Fall 2018 | 29 TRAILS By Matt Tetreault, VAST Trails Administrator After much anticipation we will begin the installation of GPS tracking units in a portion of our groomer fleet this winter. We have contracted with Alpine Systems out of Killington, Vermont to install 29 GPS units in our grooming fleet. This is in addition to the four units we have been testing for the last couple of seasons, bringing the grand total to 33. For the new trackers, we selected clubs linked with groomers that already had them, creating several large networks of tracked trails. See the map to the right showing corresponding trail systems in yellow. What will this do for me as a member/ rider you ask? It will enable us to provide you, the membership, with real-time information on when trails were groomed. The GPS unit will submit data directly to the back end of our trail conditions page, changing the color of the trails that have been groomed within the last 24 hours and so on. We still have many details to work out in terms of what color the trails will change to and what time interval we will be using, but we are well on our way to having a working program! In addition to providing up- to-date trail information, this system will also provide me with the mileage and hours that clubs are logging in the grooming equipment. This will eventually replace the paper grooming log sheets that each club has to fill out by hand each time they groom. Not the least of the advantages of this system will be that it will give us a very accurate map of areas since, each time the groomer goes out, we will be receiving updated trail route data. I am very excited to be working with Alpine Systems on this project and am waiting in great anticipation for the start of the snowmobile season so we can see how it all works. I ask that you do your snow dances early this fall and stay tuned for a great product that will be showing on our interactive map and app for the season that lies ahead. We value your feedback, so as you utilize this new service, please tell us how we can improve this product to meet your needs! REPORT