Klickitat Rail Trail- Lyle to Klickitat

[Charley]

Anna asked for photos of the Klickitat Rail Trail, and I happen to have a few from the last couple of weeks. While I was taking this trip on a mountain bike (this is a nice dry place to ride right now) I think it's underutilized for hiking. So get out there and explore!
[Also, I've been hiking lots and lots and lots, but have been so frustrated with Flickr and the other websites-they take lots of time to work around and I always max them out too soon- that I've been failing to create trip reports. My bad! I might try linking over to my Facebook account, where I can add photos more easily. Also, I'm going to try just using this site's photo uploader, which looks cluttered (with the "file comment" and other stuff on it) but will probably be easier to use.]

Photos from Klickitat Rail Trail:

As you can see, instead of a big, wide, boring, rail-to-trail, the growth of foliage has "singletracked" the railbed in some places. In other places, it's wide and flat.

Heading to Klickitat

On the way back from town, saw the sun setting on the canyon walls.

Changing leaves near an abandoned homestead.

Finally, a picture of my new Pride and Joy, a Gary Fisher X-Caliber, during a ride up Fisher Hill Road (also quite scenic):

I can see from the preview that the images don't reduce down very well. They don't really look like I want them to, and don't look like they do on my computer. When it comes to digital prints, I guess enlarging and reducing both look bad. I might just start a bunch of new Flickr accounts.
Hope you enjoyed.
Charley

[Charley]

What I can't figure out is why the small images displayed on the trip report have so much more sharpening than the originals. When I click on them, the window pops up, and the images look like they're supposed to look. But on the trip report, they look like I've gone and jacked up the sharpness, to ill effect!
Charley

[Charley]

And it looks like the colors got bled out, too. I don't get it. . .

[Grannyhiker]

Charley, you can post photos directly from your computer--you don't need to go through a hosting website. You do have to shrink them down to 600x800 MP, though. Believe me, it's a LOT easier than going through a hosting site! I haven't noticed any deterioration of quality when doing so.
http://www.portlandhikers.org/forum/vie ... p?f=8&t=49

[Charley]

Dear Granny,
That's actually what I did to post the photos on this trip report. I just don't like the way they look on the trip report. If I click on the photo, it enlarges and looks fine, but if I just scroll down the report, it looks like all the photos are super sharp and lack color and contrast. When I used Flickr, the photos came up on the trip report nice and big, and looked like they do on my computers photo program. They also don't have the black box with the text around them. It's just the forum's software, I'm guessing, that makes the previews of the attachments look like this.

For example, the picture of the changing leaves looks like yellow leaves if you click on the image and enlarge it, but the preview on the trip report makes it look like all the leaves are brownish gray!

Guess I want to have my cake and eat it too, huh?
Thanks,
C

[anna in boots]

What I can't figure out is why the small images displayed on the trip report have so much more sharpening than the originals. When I click on them, the window pops up, and the images look like they're supposed to look. But on the trip report, they look like I've gone and jacked up the sharpness, to ill effect!
Charley

Don't worry about it, Charley. We actually got it pretty good here. Lots of sites this involved have membership fees. In the end, your photos look great when you click on them and us smart folks know how to do that. Great pics! I was heretofore worried about going into Klickitat from that direction but you've sold me. It's officially next on my pedaling list. I'm just sad I have to wait two whole seasons for schnekkies!

anna in boots

[drm]

Dear Granny,
I just don't like the way they look on the trip report. If I click on the photo, it enlarges and looks fine, but if I just scroll down the report, it looks like all the photos are super sharp and lack color and contrast. When I used Flickr, the photos came up on the trip report nice and big, and looked like they do on my computers photo program. They also don't have the black box with the text around them. It's just the forum's software, I'm guessing, that makes the previews of the attachments look like this.

While I'm not familiar with the software on this site, the one I use a lot allows the administrator to define image presets for images. Or the preset may be a default that comes already configured. These are not only sized down, but many other types of processing can be specified. But despite this, the original image is saved and can be displayed as is. So the sharpening you see is possibly just a part of some image processing. Also, these presets might be saved in a compressed file format that affects the details.

[VanMarmot]

I tried using Flickr and SmugMug but found them cumbersome and also didn't want to pay the fees. I then used this site's features to upload photo files, which worked fine but, as you note, can give small images that look grainer than you'd like (but are clear and crisp if you click on them). Recently I've started using Google's Picassa3 to manage photos on my computer and also to upload some for wider viewing. The Picassa3 web album service is free and what it gives you is a .jpg that you can embed in your trip report as an image (img). It makes the photos look clearer & sharper in the trip report and you can still click on them too. Don't take this as a sales pitch for Google - just an FYI that there are various approaches to getting photos into your trip reports.

[Charley]

VanMarmot- I just checked Picasa3, and that might work out. It allows 1 Gig of storage, which seems like it's more than I got with Flickr.
Thanks,
Charley

[Introverted_hiker]

I've been itching to get out there. Where do you park in Lyle to access this trail. Is the parking lot right off 14?