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:
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:
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
