Welcome! This blog is a companion to the Alaska Outdoor Reports website. The reports now have a bunch of new features, and I figured I needed a place to explain how everything works. I welcome feedback and suggestions: cory@snowio.com.
Thanks for visiting,
Cory Smith
How to use the Outdoor Reports
Send feedback or ask a question
Anonymous asked: Why are my reports sometimes cut off? I see longer ones posted, so I'm not exceeding a length limit. I just posted two in order to finish.
Terri Pauls
Hi Terri,
It appears you’ve discovered a bug. It looks like both times you were cut-off, you were trying to use an ampersand. I don’t know when I’l get a chance to fix the problem. In the meantime, you should be fine if you avoid the “&”. Thanks for letting me know!
Cory
Whoah, what’s going on with the trail reports?
Yes, there are a few changes. The Reports have been successful because they are easy to use. So I am very cautious about making changes. But here are a few new features that I think will prove very valuable, while still keeping the Reports simple.
Easier To Add A New Location
Instead of having to select your location from a drop-down list, you can now either choose from a list or simply type in the name of the location. This makes adding a new location much easier. Important note: To keep things organized, please select a location from the list whenever possible. We don’t need eight different “Kincaid Park”s in the system. If you do add a new location, make sure to also add a marker on the map, so we know where it is.
Search
You can now search the reports! You can search for any text that is included in the location name or the report itself. Want to see reports for Hillside? Type “Hillside” (no quotes) into the search box. Want to search for crust skiing? Type in “crust.” The search algorithm is pretty basic, but it should help you find what you are looking for.
The Map
Want to know the latest conditions nearby? Now it’s easy by glancing at the map. I think once you play with the map a little bit (try a few searches!) you’ll see how powerful a tool it can be.
More Activities (aka Other Sports)
I’ve had a lot of requests over the years to create forums like Cross Country Alaska’s Ski Trail Reports for other sports. This sounded like a great idea to me, but I couldn’t possibly maintain separate forums for each sport. So instead, I came up with a compromise: I expanded the current Reports to include other sports, while still enabling clubs to display only the reports for their sport. The Cross Country Alaska Ski Trail Reports haven’t really changed, but now users have the option of tying into a network of reports from other sports as well. I think this is the best of both worlds. One of my goals is to encourage sharing of information between different sports/user groups. When you enter a report, please select not only the sport you were doing, but also any other sports that might find your report helpful.
Hopefully these new features will enhance your experience with the Outdoor Reports, and help you find what you are looking for, faster. I’m always open to new ideas and suggestions, so please send me feedback.
If you are a trail user, get started sharing your latest outings. I guarantee that no matter where you went or what you did, there are plenty of others who would love to hear a report. If you have your outing posted elsewhere on the web (blog, photo gallery, forum, etc.), we encourage you to post a link.
To Post:
Go to the Outdoor Reports page, either on your club website or the general site. Click the “Add Your Own Report” and the form will scroll into view.
Using just a few lines of code, a club can easily embed the Outdoor Reports on their website. Each club site displays only reports that are relevant to that user group. For example, Cross Country Alaska displays ski reports, Alaska Speedskating displays ice reports, etc. At each of these club sites, readers can view the latest reports, search the archives, or add a report of their own.
These club sites are also aggregated into a general Outdoor Reports site that allows people to see all the reports and view the reports on a map.
If you are interested in having Outdoor Reports on your club webste, send me an email. The address is in the left-hand column.
Want the reports on your club website? Send me an email!
In 2004, I (Cory Smith) created the Alaska Ski Trails Reports on the Cross Country Alaska website. I figured the best way to get the latest conditions was to ask the people who were actually using the trails. The site quickly became the best source for the latest cross-country ski conditions in Alaska. It’s been immensely helpful to me, and I am glad that others have found it useful as well.
I also enjoy a lot of other sports. So I wanted to bring the philosophy behind the Alaska Ski Trail Reports to a wide-range of outdoor activities. In the spring when the snow melts, we all switch to different activites. We start wondering which trails are snow-free for hiking and biking? Which rivers are prime for boating? Have there been any wildlife encounters we should be aware of?
I am hopeful that all types of outdoor enthusiasts will find the Outdoor Reports useful in the same way that cross-country skiers do.
Let me start with a quote from Craig Medred on AlaskaDispatch.com:
As it is, no one seems happy. Fat-tire mountain bikers are mad at post-holing hikers. Hikers are mad at unfriendly skiers who yell at them for messing up ski trails. Dog mushers are mad at speeding, sometimes reckless snowmachiners. Snowmachiners are mad at all those “elitist” non-motorheads. Skiers are mad at, well, almost everyone. And almost everyone gets mad at horses.
I think Craig did a good job of summing up the general perception of trail users in Anchorage. But I don’t believe that the perception is the reality.
Sure, there are conflicts between trail users every day. But I have a feeling that for every dirty look or voice raised in anger, there are ten more people who are simply happy to be out enjoying our wonderful trails. There are many trail encounters that result in a “Hi,” or a nod, or even a smile. Butt we don’t remember those. We remember the ones that piss us off. And when we get pissed off, we immediately generalize. If he was on a bike, all bikers are ignorant and selfish. If he was skiing, all skiers are stuck-up snobs. While there are certainly a few ignorant or selfish snobs in any group of people, we can’t let a few bad apples ruin the whole bunch.
So this the Outdoor Reports are a social experiment.
I’m the first to admit, that on the surface, it looks like a recipe for disaster. Take a bunch of squabbling user groups, put them in one pot, then stir until it explodes.
But I also know that there is mutal benefit to be had by sharing information. This is a place for people to share information across recreational boundaries. If a mountain biker encounters a downed tree at Hillside, that information is useful to trail runners and hikers. A snowmobiler who hits Turnagain Pass after a big snowstorm probably has some good info for backcountry skiers and snowboarders. And vice versa of course.
My hope is that if we start sharing information, we can knock down at least a few of the stereotypes about trail conflicts.
Will it work? That is up to you. But in order for it to have a chance, there are some ground rules that must be followed.
Maybe your report is long, with lots of pictures, so you posted it on a blog or forum. Or you uploaded a GPS track to your online training log. Great! Just post a link and a few words here so people know where to find it.
There are lots of places online to get conditions for outdoor recreation. Unfortunately, there are too many places. And the information is often out of date or hard to find.
Besides, how many people do you know who only do ONE outdoor activity? I don’t know anyone like that. Everyone I know is involved in a bunch of outdoor activities. And no matter which activities we enjoy, we share a common playground: the great outdoors of Alaska!
To me it makes sense to have one gathering place to share information. I don’t want to check five different websites when I am deciding whether to go for a bike ride, a run, a hike or a ski. A trail report posted by a mountain biker could also be useful to a hiker, runner, or skier.
Or lets say you are going to the Kenai Peninsula for the weekend and you want to know if you should bring your bike, or your skis, or your raft, your hiking boots, or maybe all of them! Now you can check one site to find out.
Definintely not. Clubs are the backbone of our outdoor community. From the start, the intent of the Outdoor Reports has been to allow clubs to provide greater service to their members. The Reports have been specifically designed so that they can easily be embedded into a club/organization’s website and customized for their interests within a few minutes. See www.crosscountryalaska.org/trails for an example.
This lets club websites focus on providing information that has a longer shelf-life (club info, trail descriptions, events, etc.) while we provide the recent reports that are only useful for a few days - no maintenance required! By separating the timeless and time-sensitive information, you don’t have to wade through a year of outdated reports to find what you are looking for, be it trail length or the conditions from last Saturday.
Yes, but in my experience, these methods don’t work well.
In a forum, you have to dig through a bunch of pages to find the latest information. Forums are great for having multi-person conversations and saving them for future reference, but not so great for quickly finding the latest information on a specific topic.
Email lists can clog your inbox and make it hard to find the information you really need.
The success of the Outdoor Reports is based on its one goal: to quickly provide you with the up-to-date conditions information you need to have a successful outing.
I volunteer to run the forum in my spare time. I do it because I find the reports very useful. In general, I try to keep my hands off and let the forum run itself. I don’t have the time or energy to constantly monitor the site and immediately remove any post that might bend or break the rules.
Occasionally I do have to moderate certain postings. I do my best to be fair and consistent. But keep in mind that I am not always at my computer to remove posts when they appear.
If you obey the rules, you won’t have a problem. If you make inflammatory remarks, that is the quickest way to get banned.
For instance, if a bike leaves a rut down the middle of a freshly groomed MULTI-USE trail, that is a useful piece of information for other trail users, so feel free to share it. But that biker was well within the rules of the trail, and thus any editorializing about the biker (or bikers in general) is not appropriate.
I have no agenda, beyond trying to get people to share information in a polite manner. I am happy to discuss why certain posts are deleted and others are not. Shoot me an email if you have any questions or concerns.
I think the instructions on the map page explain it pretty well. If something is not working, or you have any questions about the map, send me an email.
The map shows reports from the past month.
Click any marker to see the recent reports from that location.
Zoom in or out or click and drag the map to see more reports.
Use the filters to find reports based on activity or any search term.
If you have feedback or experience any problems, send an email to cory@snowio.com
Bill I Will and
Pat in the Hat
Groomed on the left and
Groomed on the right and
Left the trails alright like that.
The Lynx, I think,
is the best it’s been,
Since those Gogetters with their Bettertracksetters
Went up and down and round and round again.
Out of habit, they groomed the Rabbit.
Dagnabbit! If you care, the Bear is still there.
The Goat is remote below the Coyote
and the Wolverine has tracks to spare.
They Smooshed the Moose
with their Smooshing Caboose
then Weaseled their way to the Beaver.
They tracked the Wolf through S-Turny turns
all the way back to the Geezer.
I do like Green trails and Blue.
I like them. Like them. Yes I do!
I like Purple, Red and Yellow too.
I like them now. They all are groomed!
Doctor Schuss
