2021-02-27, 04:01 PM
Here is Steve's response just posted to his blog. The link to the blog is at the bottom of this post. He asked me top pass this along to all parties concerned and to this forum as of 2/27/2021
Hello everyone,
As I have received 5 different e-mails over the past week in regards to the future of this site, I thought I would make a post and address the issue. The e-mails all mentioned that someone had offered to take over hosting of this site and keep it online indefinitely. As I mentioned in passing about one month ago, my plans are to remove the site from the internet sometime between 2021-2023. And that is still the plan. I don’t exactly when I will do so, but at some point I will give one week’s notice and take down the site for good. Before I do so, I will go through and convert all of my site pages and hiking reports to PDF form for safekeeping to preserve everything I have done. This will allow me to share what I have written with my son as he gets older and also to provide a copy to the NPS for their records and future use. The last three years have been the most difficult of my life personally as I have dealt with quite a few challenging issues including battling two different forms of cancer. As of my latest scans and x-rays, my body is currently all clear and there is NED (no evidence of disease). But at some point over these past few years, I totally lost interest in writing up new hiking reports and maintaining this site. It became burdensome to me, rather than the joy that it once was. And the site does need regular updates in order to work properly on the latest phones and tablets, and also to keep the slideshow software current. But I cannot let someone else take over hosting and preserve my site online. For one thing, I have a lot of personal photos of my family, friends, and NPS staff members within my hiking reports. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving those up somewhere else on the internet. And I don’t have permission from others to allow their photos to be posted somewhere else either. Thank you all for viewing my Death Valley site as such a valuable resource and using my information for the past 15 years or so. It has always meant a lot to receive the thoughtful e-mails in regards to how helpful the site has been and to even be spotted and recognized by members of the public when I am out and about in Death Valley thanks to the site. And I especially treasure having gotten to know and spend time with Death Valley park staff. As stated before, I will soon look for a way to put a lot of my discovery and adventure hiking information into book form so that it is not lost forever. I expect it will take me about a year to put all that information together, but it will be fun to do so. Take care, everyone.
Regards, Steve
https://panamintcity.com/dvablog/
Hello everyone,
As I have received 5 different e-mails over the past week in regards to the future of this site, I thought I would make a post and address the issue. The e-mails all mentioned that someone had offered to take over hosting of this site and keep it online indefinitely. As I mentioned in passing about one month ago, my plans are to remove the site from the internet sometime between 2021-2023. And that is still the plan. I don’t exactly when I will do so, but at some point I will give one week’s notice and take down the site for good. Before I do so, I will go through and convert all of my site pages and hiking reports to PDF form for safekeeping to preserve everything I have done. This will allow me to share what I have written with my son as he gets older and also to provide a copy to the NPS for their records and future use. The last three years have been the most difficult of my life personally as I have dealt with quite a few challenging issues including battling two different forms of cancer. As of my latest scans and x-rays, my body is currently all clear and there is NED (no evidence of disease). But at some point over these past few years, I totally lost interest in writing up new hiking reports and maintaining this site. It became burdensome to me, rather than the joy that it once was. And the site does need regular updates in order to work properly on the latest phones and tablets, and also to keep the slideshow software current. But I cannot let someone else take over hosting and preserve my site online. For one thing, I have a lot of personal photos of my family, friends, and NPS staff members within my hiking reports. I wouldn’t feel comfortable leaving those up somewhere else on the internet. And I don’t have permission from others to allow their photos to be posted somewhere else either. Thank you all for viewing my Death Valley site as such a valuable resource and using my information for the past 15 years or so. It has always meant a lot to receive the thoughtful e-mails in regards to how helpful the site has been and to even be spotted and recognized by members of the public when I am out and about in Death Valley thanks to the site. And I especially treasure having gotten to know and spend time with Death Valley park staff. As stated before, I will soon look for a way to put a lot of my discovery and adventure hiking information into book form so that it is not lost forever. I expect it will take me about a year to put all that information together, but it will be fun to do so. Take care, everyone.
Regards, Steve
https://panamintcity.com/dvablog/
Life begins in Death Valley