There are literally hundreds of things you can do with a GPS unit. In case you really do not know, here are just a few of those things:

1. Get lost and then find yourself.
2. Know when that exit is coming up on the interstate.
3. Track every step of your life.
4. Estimate arrival times.
5. Let the cops know that you REALLY were not speeding and have proof!
6. Find cool stuff on web sites like Backcountry Secrets or Geocaching.
7. Remember where that great fishing hole is.
8. Know when the sun will rise and set.
9. Locate your Grandma's grave site that you only visit once in a blue moon.
10. Strap it to the dog and prove to the neighbors that those really are not your puppies.
11. Go golfing and determine distance to the hole.
12. Determine your speed on the ski hill.
13. And best of all, have fun with your kids!

Now is your chance to gain fame and fortune! Ok, so we really can't promise any fame, but it could save you a few Benjamin's. The rules are pretty simple and basic. Submit a valid point to Backcountry Secrets, have it approved by a member of our staff, earn an entry to our drawing, and start praying your point is selected as the winner.

We have had a few requests to make it so our users can see what points were added most recently. So to oblige we are reformatting the home page to include the last 10 points added.

We are also excited to announce the release of our first RSS feed. The RSS feed will contain the last 10 approved points with the following information:

1. Point Name and State/Province the point is located in.
2. The member who submitted the point and the date of submission
3. Directions to the point
4. All of the sport descriptions at the point.

Subscribe to Backcountry Secrets' RSS

Well the Backcountry Secrets SHhhh! Hat give-away has come to a close. The give away brought A LOT of traffic to the website, but did not bring as many points as I was hoping for.

The month long promotion ended with us giving away a total of 5 hats to site contributors. We want to thank those of you who participated in the SHhhh! hat give away.

We are now preparing the tipi for painting. I am not the best artist, so we are projecting all of the icons of the different sports onto the tipi. This is harder than one might think.

First we had to determine where to draw each icon. So we set the tipi up. Then marked where we would paint them. Next we had to stretch out the canvas in the basement. We then used a string to mark the center top of the tipi. We used the string as a guideline to mark the top and bottom of the icon. Then we used this contraption (ladder, wood, and projector) to project onto the tipi. The whole process of setting up, measuring, stretching out the tip, and stencilling took about 3 weekends and a lot of patience. The good news, it is all done and ready to be painted.

I purchased this tipi, or teepee however you want to spell it, back in December. The idea came from my Dad who is currently the scout master in his area. He was saying he'd like to have a tipi that the scouts could sleep in and he didn't care if it was branded with some company name.

Well I decided that I needed a tax right off and what a better way to do it than with a tipi for Backcountry Secrets. The plan is to paint the Backcountry Secrets logo on the tipi with all of the sport icons around the bottom. Then let the scouts use it when they go on campouts.

My Dad and I built some "portable poles" for it using 2x4's and PVC pipe. This is a picture of the tipi only 2/3 setup in his house. We couldn't set it up the full 24 ft indoors, but the weather isn't cooperating and we wanted to set what it looks like.

Hopefully this "portable billboard" will help more people find the backcountrysecrets.com. Total marketing costs on this one, about $800.