May 17 2014

Add a Trail to Trailsnet.com

New Add-a-Trail Feature Debuts on Trailsnet.com

Finally, after months in the making, the new Add-a-Trail format is up and running on Trailsnet, and it’s fantastic. Old features have been improved and new features have been added. These new trail features make Trailsnet a truly unique trail website and one of the best trail-finding websites on the internet. I will explain a couple of the new features in today’s post and explain other features in upcoming posts. But most importantly, I hope you visit our new trail submission web page and add one of your favorite trails.

Improved Trail Submission Features

new form for adding trails to Trailsnet.com

new trail submission form

Let’s start with the features we already had on our old Add a Trail web page that we improved on the new trail submission web page:

  • Trail pictures – The new trail photo submission process is much easier for trail information contributors and for this website administrator. The old trail picture submission process was nearly impossible for most Trailsnet users to navigate and required most pictures to be submitted to the site administrator then added later. The new process is just like adding pictures on other major websites. It’s familiar, intuitive and easy.
  • Trail weather – It’s nice to see the weather forecast for the trail you’re planning to visit. Our old trail information pages initially had this capability, but it stopped working correctly. Hallelujah, the trail weather feature is back and working like a charm. All you, the trail information contributor, have to do is enter a nearby city/town and state (two letter abbreviation is best) and the WordPress widget does the rest. Like magic, the trail weather appears on the trail listing.
  • Trail comments – This may seem like an insubstantial addition to Trailsnet, but it’s actually a valuable tool for trail lovers. It allows constant communication and updates for trails. The perfect example of why this feature is important is happening behind my house right now. After years of work, a major regional trail was finally finished in August of 2014. In September of 2014 90% of that trail was wiped out in a flood. So now work has begun to repair the trail. Initially, the plan was to close the entire trail from early spring until early fall completely wiping out summer use of the trail. Concerned citizens convinced trail administrators to leave some sections open and incrementally open other sections as they’re completed. So now, trail users can get on Trailsnet and update each other about which sections are open. Trail administrators often don’t have the time or resources to continually update websites. A community of trail users are the perfect folks to provide trail information and trail construction updates. This trail forum is also a good place for trail users to communicate about trail additions, trail damage, trail legislation, trail rules and much more.
  • Trail submission form layout – Finally, the layout for the entire Add-a-Trail process is much smoother, easier and more intuitive. It just makes more sense and is compatible with similar trail information websites. In fact, it’s much simpler to enter trail information on Trailsnet than on most of the trail websites. Not only is the layout much cleaner than before, but the instructions are more simple and helpful.

I hope you get a chance to try out our Add-a-New-Trail feature soon. If you tried it before, you’ll be surprised and pleased at how much easier it is now. You’ll also be a valuable part in the trail information update process with our new trail comments feature.

New Trail Information

Tomorrow, I’ll provide information about some of the brand new trail features on the improved trail submission form. Some of these new features are totally unique to Trailsnet and are helpful for both local trail users and active travelers who enjoy visiting trails all over the world. So please check back tomorrow and feel free to add comments right here on our blog and on our individual trail pages. Let’s talk trails!!

 

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/05/17/add-trail-trailsnet-com/

May 08 2014

Do Bicycle Helmets Make Us Safer?

Are Bike Helmets Safe?

bicycle helmet safety

bike helmets

Thanks to Caley for forwarding me an article entitled Why It Makes Sense to Bike Without a Helmet. It is from Howie Chong’s blog and makes a good argument that bicycle helmets may actually make bike riders less safe. It cites interesting studies and makes a good case for biking without a helmet. But more than anything else, it causes readers to think about an issue that, for most is at least a foregone conclusion and at most, sacred. I’m a huge fan of questioning the status quo. And personally, I wear a helmet about 90% of the time. I always wear a helmet when I’m riding a mountain bike or a road bike. That is because, when I’m riding those two bikes, I’m either on a mountain bike trail or on the open road. When I ride my cruiser bike, I seldom wear a helmet. To be honest, until I read the Why It Makes Sense to Bike Without a Helmet article, I wasn’t totally sure why I chose this course of action. Now, however, the article seems to justify my actions. When I’m riding my cruiser, I’m either on a bike path (remember, these are not the same as mountain bike trails) or on local 25 mph roads or on sidewalks.

Biking Wisdom

As today’s selected blog post, Why It Makes Sense to Bike Without a Helmet, suggests, bike helmets are not always the best option. It would make just as much sense to require pedestrians and automobile drivers to wear helmets as it would to make duly cautious recreational bike riders to wear protective head gear. In other words, if there’s good reason to believe that you may crash your bike, then a helmet is probably a good idea. But if you are a safe bike rider operating in generally safe conditions, then a helmet may not be necessary. As with most situations, common sense should prevail over over-encompassing rules. It is similar to the ridiculous rules that ban bicycles from sidewalks in many places. Dangerous bicycle riders (fast, reckless) should not be on sidewalks whereas slow, cautious and careful riders have just as much right on the sidewalks as pedestrians. Punishing good people for the actions of bad ones is never a good idea. Discouraging bike transportation is not a good idea either.

Your Opinion About Bicycle Helmet Requirements

As always, your comments, opinions & rebuttals are welcome in the comments section below. And, on a final note, you may have noticed the new banner for Trailsnet.com. That’s small potatoes compared with what is coming up next. A huge change is just around the corner, so stay tuned. Hopefully, it was money well-spent.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/05/08/bicycle-helmets-make-us-safer/

Apr 11 2014

America’s Best Bikepacking Trails

Top Trails in USA for Bikepacking

            Spring is here and with the arrival of spring many people are already beginning to look forward to summer and all of the vacations, adventures, and travels that will take place. If you’re an outdoors person, chances are you’ve already begun planning outdoor trips. My favorite activity is bikepacking: the act of backpacking with a bike. There are many trails throughout the US that are perfect for this activity. Some of these trails are only a few hundred miles, while others go on for thousands of miles throughout multiple states. Regardless of which trail you choose, they all offer the chance to connect with nature and see the world through a new perspective. If you’re thinking about taking a bikepacking vacation this summer, you may want to try one of these top trails in the USA for bikepacking.

1.     Oregon 3 Rivers If this is your first time bikepacking, you may want to try the Oregon 3 Rivers Trail. The Oregon 3 Rivers trail is known for being fairly easy to bike through especially for less experienced bikers. What makes this trail so unique is that there are three different routes that you can take and you can even link them all together in one trip. These routes include the Middle Fork Willamette Trail, the North Umpqua Trail, and the Mackenzie River Trail.

 2.     Colorado Trail With its ample supply of mountains, Colorado has always been known for being a

Colorado Trail mountain bike route

Colorado Trail

great place to travel to for an outdoor adventure. This is a 500-mile trail through mountains, streams, and other gorgeous outdoor sceneries. While mountain bikes are common for outdoor trails, you might want to opt into using a fat bike instead. This trail is commonly covered in snow until around July. As seen in this infographic, fat bikes are great for handling snowy conditions at the Colorado Trail.

  3.     Arizona Trail The Arizona Trail begins at the Mexico border and runs approximately 800 miles to the Utah border. From the very beginning, this trail was created with mountain bikers in mind. This trail was created based on feedback and consultation with mountain bikers to ensure that they created the best possible trail. This trail is very aesthetically pleasing and features a wide range of conditions and settings including mountains, canyons, deserts, forests, and other wilderness areas. It is open for other outdoor activities including hiking and camping as well.

 4.     Continental Divide Trail Located in the heart of Montana, the Continental Divide Trail is one of the longest trails in America. If you’re planning to bike the entire trail you’ll want to prepare months in advance to make sure you are in good shape as this trail is over 3,000 miles long. While the length of this trail may seem intimidating, it is anything but stressful. This trail runs from Canada to Mexico, through Montana into Idaho, Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico.  With all of these different territories covered throughout the trail, you can look forward to connecting with nature and viewing miles of breath-taking mountains, hills, and lakes. Those who successfully complete all 3,000 miles will have their name featured on the CDTC Official List of 3,000 milers.

Have any of you been on any of these trails? If so, which one was your favorite? If not, which one would you be the most willing to try? Is there anyone you prefer that’s not on the list? What trails would you nominate as the best bikepacking trails in America or the world? We’d love to hear from you in the comments section below.

Byline:

Ann Shirley is a freelance writer that enjoys writing about a wide variety of topics. She enjoys using her writing skills to educate others on the joys of bikepacking, one of her favorite pastimes.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/04/11/americas-best-bikepacking-trails/

Apr 04 2014

Best U.S. Trails in the Spring

Southern Trails Are Warm Trails

Longleaf Trace bike trail

Longleaf Trace Trail.

Winter’s over, but dependably warm weather is still a month or so away. If you’re looking for good bike trails for spring travel opportunities, you’re in luck. The following United States trails are good choices for April bike touring:

Withlacoochee Trail in Florida

Florida’s Withlacoochee State Trail is the best family trail for spring bike rides. It is a nice, long trail that is flat enough for the whole family to enjoy. It wanders through orange groves and into quaint southern towns so you’ll have plenty of rest and refuel stops. It’s also within easy driving distance from major Florida family tourist destinations such as Disney World and Universal Studios Orlando. On your way to this great Florida trail, you can stop at an orange grove and enjoy you-pick fruit or boiled peanuts. You can’t get more southern charm than that.

Silver Comet Trail in Georgia

By combining Alabama’s Chief Ladiga Trail with Georgia’s Silver Comet Trail, you get 100 miles of a charming southern bike tour. And since it’s all trail with only a few road crossings, it’s very safe and relaxing. This trail is another good one for families and is also great for recumbent bikes, stand up vehicles, tandem bikes and other personal transportation vehicles in addition to road bikes and mountain bikes. Like the Withlacoochee Trail, the Silver Comet Trail is a smooth cement path, so it’s very forgiving to novice bicyclists and riders of other PTVs.

Longleaf Trace Trail in Mississippi

Another smooth, paved trail in the southern U.S. is the Longleaf Trace Trail in Mississippi. This trail is both a recreational trail and an educational trail. It has informational signage along the entire route that identifies various native southern trees along with some creative spelling for some of them. (good botanical education, not so good spelling education) (-: All of the trails mentioned in this article are considered rail-trails and all of them provide great active travel touring opportunities for bicyclists of all ages and abilities. Feel free to browse other Trailsnet trail descriptions for the best U.S. trails in the spring.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/04/04/best-u-s-trails-spring/

Mar 28 2014

Trailsnet Website & Social Media Statistics

Trailsnet Website Information

Trail website information

Trailsnet Analytics

2013 was a great year for Trailsnet.com with July 2013 being the busiest month since our 2009 introduction. Our subscriber numbers are looking great, website visits remained steady and our social media is on a slow but steady path. This past month has been a great one for blog subscribers, and we just went over the 200 mark with 204 blog subscribers as of today. According to Google Analytics, since our inception we’ve had:

  • 143,090 page visits
  • 123,857 unique visitors
  • 224,822 page views

Trailsnet Social Media

Trailsnet on Twitter is doing just fine with 3,841 Followers and lots of retweets. For our needs, Twitter is by far the best social media outlet and seems to generate pretty decent traffic to the Trailsnet.com website. It’s also a great way to announce new trail-listings and blog posts. Trailsnet will start using Hootsuite in 2014 to increase our social media presence in general and our Twitter activity specifically.

Trailsnet is also doing fine on Facebook even though it is not one of our areas of focus. Trailsnet has 353 likes on Facebook and is often mentioned as a “Page to Watch” by other Facebook users. One of the Trailsnet goals for 2014 is to expand our Facebook presence by making posts on a more regular basis.

Trailsnet is also represented on Pinterest and Google+, but these are not major outlets for us. Hopefully that will gradually change starting in 2014.

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/03/28/trailsnet-website-social-media-statistics/

Mar 27 2014

C & O Canal Trail Bike Trips

C & O Canal Trust

The C & O Canal Trust is an official non-profit partner of the C & O Canal Historic Park in Maryland. A group of nine towns located along the C & O Canal Towpath Trail have collaborated to offer bike tours and fund-raisers to promote biking along the famous Cumberland and Ohio Canal. They have also teamed up with Wilderness Voyageurs, an active travel tour company, to promote the trail, encourage bicycle tourism for the towns along the trail and to raise funds to promote the trail and the communities along the trail.

Bike Trail Tourism

This effort by the C & O Canal Trust is a great example of communities uniting to promote trail tourism in their area. The benefits of active travel tourism are great and include:

  • improved tourism
  • economic benefits to local communities
  • environmentally friendly travel
  • historical awareness
  • healthy travel options
  • greater connections between locals and tourists
  • affordable tourism for people of all incomes

Permanent link to this article: https://trailsnet.com/2014/03/27/bike-trail-tourism/