<span class="Apple-style-span" style="border-collapse:collapse;color:rgb(34,34,34);font-family:arial,sans-serif;font-size:13px">Travis, I like your take. I am planning on hiking the CDT in the next couple of years and what attracts me to the CDT is the uncertainty and organic nature of the experience it offers. I would much rather follow a compass bearing than look through the woods for another piece of flagging tape.<div>
<br></div><div>Cheers</div><div>I think I posted to the list this time:)</div></span><div class="gmail_quote">On Thu, Jan 19, 2012 at 12:31 AM, Brett <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:blisterfree@yahoo.com">blisterfree@yahoo.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><table cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" border="0"><tbody><tr><td valign="top" style="font:inherit">A few thoughts about "the grand proposal" -<br>
<br>First, thinking outside the box is always a good start. Thanks for that.<br><br>Trail maintenance can be a tough sell to thru-hikers during their journey, yet ironically that's when it could do much good, since it's the thru-hikers who patrol the entire trail and its various corridors most intensively, and the thru-hikers coming along behind you that year stand most to benefit from it. The best approach would be to coordinate efforts so everyone does a small but important share of the work, but that kind of coordination is even less likely to get off the ground. Thru-hiking the CDT is a commitment unto itself.<br>
<br>Rogue maintenance of this sort is usually limited to brushing and felling small limbs. Sometimes this can help to better define the corridor, but often it's second fiddle to more substantial work
like tread improvement or even realignment, which is beyond the scope of the solo or small, mobile group outing. <br><br>Cairning is generally preferable to flagging, at least if the cairns are built large enough to be visible over longer distances (when necessary). Flagging is the fast and dirty approach, but most flagging tape won't survive more than a year or two in the sun or cold, so it takes a continuous effort to mark the trail this way, ultimately adding up to more man hours that could be better spent elsewhere. Then there's the aesthetic concern, at least along a trail that historically hasn't been marked that way, at least with any regularity. Flagging can sometimes be useful on obscure sections of singletrack trail, especially at junctions. But it's best limited to the purpose of resolving genuine "WTF" moments, where you're not marking the trail "just because" but out of reasonable assumption that the next hiker would not enjoy the hell you
just endured trying to figure out where to go. These worst-case situations are increasingly rare along the CDT, as hikers increasingly make all the mistakes there are to make and then report them to Jonathan and the guidebook authors, etc.<br>
<br>Signing, as opposed to either cairning or flagging, avoids all ambiguity about what the markings might mean. Flagging, especially, is notoriously generic in nature, usually blaze orange, and might mark anything from the CDT to a surveyor's line for a property boundary. How do you know? You don't, unless it's marked with some identifying words or symbols. And what if the next hiker isn't using the same color tape? CDT-specific signing, such as the official tree blaze emblems or carsonite posts, resolve any ambiguity, but who would have the authority to put these up? Probably not you or me. And for good reason: we might not mark the correct route, which in this case would obviously be limited to the official
route promoted by the CDTA and recognized by federal agencies. Based on how often hikers end up going their own way, either by choice or force, confidence in outsourcing this task to anyone that doesn't operate at the glacially slow pace of federal bureaucracy would probably be ruled unfit for duty.<br>
<br>Thru-hikers and other knowledgeable and passionate trail advocates can certainly play a bigger role in developing and maintaining the CDT. But without an organization grubstaking work events with manpower and equipment, serving as liaison to the federal agencies that oversee the trail corridor, and getting people from the surrounding communities actively involved in the process, there's a heck of a lot of inertia standing in our way. Probably the same inertia that left the CDTA poor and disillusioned. The remoteness of the CDT, and the combination of rugged individualism, quirky tribalism, and laissez-fair that defines the nature of the trail's most
eager advocates and users, all conspire against a well-grounded, grassroots campaign to get the trail fully off the ground in the way of the PCT or AT. Some of the CDT's most shining attributes keep the notion of taming it, even in ways many of us might appreciate, ever elusive.<br>
<br>--- On <b>Thu, 1/19/12, <a href="mailto:cdt-l-request@backcountry.net" target="_blank">cdt-l-request@backcountry.net</a> <i><<a href="mailto:cdt-l-request@backcountry.net" target="_blank">cdt-l-request@backcountry.net</a>></i></b> wrote:<br>
<blockquote style="border-left:2px solid rgb(16,16,255);margin-left:5px;padding-left:5px"><br><div>Message: 3<br>Date: Wed, 18 Jan 2012 22:18:29 -0700<br>From: Travis Naibert <<a href="http://mc/compose?to=tnaibert@gmail.com" target="_blank">tnaibert@gmail.com</a>><br>
Subject: Re: [Cdt-l] A grand proposal<br>To: <a href="http://mc/compose?to=cdt-l@backcountry.net" target="_blank">cdt-l@backcountry.net</a><br>Message-ID:<br> <CADU6-wbtkDdem+<a href="http://mc/compose?to=AfmnNmX6tZBquxA-faS1GOLHxdORFfQUJAaw@mail.gmail.com" target="_blank">AfmnNmX6tZBquxA-faS1GOLHxdORFfQUJAaw@mail.gmail.com</a>><br>
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1<div><div class="h5"><br><br>Though I like the idea of trail maintenance and trail markers in some<br>locations (such as meadows with no obvious exit point, unmapped<br>4x4/ATV road intersections, etc.) I would be horrified to hike the CDT<br>
and see neon tape in the trees every 100 yards. I just hiked the trail<br>last year, so I don't consider myself an old traditionalist, but one<br>of the great things about the CDT is that it is not the type of trail<br>
that you plug in your ipod/pick a lunch spot exactly X.X miles<br>away/put your map away/and walk zombielike (well, except for the road<br>walks). The best part about it is that it is a participatory adventure<br>involving constant attention to the landscape and to
the<br>maps/guidebooks (shout out to Ley and Wolf, thanks!). And, no offense<br>to Lynne or anybody else, but if you think that <60 hikers a year<br>walking through an area following tape is going to create a permanent<br>
trail in the arid rockies you are mistaken. The reason that the trail<br>is so hard to find in many places, even those that the forest<br>service/BLM has "maintained", is the low number of hikers that<br>actually hike the trail. This includes very low numbers of day/weekend<br>
hikers on many parts of the trail. I, for one, consider that part of<br>the appeal of the CDT and don't mind the bushwacking that may be<br>required often. If I wanted a well manicured trail that is well<br>trodden I would repeat my PCT hike, which is packed down by hundreds<br>
of thru-hikers and thousands of day/weekenders, instead of just a few<br>dozen people a year.<br><br>The other problem with neon tape is that in some places it will<br>attract the wrong
kind of use (ATVs, Dirtbikes, etc.)<br><br>I do really like the wiki idea though. This past year Freebie made a<br>CDT 2011 facebook page and most of the SOBOs were on it and some NOBOs<br>too. We all posted trail conditions, water info, town<br>
conditions/restaurant and hotel deals, etc. It was neat to get to town<br>and see what the people ahead of you were posting. I think this would<br>be cool on a wikipedia page, as it could get updated year to year.<br><br>
I have a "lesser proposal" than Lynne's adopt-a-section. What if the<br>CDTS sent a half dozen CDT emblems to each hiker who orders a<br>guidebook or becomes a member and then people could "adopt" one or two<br>
or six difficult and/or unmarked trail junctions while they are hiking<br>by putting up an emblem. This way the route would organically become<br>less difficult without having to see neon tape all over the place. I<br>carry a sharpie when i hike to make notes for other hikers if
needed.<br>It would be useful for writing alternate route junctions on the CDT<br>markers, too.<br><br>Suspect (2011)<br><br><br><br></div></div></div></blockquote></td></tr></tbody></table><br>_______________________________________________<br>
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