How Crawltrail works

Three things happen here: someone creates a crawl, someone else finds it, and then they go. Here's what each of those actually looks like.

1. Create a crawl

Anyone can create a crawl — no account required. You'll give it a name, a date, and a short tagline, then place stops directly on a map: click where a stop is, fill in its address, description, and whatever's happening there (artists at a site, drink specials at a bar, what's for sale at a garage-sale stop — whatever fits your crawl).

The only thing we ask for is an email address. That's not for a login — Crawltrail doesn't have accounts or passwords. It's how we send you a one-time confirmation link. Nothing about your crawl goes public until you click that link, and once you do, the same link becomes your permanent edit key: the only way to update or take down your crawl later. There's no password to lose, but there's also no recovering that link except through your email — so hang onto it (or the confirmation email itself). If you ever misplace it, you can request a fresh one be sent to the same address.

We also apply some basic, automatic checks (like a rate limit on how many crawls one connection can create in a short window) to keep the map useful for everyone — no manual review queue standing between you and publishing, just enough friction to deter spam.

2. Discover a crawl

Finding a crawl doesn't require knowing its name in advance. Search by what's near you — share your location or just type a ZIP code — and set how far you're willing to travel. Add a keyword if you're looking for something specific. Results are crawls happening now or coming up, sorted so the closest and soonest rise to the top, with a map showing every stop at once.

No location to share and no specific search in mind? Browse everything, same as anyone else.

3. Attend a crawl

Once you've found one, the map is the guide. Every stop is a marker — click it for the address, what's there, and who or what's showing. Work through the stops in whatever order makes sense for your afternoon; nothing about a crawl requires following a fixed path start to finish.

What Crawltrail deliberately doesn't have

• No accounts, no passwords. Ownership of a crawl lives in one emailed link, not a login.
• No cost to create or browse. There's no fee anywhere in this flow today.
• No approval queue. Crawls go live the moment their creator confirms the email — publish first, with reporting and automated abuse checks behind it, rather than a human gatekeeper in front of it.

That trade-off — lower friction to create, in exchange for no recovery path but your own email — is deliberate: it's what makes it possible for anyone, anywhere, to put a crawl on the map without asking anyone's permission first.