Trail Conditions - Please Read this Thread

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Totally wouldn't work for allamuchy trail systems considering the ungodly amount of unmarked trails which only locals know names for. In general I could care a less about a single trail, I want to know if I am getting in my car for an hour that the park is gonna be better then maybe my home court. I think that is the point of this system.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
You can embed those trails as widgets in this site. Those trails on trail forks.com need people to use the trail reports just like this new system...same with creating the trail systems for Round Valley. You can't rate a park as a whole because that doesn't really make sense. What if a trail is closed or has a particular situation with it...do you rate the whole park as a 1 or 4..which ever is worst? You can specify what the issues are and give a description with details. Trail forks now has an app for smartphones which a lot of people use.

If I look at Allaire there are at least 12 trails defined. Who is going to rate 12 trails? This is at least 1 reason why the system doesn't work. I mean the proof to me is in the pudding. Nobody uses it. It's obviously got some issues with it.

Like Matty says, most of us see the park as a whole. Either it's worth the trip or it isn't, which is what we're trying to address here. Should I drive to this park to ride? If the park isn't good as a whole, I don't want to bother.

Individual trails would be used at a local level. And in my experience, locals aren't going to use a fine-tuned rating system to decide if they're going to ride. They know from experience what the trails will be like.

If users want a more granular discussion they go to the message board. Both to add or consume the data behind the red/yellow/green light.
 

theranch

Active Member
@mattybfat That case with Allamuchy can be considered for a number of trail systems.
That's the same idea that is used with trail forks.com (avoiding driving there). You can go on to a riding area on trailforks.com and see what conditions are like...just like this new system on this site except with more detail. I have to drive over an hour to all of the good locations so I also want to know if it's ridable. The problem is, with any of these system, is that people have to use them consistently. Trail forks.com should be adopted by all of the JORBA park reps as it offers a lot of features to log work that is done in the parks as well as so much more. All of this info can help the mtb community....as long as people use them!
As an example, Wharton is currently listed as 2.5 but I've already heard from people that say it's ridable. I rode last weekend out there and there was a low lying area that was muddy...do I rate Wharton as a 1.5 on this site because of the mud in one spot? I also encountered impassable puddles that were 3" deep on the green loop, so again how do I rate the park?
If you go to trail forks.com and go to the Wharton riding area you can quickly see conditions and avoid the green trail.
 

theranch

Active Member
If I look at Allaire there are at least 12 trails defined. Who is going to rate 12 trails? This is at least 1 reason why the system doesn't work. I mean the proof to me is in the pudding. Nobody uses it. It's obviously got some issues with it.

Like Matty says, most of us see the park as a whole. Either it's worth the trip or it isn't, which is what we're trying to address here. Should I drive to this park to ride? If the park isn't good as a whole, I don't want to bother.

Individual trails would be used at a local level. And in my experience, locals aren't going to use a fine-tuned rating system to decide if they're going to ride. They know from experience what the trails will be like.

If users want a more granular discussion they go to the message board. Both to add or consume the data behind the red/yellow/green light.

Easy...use the bulk trail report system after a ride Norm. My main point is...why reinvent the wheel with a vague system? You keep answering my questions though, people have to use the system for it to work. A local riding Allaire can hop on trail forks app on their phone after a ride and leave a report. A trail builder can hop on and leave a work report for tracking hours.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
My main point is...why reinvent the wheel with a vague system? You keep answering my questions though, people have to use the system for it to work.

Well, I personally don't think this is vague at all. You have 2 things here:
  1. A general view. You call this vague but I think this is the way people think. They want a "quick view" and this gives them that.
  2. The specific view will be contained in the trail conditions threads. Click the popup, then click Round Valley, and see Woody's post from yesterday.
In the end, the problem with all review systems is that there is a lack of data. If people don't use it, it's useless. That may end up being the same issue here. This is why I made it so incredibly simple, because I want to encourage people to use it. I think most of us can agree that overly complex systems don't work. Hopefully really simple ones do, but I can't say that this one will.

Having said that, if I can get our team plus all the JORBA reps to use this, it will probably better & more up-to-date than any system I've ever seen.
 

pooriggy

Well-Known Member
Team MTBNJ Halter's
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qclabrat

Well-Known Member
Before this dashboard the mtbnj park reports were generally spot on, problem was if my home parks were not good to ride, I would either nix riding for the day or spend travel time looking for an alternative. Sorry never heard of trail forks.com as I'm relatively new to MTB, I'll give it a chance and a honest review.

I personally like the rating system of colors and numbers here. 4 should be close to 100% perfect and "1" mostly unrideable or less than 50%.
 

map111158

Well-Known Member
Easy...use the bulk trail report system after a ride Norm. My main point is...why reinvent the wheel with a vague system? You keep answering my questions though, people have to use the system for it to work. A local riding Allaire can hop on trail forks app on their phone after a ride and leave a report. A trail builder can hop on and leave a work report for tracking hours.

Why does it have to be one or the other?
It seems to me the more information people have access to about trail conditions the less likely trails will be damaged and less likely people will drive somewhere far away only to be disappointed.
 

moray42

Merman
Actually just had the same issue on safari mobile. Tried a couple times to be sure I hadn't gotten logged out. Same "need to login" message each time.
 

Frank

Sasquatch
Having used both the trail forks and mtbnj trail conditions, I must say that this sites is way easier to use and I think folks would be more inclined to use it. Trail forks is too complex for a quick report IMHO although I see its merits as well.
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Firefox...most likely wont be changing, due to other reasons I dont use Chrome, firefox works for what I need now.
Just tried again. Same.

I'm open to trying to troubleshoot if you want me to try and walk you through it.

How comfortable are you with cookies and checking their values?
 

kidzach

Well-Known Member
The " dashboard" seems like a helpful system for initial checking. Then for more details just check trail conditions for the parks you are thinking about riding. Most of us are aware of parks to stay clear of after rainfall that do not drain well. Chimney Rock seems to be the worst to me for this reason. Two parks that seem to drain the best are Allamuchy North and Mahlon Dickerson. Anyone else can offer any other insight on parks that do or don't drain well.
 

mattybfat

The Opinion Police
Team MTBNJ Halter's
@kidzach correct typically your elevated parks drain well. RV is another can't speak for sourlands but even lower Stephens and kvsp have that shale clay base that don't drain. I think know your parks earth base is a big part of it. Maybe a clear description of each is something. Maybe incorporate Mannys trail reviews as he gives a pretty clear description or direct him the type of base we are dealing with.
 

FitmanNJ

Well-Known Member
Strangely, I use Firefox, too, but was just allowed to post a rating for Hartshorne (no "need to login" message).
 

Norm

Mayor McCheese
Team MTBNJ Halter's
Working on it - check your messages. We'll figure it out for everyone.

After talking to @gt2brew he has convinced me to change the rating interval to 2 days. I think this list better reflects the reality of what the trails look like. I think it may need to be tweaked further, but for now, I think it's good.
 
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