I just can't get away from Mountain Equipment Co-op.

I picked up an old Canadian Business magazine a few days ago and came across their highly successful and enviro-friendly direct mail/catalogue campaigns. I opened up my email, and in came a very nice, simple email with a clear call-to-action. Summer = camping / tent + mec

After musing through the email, I found a link to one of their community sites - clubtread.com.

"ClubTread is a community-driven outdoor web portal for activities including hiking, backpacking, mountaineering, snowshoeing, and skiing. The site offers an online discussion forum, trip reports, extensive hiking trail database (wiki), gear review system (wiki), gps downloads, integrated mapping, and photo gallery."

It is pretty damn cool if you are a mountaineer (me?, not so much). But if I was, the wiki is a great place to see gear reviews as well as see where others like me are hanging.

Nice stuff MEC...you certainly do tempt me to rush out to the great outdoors. ...you certainly do know your community.

PS. 'Tis funny how they have a great community vie web - considering most would leave their laptop at home when treking into the woods.