A Virtual Hike (as Opposed to Virtually Hiking)

For today's Technology Tuesday, I've decided to switch things up a tad and announce something slightly tech-related, but definitely Facebook-focused. As some of you may be aware, Mantor Library does a yearly "On Our Minds" book program, where we choose a book each year and sponsor a variety of programs focused on that book. Up this year? A Walk in the Woods, by Bill Bryson. You can read more about our On Our Minds program here.

What does any of this have to do with technology? Allow me to explain. In the book, Bill Bryson focuses on the Appalachian Trail: 2,181 miles of continuous hiking trail through the Appalachian Mountains. It ends in Maine--hence, a local connection. As we were discussing different programming options, I thought it might be fun to try and virtually hike all 2,181 miles of the trail as a campus and community. People could go online and post on our Facebook page to say how far they'd hiked (whether it was around town or off in the hinterlands), and we'd keep track of the total number of miles.

For example, last week I hiked Tumbledown, a mountain not too far away from campus (about a half hour drive). It's five miles, round trip. So I'm going to go to Mantor's Facebook page and post that. After my 5 miles, we'll only have 2,176 miles to go. Clearly I won't be able to do this alone.

So come on by our Facebook page and post whatever you can, in half mile increments. Go jogging each morning for a mile? Super! Run a marathon? That counts! I suppose we might do so well that we end up doing a round trip on the trail--who knows. Or maybe we get stranded somewhere half way there. It's the effort that counts. :-)

We'll try and keep you up to date about how far we've come on the trail as the weeks go by. The goal is to be finished by the end of spring semester. Think we can do it? Start hiking!