Blog Update & Feedback

Hi everyone! It stinks that winter is leaving us for good, but the thought of hitting the trail in shorts and a t-shirt is a good thought. It's always like going back to a different world when there is no snow. It will be for me, especially after visiting all 48 of NH's 4000 footers this winter season when they were covered in snow. Since finishing, I've been quite busy personally, and decided to spend a little bit of time making a few videos from the final hikes of the winter. But, all of this has left a few things that I still need to post soon, and I wanted to remind you all I'm working on them. At the same time, I started to think about my blog overall, its progress, and where it's going, and I came up with a few additional thoughts I wanted to share....(photo above is Lake of Clouds and Mt. Washington in June 2012)

Since 2010, keeping this blog has become more and more exciting for me, and I only want to continue with that! Amazingly, I have published over 150 posts, mostly trip reports, since I started. All of this is fun, but it takes a lot of dedication, commitment...and, yes some money. Never mind buying the gear to do all that I want safely, I've incurred a bit of expenses to produce the outdoor content I have to date. This includes upgrading my Google storage a couple of times, annual Spot subscriptions for the tracking fun (and family's peace of mind), purchased a couple of hard drives for videos and photos, purchased Adobe Premiere Elements for video editing, and many other items used directly or indirectly for DMOutdoors stuff - it has become a fairly significant annual expense for me. Not that long ago, I added some affiliate links with coupons and deals to my side bar, but the income from that and the ads on my sidebar are still pretty much nil. I've made about $50 since the start! Not much, but, for now its all fine with me, because again, its fun and in the end, I will have all of this to share with family some day. The income from ads or affiliate links will come as I learn more about it the technical stuff. With that said, I am going to continue doing what I'm doing, because its awesome, and I'll find a way to continue making it work.

So.....What's coming up soon from DMOutdoors?

Blog & Pages

• Currently, I pay $5/year for 20GB of extra storage, but in order for me to increase storage again, I will be forced to pay $5/mo, a significant increase and item to manage. While its inevitable I'll need to make this jump, I am considering reducing the number of photos in my online albums to save on online storage.  If I do this, you may temporarily find some non-working photos on my older posts, which I will need to fix over time.
• I am working on a new stats page and/or trip log page. The trip log page will be a one-stop page for every trip report on DMOutdoors. 
• On the top right of my page, I added a box for recent updates that are worth checking out. Example...Sometimes, I'll add a video to an older post, and unless I make a mention of it somewhere, those who've previously read the post will not know to see the new video that's been added to the old post.
• The DMOutdoors YouTube Channel has been updated to the new YouTube Channel dashboard, which I think is awesome because it shows you the most recent and most popular videos on the front page. If you have not visited my YouTube Channel or seen any of my 95 videos, I recommend you have a look....and share and subscribe if you like! I've even made a playlist on the channel so that if you prefer videos without music, you can watch all of my videos that have only natural sound.

Posts

• Winter Weekend in Baxter State Park - Gear List
• Winter Weekend in Baxter State Park - March 1-4
• Welch-Dickey Loop 3/30/13
• Sandwich Dome & Jennings Peak 3/30/13

Videos

• Deboullie Maine Video - For a while now, my brother's been working on a video for the 3 separate years we've gone to Deboullie, Maine (2009, 2010, and 2012). Last year we climbed the slides on Gardner Mountain and kayaked across two glacial lakes to get to our campsite. We've caught and gut the rare arctic char. All of this will be featured in this video, and most of it I've never posted. We have said we'll take a break from here and return sometime in the future.
• Climbing Pamola, Knife Edge, Baxter Peak, and Hamlin Peak in July 2012.
• Owl's Head and Madison-Adams-Jefferson from this winter.
• Mt. Whitney MOVIE - Yes! That's right, movie, sort of! Our trip last year was more than just a climb of Mt. Whitney. It was an awesome time in Las Vegas for my friend's wedding, we drove across the desert, and in addition to tagging the summit of Mt. Whitney, we experienced several attractions in Death Valley on the way back. From planning to completion, you all got to experience our adventure with my brother and I through my planning posts and trip reports. After the climb, I posted a short teaser video from Trail Crest, and two other videos which featured driving on Whitney Portal Road and some footage from the summit, but in terms of video footage from this adventure, you haven't seen anything yet! I promise.

Adventures

• Me and brother are going to finish the New England 4000-footers on North Brother in Maine very soon! It's going to be a brotherly finish!
• Whitewater Rafting Canada Falls with Penobscot Adventures in July
• Possible summer climb of Katahdin and Knife Edge also in July (same weekend)
• A 48x12 Grid inspired Double Presidential Traverse in a day (24hrs) (summer)
• .....and hopefully a lot lot more!

Feedback

With all of THAT said, I welcome any feedback, pointers, or suggestions for the blog. Here are some questions I'm thinking of in terms of feedback....

• I have so much video footage, I still find videos I've never watched. Perhaps I have what you're looking for on video? What do you want to see? I was thinking of doing a video series on something like river crossings. What do you think? I know I already have several crossings!
• Inside the Moments - This 10-post series published last year on special moments within certain hikes saw about 50 views on each of the 10 posts. This means I had a consistent following of this series, but its tough to tell how popular this was among all of the other trip reports. How about a shorter series of Inside the Moments from my 48 in a single winter accomplishment? There were certainly some special moments from that journey which I could highlight.
• I've had some comments about using white text and the black background. Is it difficult to read? Any suggestions?

If you do have any suggestions or feedback, feel free to leave a comment below. You can also send me a direct e-mail, if you would like. Click on About Me, and you can visit my Facebook Page to get my e-mail address or send me a private message.

Happy Trails, Happy Spring, and as always, Thank you for following DMOutdoors and sharing the joy of outdoor adventuring!

Best Wishes,

Dan

Crystal Lake - Haverhill, MA - 3/28/2013

This past November, my brother, niece, and I went for a quick hike around Crystal Lake in Haverhill, MA (Click Here for report and photos). That little hike turned into amazing as we were fortunate enough to experience being in the presence of a beautiful bald eagle. The eagle had seemingly taken up residence or was planning to, on a small island, close to the shore of the lake.

Although its right down the street, we had not been back here since that day in November, and feeling the urge last week to get out and practice taking some photos on the Canon, my brother and I elected to head down to the lake to see if there were any signs of the eagle, its nest if he had made one, or whatever else we could find.

A cove on Crystal Lake

Beavers do a number on some trees at Crystal Lake

We rounded the cove on the trail (which is well defined around the lake, but not marked or named), and immediately came upon signs of beaver....a lot of beaver. 

A beaver swims toward a debris-laced shoreline

Unless you live locally, you would have no idea that one can can actually do an approximately 7-mile loop hike or bike going along Crystal Lake, and crossing the street into the Crystal Gorge Reservation area. Although we didn't do that this day, you can see the woods below just around the lake make for a nice afternoon workout or leisurely stroll with limited noise pollution.

A pan hangs on a tall tree

There is a spot with a fire pit that is close to the road, and seems to get some use as observed from the occasional trash left behind. There was a pan hanging on the tree this time which made for a nice photo. The trail sort of disappears as you round the shore near the back end of the Crystal Lake Golf Club. The trail appears again, and follows the shore again.

Two aligned geese sit across the golf course

We stopped on the other side of the pond before the path leads towards the road and Crystal Gorge Reservation area. In November, the water was so low, we could almost walk out to the island. This time, we were stuck to the normal shoreline. There were no signs of the bald eagle or its nest. Why, who knows? Maybe it was because of all the beavers around! This little late afternoon hike felt like it was the hike of the beavers! We saw them on land and in the water, and have never seen them in action like this here before - it was actually pretty hilarious. We hung around by a fallen tree for a little while and took in the action. Adding to all the beaver action, a flock of geese could be heard coming from quite a distance away, and disturbing the silence, the flock of a dozen or more came screeching and screaming down into the middle of the lake. Wow, I was wondering what the heck would be next!

All of the photos below are the same beaver who kept swimming circles for us and splashing for the camera, but we spotted well over a dozen different beavers on the hike, on land and swimming in the water.

A beaver splash - sounds like someone doing a cannonball 

Heya buddy!

We waited until it was just about completely dark, and started to head back home, hoping that we would not come upon something else, like a coyote or pack of deer, which we see on a regular basis out our back window. Thankfully we didn't have any encounters, and we were home safely.

Spring is here folks, and the animals (and ticks) are starting to come out in full force, so stay safe, and Happy Trails!

A little light pollution didn't really ruin this one....

Hike Stats

Distance: approx. 2 mi.
Actual Book Time: 2:00