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Hi, KRooney, For now, we are talking one trail and one place on it. On that trail, there are a few Powers that Be. In descending order, they seem to be the Forest Service, the AMC, and the West End Trail Tenders (founded by Laura and Guy). I know not what they would say about a need for...

The short poles holding up the string are indeed there to try to guide the trampling hordes on the trail in snowless seasons (see the Raven published weekly by Nat Scrimshaw). If they are not tall enough to stick up higher than the snowdrifts, they are worthless for the job we are debating, and...

Aye, Dr. As for Hillwalker's post on this thread, he notes that "improvements" that contribute greatly to hiker safety ( blazing, rescue gear, shelters, bridges) are often removed by the US Forest Service, especially in designated Wilderness areas. For their rationale, please see their...

Not to go too far into the blazing topic of a few months ago on this forum, but... a blaze pole with a cross piece anchored in a cairn where the trail leaves open ledge and enters the thickets of dwarf spruce can do much to save lives of wandering hikers. After all, We blaze trails closer...

My heart goes out to the family of the overdue hiker. Moving on to the rigging topic, for a few decades we have used 5' loops of 1" nylon webbing to move things in building fixtures for erosion control etc. on trails. Logs, rocks, whatever. Choker hitch around the item, two crew per loop with...

So, the Mink Hills. Old roads past many stone walls, graveyards by some, one or two sites of district schoolhouses. Subsistence farms whose last owners passed a century ago. Their hayfields now mature second-growth forests. Blazes needed about as much as more channel buoys in the Piscataqua...

Aye, Salty. The blazes colored dark red, is a signature of a certain far-ranging and very motivated person who delights in opening and marking trails as they see fit, without leave or even contact with the landowner or the adopters. The crew for whom I work adopts Rollins Trail (white...

Apropos of the examples being posted on pgs. 3 and 4 of this thread; What TCD said.

Wee trick of the trade: our blaze paint is from the hardware store. It is Rustoleum latex gloss enamel. Your brush is a 1.5" sash tool. Apply a thin layer of new paint. The blaze must look artificial, with straight edges and right-angle corners. The "gloss" paint is excellent at reflecting...

It is fair to say this: if you are going to open and maintain trails at all, then keeping them marked so the inexperienced can follow them is as much a part of your job as raking drains clean of leaves at least once a year, after snowmelt (we try for twice a year including in November, but that...

The several blazing schemes above reflect the variety of mountains and landowners. Mt. Cardigan is a granite dome mountain without much loose rock from post-glacial frost near the summit; we had quite the time finding rock enough to build 9 cairns on the West Ridge Trail in 1986. Here are...

The Appalachian Trail Conservancy is the hikers' contact for volunteering after H. Helene. Please go to them for updated and authoritative info. Clearing blowdowns and restoring the 862 miles of AT closed from hurricane damage is happening as fast as the local workers can get there. Only...

Permitting schemes or reservations are popular in this country for all kinds of public accommodations, from restaurants to national parks to BSP etc. They work well enough where the few points of access are staffed. That is possible where the roads stop at the edges of the wild lands...

In reply to skiguy and others on this thread: By way of intro, Cardigan Highlanders Vol. Trail Crew tends 20 miles of trail, 10 on Cardigan, 2 on Kearsarge, 6 on Sunapee. Level 1 tending plus level 2 building fixtures is plenty to keep us busy. The dynamic of hiker impacts and fixing erosion...

Washouts do happen. What is best fix? Each site is different. Traffic is different, so if USFS wants to drive pickup trucks along this RR roadbed, then their plan seems most cost-effective and sustainable of the three Peakbagger lists. Of course, people will, and should, walk the railbed...

Well, here we are riding on this merry-go-round, again. This issue of who should pay for what never goes away, but it does die down for several years until a new cohort of people seizes it and trots out the same old proposals. It was old when I first encountered it, and that was almost 40...

I did not think up this reading of the ugly new AMC logo, and I do not have their permission to write the name of the person who did, who does not AFAIK post here. Howsomever, I cannot not share their wit either, so here goes: That Tinkertoy-looking logo just spells "COMA." I recall that...

I agree with sierra's point: warning signs at trailheads and before you reach the dangerous places seem to get the attention of your target audience better than broadcast appeals (not that they should be abandoned). Look at the alpine zone signs in the WMNF and other places. They are part of a...

My report is limited to the Old Bridle Path downhill of Greenleaf Hut: "As is the case everywhere, the steeper the grade, the more problems to fix. This crowded trail is often steep and has dozens of rock steps and about 90 drains from the trailhead up to a curve at the top of a flight of rock...

I am glad the situation has improved over last year, which was rather frantic. Question is, by what measurement can one say the trails are in better shape?