Last night, I did some research of key words having to do with my field site, Purgatory Chasm. All photos and graphics on the websites were centered around nature. (No, this isn't very surprising to
me). With the keywords “hiking” and “state park”, that's the
main idea. On almost every site I came across, there were pictures of
plants, water, or rocks of some sort. Those who didn't have pictures
of random pieces of nature were green. I don't just mean “green”
as in “eco friendly” (although they were), but green in the
literal sense: The web page layouts were green.
When searching the word “Hiking” on Google, I came across The American Hiking Society (AHS) web page. This page seems to not only have pictures of nature, but pictures of footprints as well, since they symbolize the long journey a hike could bring. This website was interesting because it talked about hiking trails all over the country. It talked about their mission, advocacy, events, and hiking gear. Interestingly enough, the site also had a donation button. Through this, I found it kind of disturbing that you could leave a spot in your will to incorporate the American Hiking Society. I mean, I love nature as much as the next guy, but it makes the AHS see, a little desperate.
There was one website I found that directly useful in terms of research came up to Purgatory Chasm in Sutton, Massachusetts. . . My field site! It was The Massachusetts Government website, listed under the topic of “Recreation & Conservation”, then “Mass Parks”. I actually gained a bit of info from this site that I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell just by physically studying the chasm or park itself. For example, the chasm is said to have been created by dammed up water that melted from the ice age nearly 14,000 years ago!
When I searched the keyword “Hiking” on Mahalo.com, the results were different than I intended. There were two columns listed, one on the right, and one on the left. The one on the left listed Hiking “Dos and Don'ts” , such as “Do pack water” and “Don't litter”. This information seemed redundant to me; Why would you need to tell a hiker to pack water when going on a long walk in the woods? Anyways, on the right, to my surprise, was a list titled “Fast Facts”. This immediately caught my attention. Reading on, I actually learned something! “Off trail hiking is called bushwhacking”, it read. (Don't laugh.) I then decided to search the keyword “bushwhacking”.
“Bushwhacking” (stop laughing) brought up a lot of interesting topics on its own. It mainly brought a lot of pictures of people hiking in the woods with a lot of baggage on them, leading me to believe they're hiking with a purpose; hiking for a long time. “Bushwhacking” also brought up a lot of dictionary sites which then lead me to believe that the prior definition given was wrong. Searching further to TheFreeDictionary.com, I found the definition to be “to make one's way through thick woods by cutting away bushes and branches”.
It seems as like I did learn something here! Surfing the internet actually helped me find useful information about Purgatory Chasm. I'll definitely be doing more research before my final paper, and broadening my horizons further than just Google.
Sites Found:
http://www.americanhiking.org/
http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-central/purgatory-chasm-state-reservation.html
http://www.mahalo.com/hiking/
When searching the word “Hiking” on Google, I came across The American Hiking Society (AHS) web page. This page seems to not only have pictures of nature, but pictures of footprints as well, since they symbolize the long journey a hike could bring. This website was interesting because it talked about hiking trails all over the country. It talked about their mission, advocacy, events, and hiking gear. Interestingly enough, the site also had a donation button. Through this, I found it kind of disturbing that you could leave a spot in your will to incorporate the American Hiking Society. I mean, I love nature as much as the next guy, but it makes the AHS see, a little desperate.
There was one website I found that directly useful in terms of research came up to Purgatory Chasm in Sutton, Massachusetts. . . My field site! It was The Massachusetts Government website, listed under the topic of “Recreation & Conservation”, then “Mass Parks”. I actually gained a bit of info from this site that I wouldn't necessarily be able to tell just by physically studying the chasm or park itself. For example, the chasm is said to have been created by dammed up water that melted from the ice age nearly 14,000 years ago!
When I searched the keyword “Hiking” on Mahalo.com, the results were different than I intended. There were two columns listed, one on the right, and one on the left. The one on the left listed Hiking “Dos and Don'ts” , such as “Do pack water” and “Don't litter”. This information seemed redundant to me; Why would you need to tell a hiker to pack water when going on a long walk in the woods? Anyways, on the right, to my surprise, was a list titled “Fast Facts”. This immediately caught my attention. Reading on, I actually learned something! “Off trail hiking is called bushwhacking”, it read. (Don't laugh.) I then decided to search the keyword “bushwhacking”.
“Bushwhacking” (stop laughing) brought up a lot of interesting topics on its own. It mainly brought a lot of pictures of people hiking in the woods with a lot of baggage on them, leading me to believe they're hiking with a purpose; hiking for a long time. “Bushwhacking” also brought up a lot of dictionary sites which then lead me to believe that the prior definition given was wrong. Searching further to TheFreeDictionary.com, I found the definition to be “to make one's way through thick woods by cutting away bushes and branches”.
It seems as like I did learn something here! Surfing the internet actually helped me find useful information about Purgatory Chasm. I'll definitely be doing more research before my final paper, and broadening my horizons further than just Google.
Sites Found:
http://www.americanhiking.org/
http://www.mass.gov/eea/agencies/dcr/massparks/region-central/purgatory-chasm-state-reservation.html
http://www.mahalo.com/hiking/
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