The status of blazing?

[Barkingcat]

...Great Western Trail, Dixie National Forest...

 

[Barkingcat]

...and, one final one -- Rainbow Trail, heading up Carter Dome.

 

[maineguy]

All I know is that the Adams Slide Trail needs to be re-blazed. There's one section where it seems just about everbody loses the trail.

Agree. And, those two shelters at the junction of the Wamsutta, Great Gulf, and Six Husbands Trails need better directional signs. I couldn't find them the last time I was there

 

[JoshandBaron]

...and, one final one -- Rainbow Trail, heading up Carter Dome.

At one point that trail was blazed with metal rectangles.

 

[Barkingcat]

At one point that trail was blazed with metal rectangles.

They are still there, in many places. Between those and the axe blazes, you can follow the trail relatively easily in the winter, through deep snow, in the open birch glades at lower elevation. (The trail borders or is in wilderness, so there are no paint blazes, or at least there weren't a couple of years ago.)

 

[skiguy]

Somewhere in Henniker today. I could see eight red blazes from this spot.

Looks more like a boundary line swath and blazing than a trail.

 

[Ken MacGray]

Looks more like a boundary line swath and blazing than a trail.

Indeed, but this was at a trail junction. Out of frame to the right is a white-blazed trail that was more reasonably marked.

 

[Creag Nan Drochaid]

Whether you are talking about hiking or climbing (or skiing, for that matter), the important thing for land managers is to understand the REAL user population. Not some fantasy population imagined in a unit management plan, or some fantasy based on a government designation of what the "land classification" might be. Or some fantasy that you can somehow "change" the user population into something different from reality.

If you understand who the actual users are, then you can manage the resource (how to blaze the trails, for example) appropriately, based on reality. If you are working based on fantasy, you will end up fighting with purists about "too many blazes" or on the other hand whining about how much more money you need for SAR.

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

 

[KRooney]

The difficulty is defining who the "real users" are. Reminds me of the old expression "where ya stands depends upon where ya sits".

 

[skiguy]

The difficulty is defining who the "real users" are. Reminds me of the old expression "where ya stands depends upon where ya sits".

Also defining the real stewards of the trail can be difficult. Therefore blazing standards can vary greatly. Not all trails are within National Forests. Conservation land can be particularly precarious. Doing a short hike a few days ago on a local trail within a conservation easement the blazing if you want to call it that was a combination of trees with surveying tape, metal tags and yes wands that were actual supports for maple sugaring lines. Then of course people who are not the actual land owners or official stewards of the land can take things into their own hands without permission and get creative. Which in turn can open more than one can of worms.