Hello Minnesota, and all you who love the outdoors in the Gopher State,

My name's Ian Wilker, and I'm a senior producer at GORP.com, an online encyclopedia of outdoor-recreation information. GORP is perhaps the leading outdoor-recreation site on the Web, drawing about 1.5 million visits every month.

I've just finished pulling together a new feature story about cross-country skiing the Gunflint Trail, written by Stephanie Gregory, a native of Ely who is a regular contributor to Outside Magazine. (It's at: http://www.gorp.com/gorp/location/mn/xc_gun.htm) I think it's a pretty good story, but I'd guess that most of you won't learn anything new from it.

Doing this story, however, gave us occasion to create something I thought you all might be more interested in: We've made a new Minnesota Northwoods discussion board. This board, and the board at Canoe Country (http://bwcaonline.com/) are great, and GORP's board isn't going to have anything like the local traffic you have here. But if you're interested in connecting with a worldwide audience of canoe-campers, cross-country skiers, fishermen, adventure travelers--all kinds of people who are deeply interested in places like northern Minnesota, where the outdoors is still very much a part of life--I don't think there's another board like ours. That's what GORP brings to the table.

This discussion board needs your help to take root and flourish. The questions GORP users ask the most can only be answered by people like yourselves--they want to know specifics about local recreational opportunities, services, and environmental issues, and you're the ones who really know the truth.

Help us give a worldwide audience the most accurate picture of northern Minnesota available in print or on the Web. Tell us what we're missing or where we've made mistakes. Give some advice to potential visitors. Use our forum to let everyone know about places to go, people to contact, or issues to think about that relate to your home.

Click here to visit GORP's Minnesota Northwoods board:

http://www2.gorp.com/forums/Thread.cfm?CFApp=50&Thread_ID=8519&mc=1

Have fun with it, and please feel free to e-mail me any time.

Cheers,
Ian Wilker
iwilker@gorp.com

Posted by Ian Wilker, GORP staff on December 22, 1999 at 12:14