Advice for a Rocky-Mountain-Rookie?

A redesign is coming at some point soon I believe.

The trail tracks are downloadable...I have loaded them into my GPS

 

Good to hear! They have lots of good data. Maybe getting a GPS while offroading without service is a good idea for 2017

 

I have a Garmin handheld that I use a RAM suction mount with to mount to the windshield in my Xterra. Works great. It's not a huge screen but I find I don't really need one. Mainly helps to keep on the right forks and such. But it's also loaded with the entire US in Topo maps.

 

War Damn Eagle! No advice other than have a safe move and enjoy CO!

 

You could check out https://www.trailsoffroad.com/ too.

And if you're into mapping you could join

 

I regularly use T.O.(trailsoffroad), I actually mentioned it in a previous post. Trail damage has a lot of good info (in some ways, better and more than T.O.), but the UI on T.O. is much more modern and refined.

I am into mapping and by trade I am a GIS/front end developer so IDK if you are affiliated, but if T.O. needs any testing/development, drop me a line and I'd love to help out where I can.

 

Oh look, another GIS guy, and you're actually a neighbor.

 

Howdy there partner!

 

Seems traildamage.com has gotten that facelift, but it seems like access to trail info is now paid-member only?

 

It did. I think its $1 for a year until June 15th or something, then its $15 a year.

 

Yeah, didn't know they were doing that. But the costs for hosting keep going up and they decided to go this route vs. advertising on the site. Technically doesn't cost me anything since I'm a member of the club but I will pay dues as well for runs. It's not that expensive though.

 

Yeah, makes sense, certainly don't blame them. Just wish they hadn't done it over a long weekend, a link I was trying to go back to for a last minute change in plans didn't work (I know, I know, wasn't paying so I have no room to bitch).

It is an interesting move, in that unless you know what information is there, there's nothing to really 'advertise' the value of membership - I wonder if a partial-availability setup might work better (you're able to see some basic trail info, and have grayed-out members-only sections, or something). I don't know if that was a major path to membership prior to the change, though.

 

I think that the site is so well known by now, people know what is available. We previously had members only area, but there wasn't a ton there anyway. The other nice thing is that we do a bunch of runs each year and update the trail information on new conditions as things change over the year. So I do think it's got good info. I guess time will tell how many pay for it. We've of course gotten the "screw you I'm not paying" responses

 

I don't recall seeing any trail reports on trail damage newer than 2012. I must always be looking at the less frequently traveled trails...

 

Can't run them every year

In 2016 there were 84 reports and so far in 2017 we have 16 reports. Whether these are cause to update the actual trail description details depends on if anything major changed on the trail.

 

Wow a real live person behind Trail Damage?

I know tons of people that have been trying for over a decade to put updated trail detail into TD but never could get in contact with anyone there.

 

lol, I'm just a member, but I know who runs the website and all. I don't know that we accept any info other than what we make ourselves. I'm not really a part of that, I just go on runs and leave the website and all that to others.

 

I'll agree it's well known by some, since we keep pointing noobs at it. I think there's a catch-22 there though, it's also known/got a reputation for being outdated. I don't know if the redesign does anything to address that, but "knowing" what I "know" I think it's got a lot of great info from the perspective of a library, but maybe not so much in terms of current status. I might have missed it, but I agree with the other comment that an example trail page or two to see what you're getting for the money. Just a thought/suggestion. I'm not in the 'screw you' category, but I'm not in the 'take my money' category either.

Yeah, they were there. Mostly you had to look at the front page and recently run list. I think sometimes there weren't full reports with the most recent runs either. You might have it backward though - I think a lot of the more popular and commonly run trails didn't get updated all that often, I would guess either because a) they were run all the time or b) they were avoided by the club because everybody else ran them all the time and they wanted to be doing something new or different. But yeah, small(er?) club and the only source for updates were those in it, so only so many trails you can run a year if it's not a business or wider membership (something like crowd sourced, or what TrailsOffroad looks to be doing).

We're kinda derailing OPs thread though, and to me this is a big enough topic to have its own thread... I've just mentioned it in the BS thread for now though.

 

Welcome
War Eagle
Holy shit, yall fill some threads with BS. Lots for a stock truck to enjoy here as well. I encourage you to do that and then upgrade

 

Traildamage new site critique: Darker fonts please. I'm only 30 but my eyes are hurting.