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cloudhiking and Metro to Mountain

In 2008 we started Metro to Mountain and cloudhiking. Metro to Mountain was originally going to be more of a fiction and non-fiction story site. There was also a separate blog also titled Metro to Mountain. In the spring of 2009 we launched cloudhiking to chronicle our Colorado 14ers trip.

In the fall of 2009 we archived the 14er information and began using cloudhiking as an online guide to trails and paths. Each guide included a detailed description of the trail, gps data, mileage charts, and a map. The maps were drawn with painstaking detail and nurtured with lots of love.

In 2010 we moved the blog from one Metro to Mountain site to the other Metro to Mountain site! Now, it is called Metro to Mountain Journal and publishes at least three posts each week (m,w,f) as well as Scree. We are hoping to begin posting Scree more frequently - except when we are out in the woods. The Metro to Mountain stories are not dead - we just do not have enough time to work on them. cloudhiking has taken over all of our spare time and then some. If there is any interest in new stories we will try to get a couple out this fall.

As we continue to grow both sites we need your suggestions. If you have a trail you'd like us to walk or gear to review, let us know. If there are things you would like to see more or less of on the sites, let us know. We are learning and growing with you.

Please, continue visiting both sites, you make a difference. We need to increase page views and unique visitors. Ways you may help are by sharing with others the Journal articles and stories, linking to us from your blog, Face Book, or web page, promoting cloudhiking's maps and visual online guides to your hiking and outdoor friends, and sharing with us ideas of how to make the sites better.

It has been an adventure, join us in the clouds.

Support

We have been working on ways to help finance the costs of operating the site. At times the expenses can be overwhelming. Please, understand we are not creating and maintaining the sites to become wealthy, we just need help paying for expenses.

Advertising - We have placed advertising on the Metro to Mountain Journal Pages. Naively, we thought the contextual ads would have something to do with our site or articles. After several weeks of hoping the ad content was going to get better, we toned down the filter to only include family rated ads. We are still unhappy with the ads - not the company who seemed to be very easy to work with - but with the ad content. The ads just don't seem right for the site.

Affiliates - We are happy to announce that we have been accepted into REI's Affiliates Program. If you click on the REI Link from our sites and then buy something from REI, we receive a small commission.

This is a great way to help support the site. It does not cost you a thing. You just click on the REI Link, purchase anything from REI or the REI-OUTLET and we make a little bit of money. That is a sweet deal. Purchasing things at the REI Stores does not qualify.

We will be applying for other Affiliate Programs in the near future; but for now we are happy with the program.

Other Plans - Our plans are to start a small online store (probably only t-shirts at first) and to offer a PayPal Donation Button.

Any other ideas to help us raise money in order to cover expenses are welcome!

Thank you for your continued support. We just hope you are enjoying the sites as much as we are. Tell your family and friends about the site. Link to us. And click on the buttons to show a little love.

Monty, Amy, and Jake, the big dog