A Crummy Commercial?

Everyone Has A Little Thoreau Inside Them

Henry David Thoreau moved into the wilds of Massachusetts in 1845, where he built a cabin, fished, walked, wandered, and wrote about the nature he loved.

You can do that, too.

Here’s a sample:

The road twists through the woods, thick with pine and quaken aspen. Sometimes the road is only wide enough to let our little Toyota pickup pass, dragging our camper behind it. Sometimes the road isn’t even that wide, and the needles and leaves hanging from the roadside trees brush and scrape against the fenders, pop through open windows, stirring air fragrant with pine sap, road dust and yarrow. Over the low rumble of the tires on the rutted dirt road, we hear the calls of telephone birds, the warning chirps of robins. And always, below the din, the ribbit of frogs.

Through the trees, we see the first patch of blue, bright sky blue lower than the lowest branches of the trees. One more twist in the road, over boulders, we’ll descend to Horseshoe Lake.

Here’s another sample:

Colloquially enough, 17-Mile Cave is located just 400 feet to the south of U.S. Highway 20 about 17 miles west of downtown Idaho Falls, ID, at a spot marked by an Idaho historical marker “Elephant Hunters.” Park either at the marker pullout or along the dirt road that circles a dimple in the landscape to the south. In that dimple is the cave’s entrance.

The cave’s location, size and makeup make it an excellent place to pique the interest of would-be speleologists, no matter how young. Michelle and I took our three children – Liam, age 7, Lexie, 5, and Isaac, 2 ½, to the cave for their first spelunking adventure.

Each is a little different. Each reflects the writer’s voice, the way he or she tells the story. What each has in common is this: The writer loves the place he or she has visited. The writer knows the place, and wants others to visit it, too. I love Horseshoe Lake, sheltered among the trees at Yellowstone National Park’s southwestern corner. I love 17-Mile Cave, with its spooky halls and amusing graffiti. There are places you love, too. Tell us about them. All it takes to write for Uncharted is a passion for the places we love.

We like travelogues, so put your buddies in your car and take a road trip. We like to hear about hikes. Raft trips. That time you got lost. That time you got found. That time you got our of your tent at 5 a.m. to listen to the birds and watch the sun rise. Anything you do in the outdoors, we like.

Here’s what we look for in an Uncharted story:

• Basic information: How to find the place/person/thing you’re writing about, when the best times to visit are, what you ought to bring with you to make the trip a pleasant one.
• Insider tips on the destination. Too many Web writers just copy down what they see in guidebooks, roadside historical markers or, frankly, random assumptions about a place. We want readers to say “Wow” when they read our stories, not “Duh!”
• Tell our readers if this place/person/thing is interesting to visit. Tell us why it was the most boring/unrewarding thing you’ve ever done in your entire life, aside from watching game shows all morning. Back up your opinion with facts and reasoned argument.
• Entertain our readers with good information, lively characters and quotes, and your own witty observations.
• Stimulate multiple senses. While technology hasn’t perfected e-smell, we want to make sure our stories involve as many senses as possible. We encourage submission of photos, short video and sound clips and other elements to make the places you visit more real to our readers.
• Once you’ve got your story read, e-mail it to us at share@uncharted.net. We’ll contact you quickly to let you know where to send photos, and when your story will appear.

Log on to www.uncharted.net. Your public awaits.