No Treads on NE Trail Conditions - NH

[richard]

I agree. I’d like to know ahead of time what the TC will be like before deciding if,when & where I’m going. There are plenty of hiking places to go closer to home that I can use until conditions improve up north. For me it’s “better to be safe than sorry “. Besides, that “anything you can do, i can do better “ attitude is way behind me now.

I beg to differ on the importance of trail condition reports. Perhaps it's because I hike with my autistic sons, so I exercise extreme caution, wanting G2 on seemingly dumb issues that might make a difference to our success.But I always check NETC first. Certainly with the latest high waters and freeze/thaw cycle I appreciate a heads-up on things even more. Often posts are idea starters for trails I may not have considered. I always think of posting a TR as good stewardship to the hiking community and try to do so unless there's a rash of others before me saying the same thing.

Yeah the FB groups are often filled with braggarts having little real knowledge etc. I try to overlook that and get what I want from skimming them, if only to know a trail is broken out in winter and perhaps a little easier. And paying it forward to the extent that I can.

 

[Kimball]

... is there a disconnect between people looking for a hike, but not being aware they can find condition reports?

Ding, ding ding,.... That "disconnect" is like the size of the grand canyon. The people that discover hiking through social media only see a picture of the spot/summit usually without any details. They don't know about guide books, trail etiquette, LNT, or resources like VFTT and TrailsNH. The smart ones will at least google the name.

Google Trends comparison is confusing. Look at trends for one summit at a time like (Mount Major, Monadnock, Moosilauke) the amount of searches is huge.

... I suspect that for most people, Googling 'Trails NH' will bring up your website as the first listing (if not the first several). I'm wondering if you named it according to Google trends, or if people are googling intentionally to find your site.

I didn't know Google Trends existed when I came up with the name 9 years ago. I just like short domain names and this one was available. TrailsNH.com will/should be listed first when you Google "Trails NH" but why they search for that I don't know, unless they can't quite remember the name.

 

[Bushwacked]

Thanks everyone and sorry to go missing after posting...work sucked and it's been desks, planes and airports versus mountains, streams and trails. To be honest when I started the thread, i hadn't looked at the VFTT Trail reports in a while so hadn't realized that post volume was down as much. FWIW, I always found the VFTT community to be good posters about the trail conditions (parking lot not plowed or drifted, blow downs, snow shoes needed, put crampons on at xx section, etc.). I've used and will continue use some of the other resources mentioned. In the past, I could find 411 on most any of the trails in Franconia, Garfield, Galehead, Presidentials etc on VFTT. Sorry to see that gone. Thanks again.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

The reason VFTT rose to the preeminent source of information is because it was the only game in town, and it was more focused than the Usenet groups. It is a generic format forum, so it's not particularly good at any one thing... Over time, the trail conditions migrated because there are other formats that are much superior to a generic text block. Over time, the trip reports migrated to social media because people want pictures rather than 1000 words. What remains a strong selling point here is Q&A - because the membership has collectively more experience (per capita) than many other sources.

I know it is still valuable to many of you because I got an outpouring of financial support when I asked Enough for 2+ more years in fact.

Tim

 

[peakbagger]

My approach is to use the Newenglandtrailconditions site for a basic trail report as its quicker and a standardized format. If the trail report is going to be more verbose I usually post it in the trip reports forum on VFTT. I find that when I am searching for arcane rarely visited locations, the VFTT reports usually pop up in google search quicker than other options but it could just be my bias.

 

[JoshandBaron]

My approach is to use the Newenglandtrailconditions site for a basic trail report as its quicker and a standardized format. If the trail report is going to be more verbose I usually post it in the trip reports forum on VFTT. I find that when I am searching for arcane rarely visited locations, the VFTT reports usually pop up in google search quicker than other options but it could just be my bias.

When researching my bushwhacks, VFTT is practically the only resource that comes up.

 

[bikehikeskifish]

And yet VFTT was soundly booed whenever bushwhack routes were publicized... at least 'back in the days'. I see plenty of bushwhacks on Facebook and Strava - they just don't appear in Google search results because Strava and Facebook's robots policy prevent it. And I don't see people beating other people up over posting them either.

Tim

 

[TwinMom+1]

I know it is still valuable to many of you because I got an outpouring of financial support when I asked Enough for 2+ more years in fact.

Tim

So glad to hear you got the needed funding, Tim. Thank you for your devotion to this community.