Mapping the route to happiness

Chris Rourke

Times Staff Writer

What leads a successful neuroscientist from North Carolina to develop a mobile application that benefits the Gunnison Valley?

"I have a mountain biking problem," said Derrick Nehrenberg, founder of GoMaps. "And I love this area and its people."

GoMaps is the parent company behind the CBG Trails App, available through iTunes and GooglePlay. The app keeps track of the 750 miles of local trails as part of a recently launched competition known as TrailQuest. By creating the desire to log unique miles, the competition is intended to "push" mountain bikers to trails they have never ridden before, thus dispersing traffic.

But the road to Crested Butte, where Nehrenberg landed in 2010, was not a straight path. Living in the Research Triangle area of North Carolina, Nehrenberg — whose doctorate degree was sponsored by both Duke University and the University of North Carolina — was once a neuroscientist who mapped brains. That background gave him the idea that if brains could be mapped, surely there was a better way to track public trails.

On a camping trip near Durango in 2006, Nehrenberg learned of an urgent need for such trail mapping. He and his family got lost on a trail and eventually spent the night in the backcountry, fending off fear and hypothermia. The experience would become the incentive behind GoMaps.

"I thought it was absolutely ridiculous that we got lost on public trails," said Nehrenberg. "I had an idea that it should be a whole lot easier for people to find public trails and follow them."

Four years later — after quitting his research job and moving to Colorado — Nehrenberg found himself building maps from an open database. He mapped everything by hand with a GPS unit and a mountain bike. He started in Fruita, but spent summers in the Gunnison Valley where he would also chart trails.

"The reason I came to Colorado, and here, to do it is because of the sheer quantity of trails," Nehrenberg said. "If you look on a map it’s astounding how many trails there are here."

From Fruita, Nehrenberg moved to Salida seeking more trails to map. The move was fortuitous — in Salida he met his current business partner Aaron Blondeau, a software developer.

After several failed attempts at apps, the partners developed a beta version of GoMaps, intended to improve map styles for mobile devices. Shortly after, they met Gunnison-Crested Butte Tourism Association Executive Director John Norton and developed the current CBG Trail app.

"John Norton came in with the idea to add TrailQuest and it was one of the best ideas we've heard," said Nehrenberg. "It's just a simple game to get people to try out all the trails that you can mountain bike in this area. … It gets people to disperse and try out new things."

The developers are now working on making the app interactive with backcountry "know how" and other information built into the maps. Their goal is to develop apps for more organizations and local governments that want to make trails a draw for tourism.

“Derrick’s been an absolutely great guy to work with,” Norton wrote in an e-mail. “He’s not only produced the best e-maps in the business, he’s produced them on time and on budget. Over 35,000 people have downloaded his maps of our valley’s trails.”

Where Nehrenberg's education and love for mountain biking has come full circle is in helping people live full lives. He realized during his time mapping brains that there would never be a pill invented that is more effective than exercise and nature to make people feel physically and mentally well.

He believes his work in trail mapping has an end goal of getting people outside and moving, which accomplishes many of the things he intended to do by researching the brain — helping people feel better. And, he said, it leads to better conservation of natural areas which also contributes to human health.

"I'm not trying to do something grand or great," Nehrenberg said. "I just want better trail maps and I want them all mapped, and that's what we're working on."

(Chris Rourke can be contacted at 970.641.1414 or at chris.rourke@gunnisontimes.com.)