At the Highbanks Winter Hike (Sat February 11, 10am) and the Glacier Ridge Winter Hike (Sun February 12, 2pm), you can use a fantastic app to enhance your winter hike experience. The TaleBlazer app was a big success when used at the Sharon Woods winter hike in January. Using the TaleBlazer app you can download a self-guided tour of the winter hike routes at both parks. The tour will show pop-up messages to tell you about the animals and plants you can see at various points on the hikes.
TaleBlazer is available free for iPhones and Android phones. Download the app from the App Store or Google Play. We suggest you download the app before coming to the parks for the hikes, and get familiar with it, or download the hike routes in advance.
MIT developed the TaleBlazer app, which allows people to play an augmented reality game while exploring an area. Metro Parks’ education staff used the TaleBlazer app last year to develop interactive games for visitors to play while at Highbanks and Slate Run Farm.
The Highbanks game lets people become the Park Manager for a day and decide how to best manage the park for wildlife and visitors. Visitors will make tough decisions and if they don’t do well, they can be fired!
In the TaleBlazer game at Slate Run Farm the players find themselves transported back in time to the 1880s farm. By moving around the farm and answering a series of questions, players try to convince the farmer they belong back in the 1880s.
The TaleBlazer game has been adapted to play at Sharon Woods and will also be available at Battelle Darby Creek and Glacier Ridge later this year.