[Cdt-l] Lynne & plastic litter

[Dan Bedore]

In case you haven't been reading  and understanding the responses  to your repeated suggestions, allow me to summarize:

Most of the hikers on this board are in favor of having a permanent, distinct CDT trailbed with appropriate, long lasting markers. Paint blazes, ax blazes, cairns, and metal placards nailed to trees will all last many years.  Several hikers have explained to you that Plastic tape will rot and fall to the ground within a year. In a little travelled section of the trail, at most 50 people will hike past it while it's still in the tree. Then it will fall to the ground and be an eyesore. When someone like me comes along, they will quietly curse, then fill their pockets with rotten plastic tape, and the dirt and bugs that are on the tape, and haul it as much as 100 or more miles to the next trash can. 

Tape is most certainly not like a paint blaze. Paint blazes stay on trees. If a tree falls and the paint blaze needs to be removed, the bark and the blaze can be broken up and tossed into a bush to compost. Paint blazes never have to be packed out as litter. After a year or so, all tape becomes litter and someone like me has to pack it out. 

You seem to be suffering from the delusion that you're among the 99%. You've gotten enough replies here to let you know that you're the 1%. The 99% would like to have a trail that has not been deliberately littered with tape. 

Only the AT has sufficient traffic to support businesses on its own. The other dozen national scenic trails and other long distance trails do well enough with whatever businesses happen to be around. 

Personally, I like the fact that the CDT is different than the AT, and both are different than the Florida Trail, etcetera.  If they were all the same, I'd have gotten bored and quit long ago. 

If you are overdosing on cortisol and stress hormones from navigation issues on the CDT, maybe it's not the trail for you. The AT, the Florida Trail, the Ouachita Trail, and several others have continuous chains of visual markings, and distinct trail beds, making navigation quite simple and relatively worry free. There is a trail that meets your needs, but maybe the CDT isn't it. 

It's true that I only have ten thousand miles of long distance hiking experience. That's not as much as I'd like to have. And yes, I still complain of plastic tape littering the ground, of bright red beer and coke cans tossed along the trail, and of abandoned boots tossed on the trail where I have to haul them several days to the next dumpster. I don't anticipate that I'll like litter any more when I've walked 50 or 100,000 miles. 

The purpose of this board is to share advice, opinions, and ideas. You explained your idea. We understand it. We gave you our feedback. Whether or not you like the results, the board functioned perfectly. 

I wish you good luck in improving the CDT. Please don't use plastic tape to mark it.