Table of Contents
B. Signing in with Google / Facebook
3. Trail Report – County Level
C. Subscribing to a trail report
D. Unsubscribing from a trail report
4. Trail Status – Trail Segments
C. Subscribing to a trail segment
D. Unsubscribing from a trail status
A. Uploading personal trail data from your GPS
B. Viewing Boondocking (personal) trail data
C. Sharing Boondocking (personal) trail data with GT members
D. Deleting personal trail data
A. Displaying POI’s on the map
A. Posting a classified listing
B. Updating / modifying a classified listing
C. Responding to a classified listing
D. Classified expiration period
E. Deletion of expired classified listing
D. Subscribing to a forum topic
E. Unsubscribing from a forum topic
B. Finding a place to stay – Lodging Page
C. Finding a place to stay –Trail Map
F. Advertising your Lodging listing
G. Editing your Lodging listing
B. Unsubscribe / Manage Preferences
A. Subscribe to alerts for trails under your management
Groomed Trail was created to be used as a centralized tool, for snowmobilers and outdoor enthusiasts, to accurately plan trips based upon distance, trail availability, conditions, local points of interest and to also book lodging. Additionally, we have integrated forums, news, events and classified sections into the site, to inspire additional collaboration within the Groomed Trail community.
We have also integrated a function to upload and store your own GPS trail data for trip planning, sharing with other Groomed Trail members, as well as for historical reference.
The site is 100% crowdsourced, meaning that all registered users have the ability to submit a trail report, or report specific conditions of a trail segment. By crowdsourcing this type of information, it will help keep the community alert to any issues that may impact their safety, or may help aid their decisions with trip planning.
Please review this user guide to become familiar with the features of the Groomed Trail site. Additionally we ask for your assistance in sharing our site with your friends, families and colleagues.
To create a new account, you are required to be logged out of the Groomed Trail site, and viewing the main login page.
“Your account has been created successfully, please check your email for the verification link to activate your account.”
Groomed Trail leverages integrated authentication with both Google and Facebook. You may choose to forego the new account creation process and log in directly to the site with your Google or Facebook account.
There is currently only one option to reset your password. You must be logged out of the Groomed Trail site, and at the main login page.
To change the password of your Google or Facebook account, you must do so via each respective website. Groomed Trail does not store your credentials for Google or Facebook within our site.
Trail reports are grouped by county, to provide an overall report of the general area. To view a trail report on the map:
Any registered user may submit a trail report to be published on the Groomed Trail website.
A Groomed Trail administrator will receive an alert that a new trail report has been submitted. The administrator will review the report and either approve or reject the update.
By subscribing to a trail report at the county level, you will now receive all reports that are submitted for that specific county. These will appear within your newsfeed on the main Map page, and additionally, they will be delivered to your email inbox.
You may unsubscribe from any trail report, by browsing to your Dashboard > Subscriptions and Updates > My Subscriptions. From there, you can unsubscribe from individual trail reports.
A Groomed Trail administrator will receive an alert that a new trail status has been submitted. The administrator will review the status change and either approve or reject the update.
You may unsubscribe from any trail status, by browsing to your Dashboard > Subscriptions and Updates > My Subscriptions. From there, you can unsubscribe from individual trail reports.
Groomed Trail was designed to accept GPS data in the KML (Keyhole Markup Language) format only. We acquire our data from numerous sources, and essentially filter this data through Google My Maps. With Google My Maps, you can import your own personal GPS data in the CSV, XLSX, KML or GPX format. Once uploaded, you can then export it, and upload it to the Groomed Trail website, as follows:
From your dashboard within the Groomed Trail website:
From your dashboard within the Groomed Trail website:
Additionally, your Boondocking trail data can be viewed by:
You can share your boondocking data with other members of the Groomed Trail community. Once your data has been uploaded to the site:
Groomed Trail has an integrated a route planning feature, which will help you plan for future trips. With this feature, you can map your routes, using specific trail segments allowing for left/right turns at all trail intersections. This data can then be saved to your dashboard for future reference and can also be shared with other users of the Groomed Trail community.
Once you have saved your newly created route, you can view the route from within your dashboard, or directly on the map via the “Saved Routes” drop-down menu. Please note that if you have not refreshed the map page since the last saved route was added, it will not appear within the drop-down link.
From your dashboard within the Groomed Trail website:
Additionally, your Saved Route can be viewed by:
Saved routes can be edited after they are saved, and when they have been made visible on the main Map page.
To display a POI on the map, navigate to the main Map page, and then expand the POI menu from the left side of the screen. Select one or many POI types to display them on the map. Each has a unique map marker to easily identify its specific type.
If you are the owner, or are aware of a business that should be displayed on our Groomed Trail map, please send the name, type, and address of the business to support@groomedtrail.com. We will review the submission, and add it to the site if applicable.
Lodging listings are a paid service, and will not be listed on the map for free. See the “Lodging” section of this User Guide, for instructions on how to list your accommodations.
Your newsfeed can be located on the main “Map” page of the Groomed Trail website. Expand the newsfeed to bring it into full view. Within the newsfeed, you fill find the following:
To remove content that is displayed within your Newsfeed, click the “X” to the right of the applicable content.
Email alerts will be generated for the following events:
To clear an entry that is displayed within the list of notifications; under the notification bell, simply click on the item itself. You’ll be taken to the content of the notification, i.e. trail update, forum post, etc.
The notification count will decrease, each time you clear or remove a notification from the bell.
Adding a new classified listing can be easily accomplished in one of two different ways.
Enter the following information and click the “Submit” button.
Once the classified listing has been submitted, it will enter a “Pending Approval” state. An email notification will be sent to our Groomed Trail administrators for review. The administrator will then approve or reject the submission at that time. You will receive an email notification indicating the outcome, and you may then return to your dashboard to view or modify the listing.
Updating or editing a submitted classified listing, can only be performed while the classified listing is in a “Pending Approval” or “Expired” status. If the listing is active, and already approved, you will need to delete and re-create the listing.
From within the classified listing itself, click the Contact Seller button, underneath the seller’s photo. Ensure that your name and reply-to email address are correct, and then enter your message to the seller. You may optionally enter your phone number as well.
Both you, and the seller, will receive an email initiating the conversation. All future correspondence in regards to the listing, will be done via your personal email addresses, and independent of the Groomed Trail website.
All classified listings will expire after 14 days from their posting date. Each listing within your dashboard will display a countdown timer, indicating the amount of time remaining on each listing.
You may choose to delete your classified listing, at any time, regardless of its status. Navigate to your dashboard and click on “Classifieds Listings”, or the main Classifieds listing page, and click on “My Listings”, to be taken to your dashboard. You can delete the listing, by clicking on the red trash can icon next to it. You will be prompted to confirm the deletion.
Groomed Trail admins may also delete expired listings at their discretion, after the listing has expired. This is in an effort to continually optimize the site.
To add a new forum topic, locate the parent category, i.e. Boondocking or Snowmobiling in Michigan, and click the “Start New Topic” button. If the “Add Topic” button is collapsed, click it to expand the forum submission window.
You may also expand the “Add Topic” button, from within the Forum topic itself.
Enter the Topic Title, Description, and optionally choose to drag/drop any of the emoticons from the slider, to the right of the text area. Click the “Post” button, and your new topic will appear immediately within the forums.
If you are the original creator of the forum topic, you will have the ability to perform the following actions on your submissions.
All forum topics, and comments within the thread will have a “Reply” button next to them. Simply click the reply button, and reply to the thread.
All forum topics have a “Subscribe” button next to them. Click on the subscribe button to receive updates on all future posts to the topic.
Updates will be sent to the email address that is listed within your profile. Additionally, updates will appear within the notification bell, as well as your newsfeed.
All forum topics that you are subscribed to, have an “Subscribed” button next to them. Hover over the “Subscribed” button to see it change to “Unsubscribe”. Click the button to remove yourself from future topics replies.
Additionally, you may manage all of your subscriptions, to include forum topics, from your dashboard. Open your dashboard and click on “Subscriptions and Updates”.
You may search the Groomed Trail forums, by entering your search criteria into the “Search Topics’ field at the top of the Forums page. Be sure to try different variations of your search, as our search engine is very specific to the spelling of words. Example; search for Ski-Doo and SkiDoo to return different topics.
Periodically, we will post news from around the snowmobiling community, for items such as legislation, temporary or permanent trail closures, etc. You can subscribe to the Groomed Trail News, as an aggregate of all potential news sources. Please do so, by completing the sign-up form at the footer of the website. We’re constantly looking for contributors, so please contact us if you would like to participate.
Lodging is currently displayed on the Groomed Trail site, as a paid service, for lodging owners. Owners of hotels, vacation rentals, B&Bs, lodges, etc have the ability to advertise their listings on our trail map for an annual fee. Groomed Trail is not a property management company, nor a rental management system. We offer a visual method for advertising lodging, in proximity to groomed trails.
As a result, not all available lodging will be displayed on our map. Only paid listings will appear. We encourage you to help us spread the word to property owners that may not be listed on the Groomed Trail website.
To find a place to stay, using our main Lodging page, you may do the following:
Using the Groomed Trail map page, you can also locate a listing in proximity to the groomed trail system. To do so, perform the following actions:
After displaying the full listing of a property, you may contact the property owner by doing the following:
Be sure to take a look at the recent reviews that have been left, at the bottom of the page.
If you have recently stayed at one of the properties listed on the Groomed Trail website, we encourage you to leave a review for future guests. This will help Groomed Trail enthusiasts to choose the best option for lodging, and to ensure that we maintain a trustworthy and reputable list of lodging options.
To leave a review, please perform the following:
See our YouTube video, on this process, here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cj4gSB4VUZU
You can advertise your lodging listing in one of two ways:
Perform the following:
You may edit your published lodging listing as follows. All edits to published listings will enter a “pending” state, and will require admin review and approval, similar to submitting a new lodging listing.
You may also choose to remove your Lodging listing. Please note that there are no refunds for listings that are removed by the owner, in advance of the expiration date. Once the listing is deleted, there is no option to recover it.
Click on the “Events” link from within the main menu of the Groomed Trail website. From here, you can obtain information for all posted upcoming events, as well as view any events that have already passed.
Click on the event that you wish to attend. You can then click the “Subscribe” button. You will receive updates via email for any changes that occur to the event.
Sign up for our newsletter by entering your email address into the footer of the Groomed Trail website. Or, you my do so here. Subscribe -You'll be prompted to confirm that you are a human, and then click the "Subscribe to list" button.
To unsubscribe from our mailing list, you may do so here. Unsubscribe
Alternatively, you may also unsubscribe using the Unsubscribe link within the footer of an email message that you have received from Groomed Trail
As a Snowmobile Club, or individual that is responsible for maintaining groomed trails, you can leverage the power of crowdsourcing to monitor / report on individual trails and overall trail conditions for your area. We suggest that you provide consistent updates on Trail Reports, for areas that you manage as well as subscribe to any alerts that may be relevant to you.
It is suggested that you identify all Trails / Segments under your area of responsibility, and subscribe to all notifications or changes that occur for these trails. The Groomed Trail website is designed to permit any registered user, the ability to change the status of a trail segment.
After administrative review, and approval, the comments or suggested status changes of the trail can be displayed publicly on the site. For example, there may be a large water hole, or a downed tree on a specific trail segment. A Groomed Trail member may learn about this, before a club has the opportunity to. By being an active subscriber, the club will receive the alert and can then choose to take make note, or take action on the event.
Snowmobile clubs can report trail conditions, as well as overall trail reports for their designated areas. It is recommended that the clubs take advantage of our trail reporting system to mark trails as open (green), closed (red), or that riders should observe caution (yellow) while operating a snowmobile on specific trails. Changing the status allows the snowmobile club to also provide a detailed reason for the status change, i.e. a bridge is out, so that snowmobilers can stay well informed. Our system offers not only an email notification, but also a visual representation of the status of a trail.