So you just finished a ride on new-to-you amazing trails, trails bearing signs of obvious hard work at the hands and McCleods of diligent volunteer stewards. You’d love to volunteer, but you’re just passing through. Even were you local, spare time is tough commodity to negotiate. LuvTrails, an app in development, addresses this and many other quandaries and barriers to great trails and upkeep thereof.
What can you give, if not time, that all trails--everything really--needs? Money, yes! LuvTrails provides a portal to make donating to the trail or trails of your choice. With geo-locator feature, it “knows” where you rode, gathering useful data for further analysis, but first and foremost, LuvTrails makes it easy to donate. Not only that, say you visit a use fee system like Carvins Cove in Roanoke, Virginia. LuvTrails can handle that transaction, in addition to functionality to facilitate donations to the local club that maintains and builds in that system apart from the use fee.
LuvTrails CEO Arrie Rossouw… collected Canyon Topeak pro Jeremiah Bishop in Harrisonburg and journeyed to Roanoke for a presentation at Downshift Bikes as a stop in the LuvTrails US promotional tour. Arrie, from South Africa, lives amongst tremendous trails on mostly private tracts with varying use fees and payment protocols. One often crosses boundaries onto multiple properties during a day’s ride, making responsible payment a cumbersome and improbable thing. This may have been the inspiration behind LuvTrails, yet capabilities beyond this handy process streamliner are still being realized.
Survey: how many apps are loaded up on your phone? How many do you use? For an app to fulfill its noble mission, it must be functional and used, and Strava sets the standard as the best live activity app going. Automations for push notifications when your ride’s done (How’d you like your Dragon’s Back experience today? Would you like to donate?), or setups that automatically draft a specific amount per mile ridden are available. The key may be seamless flow with your activities, including potential touchpoints with Strava.
Donations flow to local clubs either designated by land management, or have adopted or most provides for a trail or area. There’s plenty to be worked out, but plenty has been already. Besides unveiling a killer app, Arrie’s quest is in search of investors to make LuvTrails fly, so if you’re so inclined or perhaps know someone, tag up with Arrie through Facebook or the website.
Meantime, check out a semi-functioning demo version in the Apple App Store now, and on Facebook and LuvTrails.com.
