www.IndianaOutfitters.com - Indiana's Online Outdoor Recreation Guide
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About the Site

WHY THIS SITE WAS CREATED

I love to hike, backpack and kayak, but I can't often take seven day vacations. I live in Indianapolis, so I can't go too far away for just a weekend. That makes Indiana a likely (and fun) choice for a weekend destination. I created this web site because I wanted to organize Indiana's outdoor resources in one place so that I could have an easy way to plan my weekend trips. In addition, I got sick of people moaning that Indiana doesn't have any "good" places to go enjoy the outdoors.

Several years ago a friend of mine, Mark, turned a filing cabinet into a vast collection of maps and brochures for outdoor resources in Indiana. I liked it because we could pour over the maps and figure out what to do. There were two problems with his system, though. First, it was his stuff-in his house. Second, it was hard to share the information with other people.

As a computer and Internet consultant, I figured I could gain the functionality of Mark's filing cabinet by using the Internet. I set about feverishly searching for resources. Try as I might, I just wasn't able to make the Internet as productive as Mark's filing cabinet. It seemed like such a tedious process, and the information was incomplete. I figured that eventually the resources on the Internet would get better, but I wanted it now!

Then I realized that the resources I needed to enjoy Indiana's outdoor activities were just spread out too widely over the Internet. I had to go to so many different places to find the information I wanted that it became frustrating and worthless.

Finally I convinced myself to build this site to gather all the information I needed to plan my trips into one spot. I have invested at least 2000 hours on this site and I am only 3/4 done. I intend to detail all of the public lands in Indiana. For now, I have to take a break to gain sponsorship from a wide variety of sources.

The way it works for the outfitters is as follows:

  • Everybody that views the website gets a name and address listing if they outfit somebody for something in Indiana.
  • If they allow me to come to their location and give a demonstration or they view my website from home and e-mail me, they get a link to their site.
  • If they pay me a sponsorship fee then they are singled out as a page sponsor.
  • They can pay me an advertising fee to get a banner up.

Right now I am out trying to gain sponsorships. I will use this money to add more content. It is that simple. All you have to do is to patronize my sponsors and tell them that you heard about them from me. Then they will pay me money next year too. Then I will make the content better and better, until IndianaOutfitters.com is the undisputed one-stop source for all Indiana Outdoor activity info.

HOW TO USE THIS SITE

Either you know where you want to go or you don't. If you don't know what you want to do, try browsing the trip reports section to see what other people thought of various places. If you know where you want to go, then you can click straight to the destination. You can tell you are at a destination because it will have a green bar near the top. On the destination bar you will find the four things that you need to get your trip all planned out and ready to go. You'll find:

  1. Maps to the destination
  2. A map of the destination
  3. The current weather and forecast for the specific area
  4. Trip reports (so you can find out what to do and what not to do in a new area)
  5. Outfitter Information (so you can find out where to rent any goods and services you might need for your trip)

Obviously, the trip reports section will require help from the community. I need trip reports from your outdoor adventures to help complete the picture for people thinking about visiting Indiana's great outdoor resources. Even just a paragraph or two would be helpful.

Be sure to bookmark this site and check back often. I continually update it. If you like outdoor activities, then this is the site you will come back to again and again.

Enjoy the site. Let me know what you think.

HOW YOU CAN HELP

  1. You can patronize our sponsors and tell them that you heard of them at IndianaOutfitters.com
  2. You can donate money to fund further development of the website in general or the outdoor information of interest to you (e-mail donations@IndianaOutfitters.com).
  3. You can tell your friends about the site.
  4. You can tell outdoor recreation companies in Indiana that they should advertise on this website.


We are not responsible for errors in or omissions of any information.