About GoTrail

Real-time trail conditions for the Pacific Northwest

What is GoTrail?

GoTrail is a real-time trail conditions aggregator for the Pacific Northwest. It answers one simple question: "Should I go this weekend?"

In climbing, "beta" refers to information about a route — the holds, the sequence, the conditions. We bring that same concept to hiking: all the information you need to make an informed go/no-go decision, in one place, in under 5 seconds.

The Problem We Solve

Planning a hike in the PNW shouldn't feel like a research project. But anyone who's done it knows the routine:

Check the weather forecast (Open-Meteo, NWS, Mountain-Forecast...)
Check road conditions (WSDOT pass reports)
Check avalanche forecasts (NWAC, if it's winter or spring)
Check for weather alerts (NWS warnings)
Cross-reference everything and hope you didn't miss something

GoTrail does all of that for you. We aggregate real-time data from trusted sources and distill it into a single go/no-go score for each trail.

How It Works

1. Real-Time Data Collection

We pull live weather data (hourly forecasts, precipitation, temperature), road conditions from WSDOT, avalanche forecasts from NWAC, and NWS alerts.

2. Trail-Specific Analysis

Every trail has unique characteristics: elevation, distance, difficulty, nearest pass, avalanche zone. We factor all of this into the score.

3. Simple Go/No-Go Scoring

The result is a 0-100 score with clear categories: GO (green), CAUTION (yellow), RISKY (orange), NO-GO (red). No guesswork.

Data Sources & Attribution

We don't reinvent the wheel. GoTrail aggregates trusted, public data:

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Weather Data: Open-Meteo (hourly forecasts)
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Road Conditions: WSDOT (Washington State Department of Transportation)
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Avalanche Forecasts: Avalanche.org and the National Avalanche Center network
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Weather Alerts: National Weather Service
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Trail Photos: Some photos from Unsplash (free license). Trail images are being replaced with properly licensed or original photos.

What GoTrail Is NOT

❌ Not a substitute for judgment. Use your experience and common sense.
❌ Not real-time trail reports. For boots-on-the-ground conditions, check WTA trip reports.
❌ Not authoritative avalanche forecasts. Always check NWAC directly for avalanche terrain.

Who Built This?

GoTrail was built by a hiker who got tired of tabbing between 5+ websites every Friday night. It's a passion project, open-source, and designed to help the PNW hiking community make better decisions.

Questions? Feedback? Found a bug? Reach out.

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