Mile markers on Smart's Brook Trail -- any others?

[Mohamed Ellozy]

A few years ago, descending Smart's Brook Trail, I noticed a mile marker:

On other trips I noticed a second one:

and an unmarked marker (an oxymoron ) almost exactly half a mile below the 3½ mile marker:

I have not noticed any such markers on any other trails, but they are pretty unobtrusive until you know where they are, and I may have missed some. Has anyone seen similar markers elsewhere?

 

[Hillwalker]

Old enameled mileage markers

There are a few on the Black Angel Trail. Or at least there were back in 1984 when I was the adopter of that trail.

 

[kltilton]

The Highwater Trail near the Wild River has ones just like the one you posted.

 

[Snowflea]

Not in the Whites, but three trails quickly come to mind:

-- C&O Canal Towpath, 184 miles along the Potomac River

-- Laurel Highlands Trail, 70 gorgeous miles in south-central Pennsylvania

-- Mt. Si, 4 miles near Seattle (IIRC, every 1/2 mile)

-- Ouachita Trail, 220 miles in Oklahoma & Arkansas, supposed to have mile markers, but about half were missing as of Jan. 2009

Wouldn't want to see them on every trail, but they're kind of fun once in awhile. Can time mile splits easily if you're into that sort of thing!

 

[jniehof]

I wonder if they're still there--how old are your photos? I haven't been up Smart's Brook since April 2006, before the blaze removals started. I can't imagine obscuring blazes but leaving mileage signs

 

[Mohamed Ellozy]

This set of photos was taken yesterday

I was worried that posting them might encourage the Wilderness Police to go after them; that is why I did not geocode them. They are very easy to miss unless you know where they are ... looking at every tree along the trail to find them is not a realistic option.

 

[Hillwalker]

Inviolate

I'm pretty sure that they would qualify as "cultural artifacts" in the National Forest and then would be illegal to remove. Even by USFS employees.

http://www.fs.fed.us/r9/forests/white_mountain/recreation/heritage/

 

[DrewKnight]

Given the history and heritage of logging in Waterville Valley, I'd have to guess it was a marker for skidders or logging trucks (or I suppose wagon teams?). I suspect Smart's Brook Trail was a trunk trail fed by the smaller logging roads that have grown back in; further guessing that, as a trunk that was used year-over-year, it was worth marking for distance for the crews.

 

[RoySwkr]

There are a few on the Black Angel Trail. Or at least there were back in 1984 when I was the adopter of that trail.

Yup, and they seem to start from the Wild River Trail not the new beginning of the trail.

There are/were enamel mile markers on many trails in the Whites, usually not continuous, but I can't name which trails offhand.

 

[Peaks]

AT in Maine

As I recall, along the AT in Maine there are milages painted on rocks to the end of each section, or at least in certain sections.