What are the rules for painting white blazes?

[jima59]

Didn't know any one group "owned" a section of the trail. No need for blazes every few yards as long as the trail path is clearly there.

[weary]

Didn't know any one group "owned" a section of the trail. No need for blazes every few yards as long as the trail path is clearly there.

Once one has worked on a section of the trail for years, it is natural to develop a sense of ownership.

Maintainers who do good work, year after year, gradually come to think of their section as "my" section. I certainly did after 2 or 3 decades of going to my section, year after year, decade in and decade out.

Those who think this is wrong should try it themselves for a few decades. They may find that gradually, they too, may develop a similar sense of ownership.

[ShoelessWanderer]

In general I'd say that blazing needs to be left to the trail overseer...for a multitude of reasons, but mainly in case they know something about the future of the trail that you don't. If you feel like a trail isn't blazed adequately then contact the maintaining club so they can make that decision. Sometimes as a trail overseer we hike the same few miles SO much that we know the trail and we forget that most other people walking through aren't as familiar with the trail.

[Rain Man]

... Sometimes as a trail overseer we hike the same few miles SO much that we know the trail and we forget that most other people walking through aren't as familiar with the trail.

That's absolutely true in spots. It's also true that "good" blazing for a level, smooth footpath on a sunny, clear, afternoon in the spring, might be "poor" blazing for a steep boulder field or swampy area on a rainy, dark, foggy, evening in the fall.

The "bible" on all this is the ATC's own "Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance" volume. I recommend all AT hikers purchase and study a copy--
Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance

RainMan

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[One Half]

Many years ago I worked with friends who also were scout leaders. They had adopted a section of the AT to maintain. My DH and I would go on their trips with them because 1) we had no kids at the time 2) they couldn't get enough scout parents to go and 3)we learned a lot about water bars (97 of them in our short stretch). It was some of the best days we had. After our son was born and he got a bit older we adopted a section near the one we used to maintain (this was an official adoption with the AT to be caretakers of the section). We had to go through a class and learn about blazing and maintaining the corridor and making and maintaining water bars. We chose our section for a number of reasons. Even though it was physically very far from our house it was near an AT bunkhouse where we could stay the day we drove up, get free breakfast since we were doing maintenance that day, the trail leading into our section was very easy for our son to navigate at 5 years old, there was water available at the trail junction to our section and a tent platform not far from there if we wanted to really take a break, our section was fairly level as it ran on a contour line more or less, and we could hook up with another section of trail to make a loop instead of having to retrace our whole route in. It made it very easy to do 1 day of maintenance so we didn't have to overnight with our son as he wasn't ready for a few reasons. We would then head home and grab a 'restaurant meal' before heading home. It wasn't too much for 1 day and allowed us to go at our son's pace. We also were able to bring a camera and a wildlife book to help identify plants. Our son loved to take pictures of everything and if we couldn't identify it when we were there we could always look it up later using the pictures. We also had to submit work reports when done and had to do a minimum number of trips each year. It really was a great experience.

[ShoelessWanderer]

That's absolutely true in spots. It's also true that "good" blazing for a level, smooth footpath on a sunny, clear, afternoon in the spring, might be "poor" blazing for a steep boulder field or swampy area on a rainy, dark, foggy, evening in the fall.

The "bible" on all this is the ATC's own "Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance" volume. I recommend all AT hikers purchase and study a copy--
Appalachian Trail Design, Construction, and Maintenance

RainMan

.

That's another good point...we're normally only on our sections during the day in good weather.

[Odd Man Out]

The universal rule about blazes is.
1. No one will be happy; there will either be too many or too few.
2. any question; refer to rule 1.

It's a metaphor for the US political system.
You can make half the people happy by being very conservative.
You can make half the people happy by being very liberal.
Often, the best solution is to be moderate, but then no one is happy.