Because I live in Vermont and there is no good place for trail reports and other info anymore, I want to get some ideas on how we can improve this forum. Suggestions?

speaking of trail reports, this sortof fits with what you say. I drove down to waterbury and went to the little river state park, gates closed no sign of any riding of grooming. trees down still? anyway, so I called vast hq, no one answered till 8:30am, I said I'm trying to find out what trails are open. she said, "me too, he he he". doesn't seem like vast is very orginized or they don't coordinate a ton for trail info. on their automated trail report phone service it said trails closed for the season see you next year or something.

Good idea Rob. VAST reports are not at all reliable. I use HCS for finding conditions, but sometimes the trail reports are buried in other discussions. A dedicated location for them would be ideal.

Maybe a pinned TRAIL REPORTS forum at the top of the VT Forum, with subfolders for each region-NW, NEK, CENTRAL, SE, SW??

Additionally, if we know that local clubs keep updated trail reports on their own websites, each subfolder could contain a pinned link to those.

My $.02

Chris

Rob I think that would be a good idea if we could get them all on one page or at least the links to them. I for one end up going to two or three places to find reports from Betty E. and Don G. (I don't want to use there full name incase they don't approve). They cover most of the area that I ride. It would be nice if you could get them to post here.

I like the idea of having a dedicated place just for trail reports in Vt. As has already been said it is hard to find info buried in random discussions.

Hi Rob,
I think that a pinned trail reports at the top of the Vermont section would be a welcome addition. Specific location in Vermont and date would be helpful when posting a report, as well as did we ride it, groom it or just drive by it. Maybe you could make posts be time sensative and delete after a week or so so as to not have old information like VAST.

Sounds like a plan... how do we make all this happen...

I was so Impressed that VAST actually changed the front page of their website yesterday! ! !

I will say this though... It is hard for VAST to post conditions... they totally rely on the trail contact that grooms for their trail report. This person is a volunteer and if he isn't as gun hoe about this as we are... ther reports often lag.

Last year VAST started a forum type thing on their webpage... allowing riders to send in their findings and then they would post them... Problem was they didn't keep on top of it, and it wasn't "real time."

I surf this forum and trailconditions.c0m for Quebec conditions...
I would also recommend links to other locations where you folks find honest reliable conditions... I would love to see a one stop shop for the whole state!

Great plan....

My dad just barely got his first internet connection, and the first question he asked me is, "great, now where can I find snow conditions?"...I didn't really have a great answer.

Still says "The Snowmobile Season begins Monday, December 19, 2005. Please stay off trails until then. Thank you!" AND "The VAST trail system in Bennington County is closed for the season. Thank you for your support and have a great Spring." Updated 4/06/05 when I view it right now...........they are so lame............

Let's get the VT board in shape for real-time trail condition reports HCS - we would really appreciate it and click on all your sponsor links!

What about if you have a trail report title the thread something like "Trail Report- 1/22- Island Pond" that would be pretty easy to find and after a couple of days it should slide off the first page making old reports not on the first page.

MY bad...

It was the trail conditions page that got updated....

http://www.vtvast.org/Trails/Trail_Conditions.htm

I agree posted at the top of trail conditions because what looks like alot of snow at say, Robs house might not be in morrisville St Jonsburry or Barre. people need to respond.

Rob,

I agree with cmoorevt's idea and feel it would be an excellent idea to pin the TRAIL REPORTS thread. I would be more than happy to volunteer to update the trail conditions around the Mad River Valley (Waitsfield, Fayston, Duxbury, Moretown), home of the Mad River Ridge Runners.

Thanks.

Tony

I'll vote to pin one at the top of the VT page. I also like the idea of breaking the reports into geographical sections as I don't really care how, say, the conditions in Woodford are.

I've been thinking about the VAST trail reports and it seemd the only way to get realtime updates would be from the groomers themselves. I would want to suggest it was placed in their contracts, even though it's a lot of work to keep it updated. I think they are the only people that can let us know what really has been groomed and when. It would be the most consistant way since the same people who are out grooming would be reporting where they groomed. Not just reports from random people. Anyway, I was going to mention this at our next county meeting to see what people think. We do need an alternative to the VAST trail conditions, it might as well be here.

I can see there is a lot of interest on this :div20: Keep the ideas coming and I will put something together tonight or tomorrow morning. I've got some other ideas too.. like adding weather and snowdepth. I put this together yesterday..it isn't finished but you get the idea: sledVT

Excellent idea. While it might be a little bit of a pain for Rob to moderate if people stray from this format, I think in the long run it is definitely worth the extra effort.

Not that I don't mind reading other rider's reports, but if I'm looking for conditions in my area, I'd rather not click on numerous threads titled, say, "Great Ride this Morning" only to find out it was about an area of the state nowhere near me.

There will probably have to be some consistency in the subject line. We can't sift through "great ride yesterday" threads to find the one we want. At the same time, its probably important to get EVERYONE's opinion instead of just a representative of an area. (Some of us disagree on what "good riding" is...)

So maybe a section where anyone can post their opinion, but they HAVE to put the date and area the rode in directly in the subject line?

I'm glad this has gotten so much interest...it is about time. I like the idea of a pinned header. I suggest we break it down by county. Perhaps have a rep from each county (or two) who is willing to post updates. I would volunteer and update as needed for Lamoille (Stowe/Morrisville/Wolcot/Elmore/Eden/Johnson Loops are my normal territory)

I'd say learn what clubs area you'll ride and dial them up. The clubs are the best source of trail condition info. The clubs thread pinned at the top of the Vt. forum page is underused.

Ok, you can now see what I've added. There are 3 new subforums in this Vermont forum.. one for Vermont-only classifieds, one is a redirect link to a weather page (that I may change later), and one for trail conditons. The trail conditions is broken down by county. This is a start and can be changed if we feel its needed. Let's see how this works. I'd love to see some "offical" trail reports posted on a regular basis. This is more or less up to the members here how well it works. Talk to people in your clubs and tell them this is a place to keep info up to date. Try and get the word out as much as possible. :div20:

Great Idea Rob!!!!!!!!

each county is way overkill, someone suggested north, central and south. many rides are from one county to another. its easier to talk about areas rather then by county

my 2 cents

VAST does it by county..if we get a fair number of reports I think it will be fine this way. certainly for the more active counties.

maybe I'm way off, but I think county is very important...I've rode Rutland county with great riding....yet go over to windsor county, and its a big difference. Yet both are "central".

Rob, I like it Thanks :beerchug:

Rob,

Thanks for setting up the Vermont Trail Conditions Subforum. Nice Job! :beerchug:

I just posted the first post for the Mad River Valley area. Looks like a great start to the season compared to last year.

Tony

I like it!!! :banana: I will post conditions in the areas I ride, mainly Addison County. Thanks Rob.

Hitting the Eden area in the morn! :fluffy:

:div20: Great job. Hope to go to Canaan next week. Will post when I get back if I go.


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