So it's a bunch of trails, and you want them to check-mark which ones are open?
If it was just a general report of conditions, I'd say a cool way would be use Twitter, have them post a tweet and pull the tweets into the webpage.
If you want a list of check boxes, you might need to use Custom Fields (for example, Custom Field Key=Trail Open, Value= 1. Big trail, 2. Small trail, 3. Scenic Trail, 4. Creek trail, etc), and I'd recommend Custom Fields Templates plugin, it has ability to put a list of checkboxes in the Write Post area. They'd still need to log in to wp-admin area, go into New Post, check the boxes, hit Publish.
If you want them to do it in the frontend w/out going to the backend then use TDO Mini Forms. It accomodates custom fields so that's ok.
Now.... you can just display the latest post and have your Loop include the_meta (which will show all the custom fields attached to that post, or learn the code for pulling 1 custom field at a time). Or you can pull in just the custom fields outside the posts area. You can do it manually with code, or you can try Get Custom Fields plugin that may make it a little easier.
Learning custom fields is.... not too hard... it's a good thing to do. You don't have to "know" PHP, but don't be afraid of reading some PHP to see what it's doing. You gotta study in the Codex for info about Custom Fields and read some tutorials on various sites (find thru Google). Probably the best way to do the trails thing.