AllTrails app

Bicycling
1

Has anyone used the AllTrails app?
How does it compare to Trailforks (for example)?

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Assuming you’re using it for mountain biking…there’s no comparison. Trailforks was built by mountain bikers for mountain bikers (only recently expanded to include other activities).

Unlike Trailforks, AllTrails does not provide essential info like difficulty rating, elevation change, preferred direction of travel, etc.

Also Trailforks has tools for local trail associations (like MRWA) to analyze trail usage data. Useful when lobbying government or funding agencies, directing resources, etc.

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3

I agree with @Rolls - however, in my experience AllTrails documents a lot of trails that aren’t found on TrailForks. I wouldn’t trust them to take a bike on (unless you define “bikepacking” as carrying your bike), for the reasons above, but if you’re on foot and adventurous, there’s a lot there to explore.

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AllTrails, and other crowd-sourced mapping such as Openstreetmaps, do show a lot more trails than Trailforks in some regions, but a big reason is the minimal editing or curating process. Anyone can upload a ‘trail’, and hence there tends to be errors and trails that perhaps shouldn’t be posted online.

For example both AllTrails and OSM show a trail leading across 400m of my back property, straight up to the back door of my house. Same for a couple of my neighbours. It’s not uncommon for people to wander into our backyards because they are on an ‘alltrails’ hike, or even try to access the trails from the street by walking around my neighbour’s house. (I have friends that do this, no problem, but it’s weird when its a stranger).

Trailforks was designed from the get-go to be a tool for trail associations, as well as trail users. Most trails are posted by trail associations, municipalities etc. Trailforks does have a crowdsourcing aspect too, in that anyone can upload a trail, and there are plenty of unsanctioned trails on TF, but they all required approval by one or more local admins. Nine times out of ten, this is a better way to go… of course there are exceptions.

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