Allegheny Mountain residents love the outdoors. While residents of nearby Pittsburgh may be content spending the weekend navigating the mall or a crowded movie theater, residents of Altoona or other nearby towns are happy losing themselves in nature by kayaking or fishing or biking or hiking or any of the outdoor activities that have made the Alleghenies famous.
Since getting lost in nature is better than just plain getting lost, the folks at Allegheny tourism website TheAlleghenies.com have created a mapping platform to help local residents and tourists find the most pristine parts of the wilderness. By highlighting campsites, biking trails, river inlets and other access points, the folks at TheAlleghenies.com hope that more people will come and experience the outdoor lifestyle for themselves.
“A lot of the visitors to our region are not one-sport fanatics,” says Southern Alleghenies Planning and Economic Development Corporation Regional Tourism Program Manager Adrienne Eichenlaub. “They want to come and do hiking and biking or hiking and a watersport. We thought it would be good to select some of our different products and make them more accessible.”
The feature helps visitors access just what they are looking for by separating mountain bike trails from hiking trails and fishing streams from rafting waterways. By making lists and location maps of different types of locations, the program leads visitors right to their destination. And once visitors are done, they can add their comments and photos, just like carving your name in a tree and letting the next visitors know where you have been. Now that they have brought the mapping platform online, Eichenlaub says the next step is bringing the maps to smart phones so their online compass can always be there to guide you home. Because no Allegheny resident stays in front of a computer screen very long before its time to travel once again.
“We realize that our users don’t sit at a computer while they do this, they are out on the trails and want to know where they are going,” says Eichenlaub. “The way mobile media is going, we need to be right along with it.”
Source: Adrienne Eichenlaub, TheAlleghenies.com
Writer: John Steele
