelle Obama and the Obama administration partner w/ the Rails to Trails Conservancy in the hopes of increasing and improving our trail network in America.

photo courtesy: Shane Rich photography

You've heard me say it before. Trails improve:

• our health
• our families
• the environment
• the air
• the economy
• our world

For a list of the best trails in America, visit trailsnet.com.

How to Improve Michelle Obama's Fight Against Childhood Obesity