The Story Behind

About the Creator

Hi, I'm Hugh Watkins đź‘‹

Blending a passion for the outdoors with a love for building software

The Secret Falls Story

Back in 2006, when trail information was scattered across dusty guidebooks and obscure forums, I registered secretfalls.com with a simple mission: make it easier for hikers to discover the hidden gems of the Southeast.

What started as a weekend project became an ongoing journey of nearly two decades. Secret Falls has been my personal laboratory—a place where my love of the outdoors meets my passion for technology. Over the years, this site has been rebuilt multiple times, evolving through different technology stacks including Ruby on Rails, and now in its current form using Elixir with Phoenix and LiveView.

I'm still as passionate as ever about being anywhere outside—hiking mountain trails, chasing waterfalls, and discovering paths less traveled. And I'm equally driven to learn how to make software better, faster, and more maintainable. Secret Falls lets me pursue both passions simultaneously.

Need Custom Software?

Building Secret Falls taught me that great software solves real problems for real people. If you have a project that needs expert craftsmanship with modern technologies like Elixir, Phoenix, and LiveView, I'd love to hear about it.

Visit Mergate

Other Projects

When I'm not on the trail, I'm building tools that help people work smarter. Here are some other projects you might find useful:

CalendarDoc

Create stunning, printable calendar documents in minutes. Design personalized calendars with your events, notes, and special dates—perfect for your wall, desk, or planner. Choose from monthly, weekly, or yearly layouts and export high-quality PDFs ready for printing.

ChartPuppy

Beautiful charts, fetched and delivered automatically. Create stunning chart templates, connect your data sources like Google Sheets or Airtable, and let ChartPuppy generate fresh visualizations for your social media, newsletters, and websites on a schedule. Now with AI-powered chart suggestions.

Sheets JSON

Transform Google Sheets into powerful JSON APIs in seconds. Connect your spreadsheets and instantly get RESTful endpoints—no coding required. Perfect for prototypes, apps, and automations. Features filtering, pagination, API key protection, and live data updates.

Thanks for stopping by. Now get outside and explore!

Questions or just want to say hi? Reach me at [email protected]

Find Your Next Trail