Share the Slate Winter Rec App

Share the Slate is an organization that strives to preserve access to the winter trailheads and drainages for ALL users in the Crested Butte / Gunnison area.  While the heart of our organizations goals currently surrounds the Slate River Drainage, we also extend our beliefs to all of the drainages in the valley.  We believe that through education and awareness that all users can continue to happily coexist on our winter trails without restricting access to certain users on our public lands.  

Currently, we are collaborating with Gunnison - Crested Butte Tourism Association to develop an app for winter recreation users in our area.  The GCBTA already has a trails app geared toward summer and we will be building on that existing app to save time and money as the infrastructre is already in place. 

Our goal is to make a winter layer to use on this app, geared toward recreation.  Since off-trail use is more common in winter, the app will focus more on “zones” of use, but will also have trails.  The app is more or less going to be an app version of this: https://www.fs.usda.gov/Internet/FSE_DOCUMENTS/stelprdb5397031.pdf
The app will show zones that are designated as motorized and non, what trails can be used for what purpose in winter, location of trailheads, mark winter fat biking trails, have nordic trails, and will have important boundaries like those that mark private property, Land Trust, BLM, National Forest, Wilderness,  and sensitive Rocky Mountain Biological research areas.

We hope that the app will provide these benefits:
*Educate locals and visitors alike about what trails and zones are designated for what use
*Help spread out usage
People can identify where they want to go and whether they want a mixed-use experience or a more selective experience.
*Will minimize conflicts among users and hopefully help people have an overall better experience.
*Will promote collaboration among many organizations in the valley and beyond - We will be asking for input from organizations like the Nordic Center, CBMBA, the Land Trust, RMBL, etc to see how the app can benefit these specific groups and associated users.  

Share the Slate is responsible for the funding behind this app.  While collaborating with the GCBTA and building a winter layer on top of their already existing app will help to reduce costs, the estimates are showing it will run about $10,000 to implement this app.  Furthermore, we need a deposit of $5000 for the GCBTA developer to formally begin working on this app.  That's why we have this GoFundMe campaign in place.

Share the Slate thanks you for your support!

For more information, please visit http://sharetheslate.com/16-2/blog/