[Cdt-l] surveyor tape

[bcss at bresnan.net]

No doubt the trail needs to be better marked, but thru hikers trying to get
20+ miles a day are not going to do a very good job.  When they get lost and
find themselves again who is going to go back and pick up the mess?      

 

Survey tape is a non starter.  It is illegal littering unless you have
authority and USFS will never go there. Marking 3,000 miles of trail with
survey tape would be an environmental travesty. USFS puts it up for a
variety of reasons - timber management, defining boundaries, and for new
trail construction.  We occasionally put small amounts up when we surveyed
the trail in some poorly marked areas, but that was to guide workers in to
improve it later. A good example is that big burned area in NM segment 11 in
which many people became lost in 2009. We marked it and a USFS cutting crew
followed afterwards to clean it up.  

 

I personally think the way to get it properly marked would be for small
crews to section hike it while using gps to adhere strictly to the now
established line.  These crews could put up signage, trail markers, build
cairns, etc. to better delineate the route. There needs to be standards for
how that is done so it is not over marked or under marked. Even the type of
marker used varies depending upon the management plan for the area being
worked.  This was one of the goals of CDTA and it's a shame they didn't get
there, but there needs to be some sort of organizational strategy in order
to get it done.  

 

 

 

best wishes,

 

Jerry Brown (bearcreek)

 

 

 

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