Any other Ride Command trail managers here?

[Bontz]

I "inherited" our club's Trail Manager role within the Ride Command app, and I'm working on getting familiar with this new interface.  Just curious if anyone else has the same role for their club or county?  Reason I ask is, I can't tell what the general public is seeing now vs what I'm seeing due to the routes I recently added from our recent work to GPS our trails for the DNR.  I had one section of existing trail that I deleted & then uploaded the new route from my phone.  My buddy scared the hell outta me when he said the only thing he can see is the trail is now missing!!  But we waited a day, and now it's showing up correctly for him.  The other concern I have is, I want the updated route(s) to blend in and not look like some sort of personal ride that was put on the map.  So just kinda curious if anyone else out there has been working with this app and has experience with it ... more so to put my mind at ease than anything else.

[Mag6240]

This is what I see over there right now:

Asking our trail manager how long updates take, we had a couple this year also… I see ours are updated.

[Mag6240]

Yup, sometimes updates take a few days - FYI

[Bontz]

2 minutes ago, Mag6240 said:

This is what I see over there right now:

Asking our trail manager how long updates take, we had a couple this year also… I see ours are updated.

 

Thanks for the screenshot   I can't quite zoon in on what you've got there, but it looks right to me.  The main re-route is the trail (95) that runs from Frontenac to Mt. Frontenac.  if you can picture where it comes out of that field on the south side of Frontenac and then runs west/northwest through the solar panel field and then more north/northeast, it crosses County Road 2.  From there it goes west and stays on the north side of that road all the way up to Mt. Frontenac.  If you've ever been on the existing hill/trail that comes down from Mt. Frontenac towards Frontenac ... that thing was HORRIBLE.  Now it's updated and really looks good.  I hope we get a chance to actually ride it this season!

[Mag6240]

7 minutes ago, Bontz said:

If you've ever been on the existing hill/trail that comes down from Mt. Frontenac towards Frontenac ... that thing was HORRIBLE.  

During the best snows of last season it was still a mess - hope we get to check it out this year.

Not to completely derail the thread, but if we don’t get a little something before New Years to ride (even on the north shore) this will be the first time in over 10 years I won’t have at least a couple hundred miles on in December… man… glad I made the best of it last year!

[Mag6240]

[Bontz]

1 minute ago, Mag6240 said:

During the best snows of last season it was still a mess - hope we get to check it out this year.

Not to completely derail the thread, but if we don’t get a little something before New Years to ride (even on the north shore) this will be the first time in over 10 years I won’t have at least a couple hundred miles on in December… man… glad I made the best of it last year!

We had a small crew of club members together this past weekend, and the topic of the annual New Year's "up north" was being discussed.  Sounds like at least a few couples were thinking, if things don't change, to load up and possibly hit the Black Hills if they get snow.  Granted, it's not much better out there as I think it was damn near 60 degrees in Sturgis late last week.  But plans are definitely open as far as how far people are willing to travel.

[Mag6240]

4 minutes ago, Bontz said:

We had a small crew of club members together this past weekend, and the topic of the annual New Year's "up north" was being discussed.  Sounds like at least a few couples were thinking, if things don't change, to load up and possibly hit the Black Hills if they get snow.  Granted, it's not much better out there as I think it was damn near 60 degrees in Sturgis late last week.  But plans are definitely open as far as how far people are willing to travel.

I’m sure the whining and possible alternatives will be discussed at nauseum tonight at our Christmas party… some of us are already discussing Wyoming in January.

Edited December 18, 2023 by Mag6240

[X2700]

Since weather looks nice again this weekend i might take a stab at getting our trails up to do date on ride command.

Give me a reason to get wheeler out!!

Definitely looking at some different options for a ride  if this weather keeps up!!we were just saying best case scenario it will be mid to late January before nsst will be groomed and ready to go!!things can change fast though.I'm hoping for 6-8"by new years up shore so i can break in pros on some fire roads!!

 

[Doug]

11 hours ago, Bontz said:

I "inherited" our club's Trail Manager role within the Ride Command app, and I'm working on getting familiar with this new interface.  Just curious if anyone else has the same role for their club or county?  Reason I ask is, I can't tell what the general public is seeing now vs what I'm seeing due to the routes I recently added from our recent work to GPS our trails for the DNR.  I had one section of existing trail that I deleted & then uploaded the new route from my phone.  My buddy scared the hell outta me when he said the only thing he can see is the trail is now missing!!  But we waited a day, and now it's showing up correctly for him.  The other concern I have is, I want the updated route(s) to blend in and not look like some sort of personal ride that was put on the map.  So just kinda curious if anyone else out there has been working with this app and has experience with it ... more so to put my mind at ease than anything else.

We've been requested to GPS our trails and keep them accurate in SNARS so when they are groomed the GPS records the grooming speed and location properly.  If we are outside the GPS on file in SNARS we have a form along with the correct GPS that we need to send in to correct the SNARS GPS file.  I think SNARS shares their GPS data with ride command as I haven't heard of anybody having to update ride command.

Here is our club trail in blue in ride command and also the the GPS file in SNARS with the green background. We had a small reroute last year and both maps are the same and correct.

[Bontz]

I'm wondering if MN ... or at least the counties down here in SE MN ... will get on board with the groomer/GPS topic.  We are pretty much doing things as they've always been done, which is grooming when necessary & maintaining a log with our hours and miles.  It would be good to get with the times, and be consistent across the board IMO.

[Doug]

24 minutes ago, Bontz said:

I'm wondering if MN ... or at least the counties down here in SE MN ... will get on board with the groomer/GPS topic.  We are pretty much doing things as they've always been done, which is grooming when necessary & maintaining a log with our hours and miles.  It would be good to get with the times, and be consistent across the board IMO.

All the counties in Wisconsin are given X amount of money based on their funded trails.  Our county for grooming is broken down by 4 clubs that have groomers.  For us we groom other clubs trailer within our county and that's all tracked by GPS.  

We also groom into a neighboring county which is not included within our GPS.  For that we still have to keep a manual log of hours, times and dates.  We then turn an invoice into the neighboring counties club for that section where we are paid by that club.  They turn our invoice into their county as a grooming expense to get reimbursed.

GPS guidelines.pdf

[Bontz]

Over here, it's generally 4 installments of payments we get from the DNR but it depends on the year & overall conditions (there's been years where we get less).  We get $X per mile of trail, so let's say we have 60 miles of trails and we get $250/mile ... that means we get $15K, or four installments of $3750.  Seems pretty basic, but that's how it works here.  I don't know if MNUSA is trying to get with the times and pushing for more GPS technology, or not, but I would certainly hope so.  Not just for accuracy, but also to keep track of recent grooming runs and overall trail conditions.  Kind of like that GTS app that came out a year or two ago, where you can see how long it's been since a trail was groomed .. that's a pretty nice app to have.

[Sled_Hed]

8 hours ago, Bontz said:

Over here, it's generally 4 installments of payments we get from the DNR but it depends on the year & overall conditions (there's been years where we get less).  We get $X per mile of trail, so let's say we have 60 miles of trails and we get $250/mile ... that means we get $15K, or four installments of $3750.  Seems pretty basic, but that's how it works here.  I don't know if MNUSA is trying to get with the times and pushing for more GPS technology, or not, but I would certainly hope so.  Not just for accuracy, but also to keep track of recent grooming runs and overall trail conditions.  Kind of like that GTS app that came out a year or two ago, where you can see how long it's been since a trail was groomed .. that's a pretty nice app to have.

I agree that a system that shows recent grooming activity would be very beneficial here. On the grant in aid topic I remember finding old logs at our club and years ago they had to document everytime out grooming and what machine they used and then were reimbursed from the state. Definitely more work than now but a little more accountability. 

[Doug]

In Wisconsin the trail money per county is actually held and dispersed through the County Parks department.  Clubs turn in all marking, brushing, leveling etc. to their County Parks department.  GPS grooming reports are also submitted to the County Parks.  We normally get paid around April so Clubs have to carry any expenses through the year which has been a sore spot for some.

If the full amount funded per County is not spent the money goes back to the DNR.  If Clubs have a lot of grooming and have exceeded their funded amount they can choose to keep grooming.  They can then apply for supplemental grooming funds at the end of the season.  To apply for supplemental grooming the club has to have a certain percentage of the expenses as grooming  based off the GPS reports.

Supplemental funds are made up from money returned to the DNR from Counties that have not used up their allotment.  Such as Counties in Southern Wisconsin hardly ever use up their allotment where Counties in Northern Wisconsin almost always go into supplemental.

Supplemental is paid out after all money is paid out based on the set allotment per County.  Then Clubs that have applied for supplemental are evenly distributed out the left over money.  This could be 100% or 60% based on the amount in supplemental funds.

[Sled_Hed]

45 minutes ago, Doug said:

In Wisconsin the trail money per county is actually held and dispersed through the County Parks department.  Clubs turn in all marking, brushing, leveling etc. to their County Parks department.  GPS grooming reports are also submitted to the County Parks.  We normally get paid around April so Clubs have to carry any expenses through the year which has been a sore spot for some.

If the full amount funded per County is not spent the money goes back to the DNR.  If Clubs have a lot of grooming and have exceeded their funded amount they can choose to keep grooming.  They can then apply for supplemental grooming funds at the end of the season.  To apply for supplemental grooming the club has to have a certain percentage of the expenses as grooming  based off the GPS reports.

Supplemental funds are made up from money returned to the DNR from Counties that have not used up their allotment.  Such as Counties in Southern Wisconsin hardly ever use up their allotment where Counties in Northern Wisconsin almost always go into supplemental.

Supplemental is paid out after all money is paid out based on the set allotment per County.  Then Clubs that have applied for supplemental are evenly distributed out the left over money.  This could be 100% or 60% based on the amount in supplemental funds.

As @Bontz said in MN it's broken down into 4 payments or benchmarks. First one is trails are brushed, signed and ready to open. Then you receive 45% of the total grant, subsequently its 25% on January 15, 25% when trails close and 5% after you submit paperwork for next season. Grant allocation Is broken down by area of the state. Further north you go you get more money per mile. Here it's $310/mile so my old club gets approx $35,000 per season. There was a few years when I was trail coordinator that they cut the last benchmark due to low license sales.

[X2700]

I hear we may be getting a bump in pay per mile in se part of state.

been awhile since we’ve had one!

headed out the door to monthly meeting!!

 

Edited December 20, 2023 by X2700

[Sled_Hed]

11 hours ago, X2700 said:

I hear we may be getting a bump in pay per mile in se part of state.

been awhile since we’ve had one!

headed out the door to monthly meeting!!

 

That's interesting. Everything is costing more so it should happen. I did see this year it looks like everyone is getting a one time 6% bump.

[Doug]

Plugged on the GPS on the qudtrac today for a little to make sure everything worked.  Green would have been tracking correctly.  Yellow was traveling to slow or stopped which I was moving a sign and taking a picture.

If I was actually grooming I would just review the report to make sure its correct and then send it into our County Parks where our club would receive the money.