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Unridden Area Ambassadors

The local trail nerds — and we mean that in the best possible way.

An Ambassador is someone who knows a riding area inside and out. They have likely lived nearby for at least a year, ridden all or nearly all of the trails in the area, and understand the local trail networks well enough to know what belongs, what does not, what is legal, what is questionable, and what everyone actually calls that one trail despite what the map says.

In short: Ambassadors help make sure Unridden reflects the real-world riding experience of a place.

How to Become an Ambassador

  1. Read this page — you're already doing it.
  2. Read the Ambassador Guidelines to understand what's expected, what's not, and how Ambassadors keep the map honest.
  3. Read and accept the Ambassador Code of Conduct .
  4. Email help@unridden.app with: which area(s) you're interested in, how long you've lived there (or if you're not local, why you feel qualified), and why you'd be a good ambassador for that area.

Already an ambassador? Read the Area Setup Guide for the full walkthrough of setting up your area.

Areas Looking for an Ambassador

These areas don't yet have an ambassador. If you know one of them well, we'd love to hear from you.

What Ambassadors Do

One thing worth knowing up front: the Ambassador role involves a fair bit of screen time. You'll use a web-based mapping tool to define boundaries and clean up trails, and you may need to cross-reference other websites to verify names, ratings, or closures. Decent comfort with web apps goes a long way here.

Define the Area Boundary

Ambassadors help define the general boundary for an area using a mapping tool.

This does not need to be survey-grade precision. No theodolite required. The goal is simply to create a "good enough" outline so Unridden knows where to look for trails that may belong to that area.

Define Sub-Areas

Some riding areas are made up of smaller, well-known trail networks. Ambassadors help define those sub-areas.

For example, Bend, Oregon might be the main area, with sub-areas such as:

  • Phil's
  • Wanoga
  • Mt. Bachelor
  • Horse Ridge

Sub-areas do not require drawing separate boundaries. Instead, you define the names of the sub-areas, and as trails are assigned to them, Unridden builds the sub-area based on those trails.

Not every area will need sub-areas, and that is totally fine.

Review and Manage Trails

Trails in Unridden are currently sourced from OpenStreetMap, or OSM. Once an area boundary is defined, Unridden imports the OSM trails within that area.

From there, Ambassadors help clean things up and make the area accurate. This includes:

  • Enabling or disabling trails. OSM can include oddball trails, non-bike-legal routes, duplicate-ish segments, connector bits, mystery paths, and other map goblins.
  • Adding, editing, or verifying trail difficulty ratings. Local knowledge matters here. A blue trail in one place is sometimes a spicy blue somewhere else.
  • Renaming trails when needed. If the OSM name does not match the official or commonly used local trail name, Ambassadors can help correct it.

Maintain Trail Closure Status

Ambassadors help keep trail closure information up to date as best they can.

When you learn that a trail is closed, you can mark it as closed in Unridden. When it reopens, you can update it again. We are also working on a system that allows users to report closures, which would notify Ambassadors for that area.

We know closure information can sometimes be hard to find or verify, so this is a best-effort responsibility. But whenever possible, we want to avoid giving riders credit for riding closed trails. Trail karma matters.

What Ambassadors Get in Return

Unridden Area Ambassadors are unpaid volunteers, but we want the role to feel appreciated, useful, and fun — not like homework with tire tracks.

As an Ambassador, you will receive an Ambassador badge or indicator on your profile/name so other users can recognize your role in helping maintain an area.

As Unridden grows, our goal is to offer additional perks such as:

  • Ambassador-specific swag and clothing. This could range from stickers and small items to jerseys, socks, or other gear that identifies you as an Unridden Ambassador.
  • Ambassador meetups, riding weekends, or events. We would love to organize occasional rides, gatherings, or destination weekends for Ambassadors and possibly the broader Unridden community, with special roles or perks for Ambassadors.
  • A voice in shaping Unridden. Ambassadors are exactly the kind of people we want feedback from. You know trails, you know your local riding scene, and you will likely have ideas that make Unridden better.

This is a volunteer role, but our goal is to make it rewarding — through recognition, community, gear when possible, and the satisfaction of helping riders discover, track, and complete the trails in the places you know best.

In other words: you bring the local knowledge, we bring the badge, the tools, and eventually maybe a jersey that makes you 7% faster.