It took me a while, but I finally got my first Everytrail guide published.
I’ve been working on a guide for the Big Dry Creek Trail which is located in Westminster, Colorado. Westminster has a lot of great trails, but the the Big Dry Creek Trail is probably the longest. It meanders from Standley Lake in the west all the way to I-25 in the east. As I point out in the guide, there are also lots of spur trails to explore along the way.
There were many steps involved in the creation of the guide. First, of course I “had” to ride the trail. Well I’ve done this numerous times, but this time, I had to stop a lot and take pictures, do research, and write lots of notes about waypoints along the trail.
While riding the trail, I also had to record the GPS information using an iphone app called Trails.
At the end of the ride, I sent the GPS coordinates/waypoints, pictures, and trail information from the Trails app to Everytrail. This was the easy part because I just had to press a couple buttons and, voila, it was sent.
Then, when I got home, I got onto the Everytrail website and compiled everything into a guide.
Finally, I published the whole thing. I had a few problems w/ this part, but a very nice technician from Everytrail gave me so good advice and, before I knew it, I was finished.
I sent the guide to Everytrail for approval on a Sunday and received my confirmation the same day. I was pleasantly surprised w/ this quick turnover time, especially on a weekend.
Now it’s your turn. Check out Everytrail. If you live in Colorado, download my Big Dry Creek guide onto your smart phone. It’s cheap ($1.99) and easy. Then get out there and enjoy the trail.
