Trail markers have gone downhill in the last 10 years

I was hiking the Pemi Loop last weekend and nearly took a wrong turn because some idiot spray painted over the actual blazes. Back when I started hiking in 2012, the White Mountain club kept those things spotless. Now I see people adding their own markers or moving rocks to make fake cairns. It really messes up the route for everyone else. Has anyone else noticed this getting worse on other trails?

2 comments

2 Comments

hill.jade10d ago

That's actually the AMC you're thinking of" - yeah, I get those two mixed up all the time too (there are just too many acronyms in hiking). Speaking of fake cairns, I was on the Falling Waters trail last fall and someone had built a little rock pyramid that pointed straight into a muddy drainage ditch. I almost followed it too, which would have been a great way to ruin my boots.

laura94011d ago

Oh I have to push back a little on "the White Mountain club kept those things spotless" - that's actually the AMC (Appalachian Mountain Club) you're thinking of, not the White Mountain club (which isn't really a thing, though the White Mountain National Forest folks do some trail work too). I've been hiking in the Whites since 2009 and the AMC trail crews have always been amazing, but they rely on volunteers and budgets that have been getting tighter every year. Last summer I saw a perfectly good wooden blaze on the Bonds that had faded so bad you could barely see it, and nobody had gotten around to repainting it yet. The fake cairns are definitely a problem though, especially on the Osseo Trail where someone built a whole rock tower that pointed hikers straight into a boggy section last fall.