Congrats to our February REI gift card winners! SCGuide continues to add photos and reviews of campgrounds and hiking trails in South Carolina and won handily with 125 contribution points. And in a last minute upset, michigangurl added Michigan campground and hiking trail photos to clinch second place with 19 points on the last day of the month!

Spring will be here soon so get out and snap those outdoor pics. And don’t forget to share your favorite camping spots and hiking trails - you just might win an REI gift card from Tripleblaze.

Congrats to our top contributors in January - SCGuide1 and Tom from JTX. Both members will receive $25 gift cards to REI and immortality here on the Tripleblaze blog.

Although the weather may not be ideal for camping or hiking at the moment, now is the time to start planning your summer adventures! It’s also a great time to add reviews and photos from the fall while you’re stuck inside for a chance to win your own REI gift card in February. So far this month SCGuide1 is on top again and Sincitybronco is in the #2 spot. The good news is, there’s still plenty of time to get your contributions…

Congrats to our December contest winners, SCGuide1 and jamesh32, for their contributions to Tripleblaze.com last month. We expect things to heat up over the next few months as the temps bottom out and the days start getting longer so get your contributions in for your shot at $25 from REI! (details here)

Just as a reminder, all submissions to Tripleblaze.com should be your own work and may not be copied from other websites. We take copyright issues very seriously and we can’t accept photos or written content without permission from the original creator. If you suspect any content on Tripleblaze.com has been copied without authorization, please contact us with the specifics.

Quick shout out to SCGuide1 and Asfyxiate for winning $25 REI gift cards again in November. With cooler temps creeping in you may be tempted to hang up the boots and pack away your tent but there’s lots more to come this year. Even if the weather does have you sidelined and sitting in front of the computer, how about adding pics and reviews of your favorite adventures from this summer to Tripleblaze.com!

This winter we’ll also be introducing some other contests over on our Facebook page where we’ll be giving away even more REI gift cards. Become a fan before you forget so you’ll be able to keep up with the latest!

Just a quick shout out to our October contest winners, SCguide1 and Asfyxiate. Both guys will receive $25 gift certificates to REI for their contributions, start adding your campground and hiking trail reviews and photos now and you could be a winner next month!

Stay tuned to the blog for upcoming outdoor product reviews and info about our trip to visit the Gore-Tex folks last month.

Congratulations to our September content contest winners, SCguide1 and Mountain Rest Cabins. SCguide1 is a two time winner and he’s already out in front for October. Mountain Rest Cabins snuck into second place with just 4 photo uploads last month - and they were of their own property - how great is that? As you can see it’s easy to get your $25 REI gift card - just add your reviews and photos and you just might win this month! Read details here.

In other site news, we launched the a Google map showing the locations (exact and approximate) of thousands of  campgrounds across the US. We still need your help zeroing in on exact locations for many campgrounds - hit up the white pin points and let us know where they belong.

Wow, can you believe it’s already September? Many of you are probably planning Labor Day camping trips before summer is over but here at Tripleblaze we’re just getting started. We camp and hike all year long!

For those who don’t know, we’re running a contest each month to reward our top hiking and campground reviewers with $25 REI gift cards. This month we even created a contest standings page so members can see how they’re doing during the contest - check it out and see who’s in the lead this month!

In August we had two clear winners: Mongoose and SCguide1. Mongoose racked up an impressive 284 points while SCguide1 wasn’t too far behind with 172 points. Start snapping camping and hiking pics and adding reviews now - the end of September will be here before you know it!

Another month, another REI gift card giveaway. Once again Mongoose is on top after outdoing himself with 196 points! Virgo Fabulous took the second REI gift card with a very respectable 58 points during the month of July. Thanks to everyone who participated!

The good news is that we’re renewing the contest once again in August. Post your hiking, camping, and gear reviews and photos in August if you earn the most points we’ll send you a $25 REI gift card. Get out there and explore - then come back and tell us about it!

Another month, another set of winners! Apparently tripleblaze members are paying attention this time around and we saw about a dozen members contribute during the month of June - much better than the handful we saw in May. In the end though, a familiar name came out on top: Mongoose. In June Mongoose racked up 276 points while our second prize winner NC Hiker slid in with 8 points.

What did it take to earn 8 points and a $25 gift cerficate to REI? In NC Hiker’s case it was just 2 new hiking trails and a single photo for the entire month - not a bad paycheck for a few minutes’ work! Contest is happening again this month - get your campground listings, hiking trail info, reviews and photos in for a chance to win! Top two point grabbers will take home a $25 REI gift certificate…

Last month we held a contest to see who could add the most new campgrounds, hiking trails, reviews, and photos by May 31 and although we were pretty underwhelmed by the response, we were still able to pick the first and second place winners.

HannaD715 added one campground and two reviews and won (!) a $50 gift certificate to Cabelas.com (thanks again to OutsideHub and Cabela’s). Now, don’t you wish you had added just a few more reviews to get the $50 prize?

Second place was actually a tie so we had to look at lifetime contributions to determine the winner: Mongoose from Melbourne, FL. Mongoose squeaked in on the 31st with a single campground and review but it was enough to win a $25 REI gift card.

So… we’re holding another contest this month (June) and hopefully this time you’ll be paying attention! Same rules as before, same point values - just add your information, reviews, and photos to Tripleblaze for a shot at one of two $25 REI gift cards this month! Contest ends @ midnight, June 30.

We’re holding our first contest of 2009 this month to see who can rack up the most points on Tripleblaze in May! It’s really quite simple: add any new campground or hiking trail, review, or photo* to Tripleblaze.com and you’ll earn points (see chart below for specific point values). The member with the most points at the end of May will receive a $50 gift certificate to Cabela’s (thanks to Cabela’s and Outside Hub) and the second place point-grabber will receive a $25 gift card to REI.

Remember, you need to be logged in when you make your submissions (guest posts won’t count) and submissions made earlier this month will count toward the contest. The current frontrunner is teamfreak16 but with 19 days to go it’s still anyone’s game!

* All submissions are subject to approval.

Over the past couple weeks we’ve been adding some new features to Tripleblaze.com that we’re pretty excited to share with you:

New Campground & Hiking pages: The campground and hiking pages are still your staring point for finding outdoor destinations in your state and we’ve added previews of the best campgrounds and hiking trails in the US plus links to some of the top rated camping and hiking gear in our review database.

Blog account integration: Some members may have noticed that you needed two different logins to comment on the blog and to review campgrounds or trails but we’ve integrated things so you only need to login once. Last week we crossed the 4,000 member mark - let’s hit 10,000 by the end of the summer!

Upcoming contest: Shhhh… it’s a secret. We’re planning on announcing a contest next week with great prizes but you can get a head start by adding photos, reviews, and new listings for your favorite campgrounds and trails right now. The contest will cover submissions during the month of May with more details to come next week.

Get outside the weekend and enjoy the weather!