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What other trail information would you like to see on singletracks? One recent suggestion we liked was “favorite places to eat post-ride.” Let us know what you want, we’re listening!
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An idea that I started tinkering with last fall (and even started writing up some examples, see below) was to have an umbrella “destination” topic, like “Destination Crested Butte”. The idea being that trips that are more than an afternoon outing — like heading to a biking destination for a weekend or longer — you want to know about lots of things, like the “best” trails in the area, where to eat, where to stay, other things to do while you are there, etc. I feel that is so much easier than trying to piece together a biking adventure based on fragments from various trail reviews, tourist web-sites, etc.
Below is a sample I wrote up but never posted. If there are positive responses then maybe I (and others) can be motivated to put together topics for other locations. I have already created drafts using the same template for Salida, Buffalo Creek, and Fruita. Let me know what you think.
This topic is for information helpful to someone planning a biking trip to Crested Butte.
I havenít done a lot of riding in the area but I thought I would post this in hopes of provoking some posts from others.
Highlights
Crested Butte is considered one of the original mountain biking towns. A stroll thru town on a summer afternoon confirms that. The sidewalks are practically littered with bikes. Trails radiate out from town in every direction and the trails are fun! This is the ìWildflower Capitalî of Colorado and it is surrounded by some of the prettier mountains you will find in the state. If you enjoy the mystique of a town that still retains a bit of a mountain flavor and offers days of great riding with fantastic scenery, then it is well worth a trip to Crested Butte.
Recommended trails
I believe the trails that have the most general appeal are:
[list:15hc1yzx]Trail 401. Not technically challenging, but a joy to ride. Fantastic scenery.
Reno / Flag / Bear / Deadmanís Gulch. Some fun downhill sections combined with a nice ride thru the forest.
Doctor Park. A tour of the backcountry with a bit of technical riding and a great downhill.
Dyke Trail. Scenic with some technical sections.[/list:u:15hc1yzx]
There are many more trails in the area. Visit the local bike shop and talk it over with the locals to find out what might be the best fit for you. The trails are typically sloppy in spring and early summer, and they can turn into mud-bogs after steady rain. Donít bother riding if there is any serious rain; you will just trash the trails and risk breaking something.Go to VisitCrestedButte.com for the latest from the locals.
Maps
A local map, ìCB Bike trailsî, is available at the local bike shops. Trails Illustrated has maps that cover the area, but unfortunately Crested Butte lies in the corners of their maps, so you will end up buying a few TI maps if you want to see all the Crested Butte area trails.
Where to stay
I have only camped out here so I canít comment on the formal accomodations. The Gothic area has lots of campsites, but it is very popular so be prepared to be shutout if you go there on a summer weekend. The Cement Creek area isnít as popular so it might be easier to find a spot there.
Where to eat
This is a ski and tourist town, so finding good places to eat is not a problem. I have eaten at Donitaís Cantina a few times and have always enjoyed the food and the service. I also hear that the Brick Oven has great pizzas (I have only had a beer there).
Bike shops and shuttles
The Alpineer is a good spot to get a map, bike stuff and to find out about trail conditions. [url:15hc1yzx]http://www.alpineer.com[/url:15hc1yzx]
Events
Fat Tire Bike Week, late June. [url:15hc1yzx]http://www.ftbw.com[/url:15hc1yzx]
The Pearl Pass Tour to Aspen (and back), September.Other things to do
Take a trip back in time and visit the Mountain Bike Hall of Fame at 331 Elk Avenue (in the Crested Butte Mountain Heritage Museum). [url:15hc1yzx]http://www.mtnbikehalloffame.com[/url:15hc1yzx]
If you have something to share that would be helpful to someone visiting Crested Butte or have a question to ask please post a reply.
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I agree bonkedagain.
Also, maybe “Other Atractions”, EG places to explore after your ride.
And, maybe “Daycare Facilities” for the young ‘uns. -
Bonked, I like the way you think (and work)! We’ve added mountain bike travel info to trail pages to let locals share the best places to eat, stay, and do stuff near the bike trails. Each trail page has a link for posting info and once information has been added, a link to Eat/Stay/Do will appear just below the trail description.
Here’s a sample page: Red Rock Canyon Travel Info. Let us know what you think!
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Hey, that’s pretty handy. Thanks Jeff! Once again, SINGLETRACKS.COM rises above the rest.
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Excellent addition boss!
bonkedagain, that’s information excellent to put with the Crested Butte trail page….
Now I gotta go back and start remembering where stuff was…. 😉
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How about an interactive map with little pushpins over all the trails that could be linked to by clicking on them?
Ideally, you would start with a map of North America, then click on a state or province, then click on a smaller area – maybe a county or geographical area and then you would see all the push-pins. This would also be useful for someone who wants to go check out a general area but doesn’t want to sift through all the cities’ individual listings. As more trails get added to the database, it’s going to become increasingly cumbersome to navigate. Colorado is already starting to get a bit thick (don’t get me wrong – that’s a GOOD thing & I plan to continue to be one of the culprits). -
This is a request we get often but for technical and other reasons it isn’t feasible yet.
First off, most mountain bike trailheads don’t have street addresses that can be mapped. We do collect GPS waypoints for the trailheads but coverage is spotty at best and currently only 10-20% of the trails on singletracks have these.
We are able to give rough approximations of trail locations using on our zip code search page but this actually just uses the location of the nearest town, not the trail itself. So for example, if this were used to create a map, places like Colorado Springs would show one pushpin in the center of the map rather than 15+ individual points all around the area.
I know some sites (like MTBR) have experimented with placing a blank map on the trail page where users are allowed to insert and save a pushpin at the trailhead location. I’m not sure what happens after this – if they wait until they get confirmation of the location before it is "official" – or if the location can be updated later if it’s in the wrong spot. In any case it will take time for the entire catalog to be tagged and in the meantime, some trails may not appear on the map even though they exist on the site.
Finally (and this is a bit of personal bias I suppose) I’m not impressed with existing online mapping interfaces like Google, Yahoo, etc. They are often clunky to navigate and slow to load (especially when you have hundreds of push pins). I think the maps are great for things like single waypoints but as soon as you start showing multiple points at various zoom levels it gets tough to manage. Sites like Trulia (real estate) are able to pull this off but there is a ton of programming involved (way beyond what we’re capable of) and it’s [i:23fh4r2l]still[/i:23fh4r2l] slow as crap.
Anyway, these are the issues that are keeping us from doing this right now. If anyone is able to help us solve the data or mapping issues we’d love to hear from you here…
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Come to think of it, every time I’ve seen one of those pushpin type things, they really are painfully slow and often congested well past the point of uselessness.
Still, filtering your directory by "Colorado" alone doesn’t narrow down the search as far as I wish it would. Even the list of cities is a bit much. And of course I’m glad there are lots of trails but more than 100 listings within a drive time of up to 9 hours is a lot to sift through. Rhode Island riders get about 25 rides that are within, what does it take, 15 seconds to get across the state? But just looking at my own habits as a user, the size of our list often motivates me to pick up a book before coming to your site. I don’t mean to sound crass in saying that, it’s just intended as feedback, yet as we add more trails to the database, the more of an issue this will become.
So I’m wondering would your software allow you to split some of the larger states and have, for instance, eastern and western Colorado? I’m sure you’ve seen the way mtbr does it, and know full well that it’s a complete and total nightmare. About 30% of the trails are in the wrong section and many are listed twice so I have to assume it’s user-generated & I think that’s the wrong way to go because of regional subjectivity. But it would be really cool if you could do yet one more thing better than them by giving us reliable sub-regions. Ideally, clicking on Colorado would give me the same list that it currently does, but you would add regional sub-categories to the list of filters you already have on the left side of the page. So along with "Ride Type, Cities, Length, Tread, Configuration", there would be "Region". Under region, there would be "Front Range, Northwest. Southwest, East and All Colorado Trails". If you did that, I would consistently consult your website before picking up a book.
Just one more quicker thing that’s just slightly OT. Is there any way you can corrrect the spelling for Matthews Winters Park, which is listed as "Mathew Winters"? I quadruple-checked my spelling just to make sure I’m not further minsinforming you. Tourists pronounce it "Mathew Winters" because "Matthews" seems awkward. Even a few locals here and there say it that way but most of the people who spend much time up there spell and pronounce it right. It was named after a couple doods named Matthews and Winters, as opposed to one doood named Mathew Winters.
Here’s a link to a site about the dooods: http://co.jefferson.co.us/openspace/ope … T56_R1.htm
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What about something like a "store finder" that is used by some retail sites. That is, you enter your starting zip and ask for all trails within "n" miles of that location. For trails that have a GPS track, it would be accurate; for others it would rely on the trail’s "city" zip and thus it may be a bit away from the actual trail, but then again it is at least a step in the right direction. (Apologies to all non-US locations.)
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C’mon Bonked, I know you know singletracks better than that
We’ve always had a zip code search feature, it’s just well hidden on the MTB trails page (top right). You can specify a radius up to 100 miles (or more if you’re savvy) to find a trail in your area.
Not as pretty as a map but it does help filter by location (which might be helpful for arnold as well). Here’s a sample query for trails w/in 25 miles of Colorado Springs:
[url:12u0qspw]http://www.singletracks.com/php/zipcode.php?zip=80918&radius=25[/url:12u0qspw]
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No wonder it seemed like such an obvious suggestion. 😳 Well, then I guess the next step is creating maps with pushpins, like arnolda14 suggests.
But first, I would rather see the main page changed so that it is easier to find out what is new on the site. Then, of course, the topo/gps stuff that was discussed in this thread.
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Right, I remember you mentioning you didn’t like the way new stuff comes up on the homepage…
Any specific ideas? The homepage is currently set up to show the 5 most recent posts/reviews and there is a "new today" link to show you everything new for the day. Would you like to see more than 5 items on the homepage and/or have the "new stuff" page display a running list of new items, say the last 40-50 (regardless of the date)?
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I don’t mind the current list of five new things on the home page, but I don’t think it is all that useful, especially if there is any volume. Yes, what I would like is a "What’s new page" that keeps a running list that is big enough for, say, a weeks worth of activity. That way if you have been away for a few days it is easy to see what has changed. The current "New today" page is annoying to me, since there is some magical cutoff that makes the list reset — many times I never saw what was added the evening before. Also, it would be ideal if the list highlights what has been added since my last visit so that I don’t have to try and remember when I was last scanning the list. You know, like most forum websites.
Oh, and for trail updates on the "What’s new" page, could you include the city, state/province? I’m really only interested in stuff that is close to me, and that isn’t always obvious from the trail name alone.
Thanks for listening, Jeff!
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Zip code. Of course. Duh. Alright, problem fixed, never mind. Works at least as well as a map, if not better.
Forget the pushpins, but what about this; what about a corresponding downloadable set of way points for the same search? This might be asking too much of your software, but what if, suppose I ask for trails within a 25 mile radius of Colorado Springs and along with the list of trails, I get an automatically generated gpx file that has waypoints that correspond with the trailheads on the list?
..and if you already have it and I haven’t seen it, I get two more "duh"s. -
Arnold, premium subscribers can download all the waypoints on the site in a single file from the ‘GPS’ landing page. Not quite as convenient as being able to filter by your state or area but it’s a start.
The original idea behind this was to use this data along with your mobile phone to find mountain bike trails while you’re traveling. So, for example, you’re on a road trip and decide to find a trail in Utah close to the interstate. Use your GPS to find the nearest mountain bike trail then fire up singletracks mobile (singletracks.com/go) and punch in the waypoint ID to get a description.
Anyway, keep the ideas coming, hopefully this fall we’ll have some time to work on all the programming that’s piling up!
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Yes, what I would like is a "What’s new page" that keeps a running list that is big enough for, say, a weeks worth of activity. Also, it would be ideal if the list highlights what has been added since my last visit so that I don’t have to try and remember when I was last scanning the list. You know, like most forum websites.
Oh, and for trail updates on the "What’s new" page, could you include the city, state/province?
Sure thing, it’s an easy fix to keep a running tally. Marking new stuff since your last login might take a little longer but should be doable as well. BTW, singletracks will never be like "most forum websites"
We’ll also look into maybe creating RSS feeds for the state pages to show you what’s new on a more local level.
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What happened. There used to be a link under the header photo called ‘More’ where you could link up to see who had ridden the most trails, most mileage, etc. Have those pages been moved to another location? I can’t find them. I need to make sure I’m keeping mileage pace with riders like JJonas….
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go to bike forums page and there at the bottom im pretty sure.
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Nice. Thanks. That administrator is sneaky…
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