View Full Version : Significance of white blazes?
Does they signify the purity of those hikers who stick to the white blazes and don't veer off to the nearest bar?
Frolicking Dinosaurs
10-09-2006, 22:13
White light is a combination of all colors. I like to think of the AT's hikers as a melting pot of everything humanity has to offer.
saimyoji
10-09-2006, 22:29
Color of the blazes doesn't really matter. They just mark the path from one point to another. Are white blazes any better than blue? yellow? pink? :eek:
A blaze by another color would lead to the same vistas. And if there's a bar somewhere along the way, you can buy me a cold one. :D
Does they signify the purity of those hikers who stick to the white blazes and don't veer off to the nearest bar?
Nope. They just let hikers know where the trail is located, so they don't get lost.
Just Jeff
10-09-2006, 22:47
White is easier to see than brown, like all the crap you're stirring up... :p
White is the most visible color under low light conditions.
Just Jeff
10-09-2006, 23:30
I think they should be an LNT shade of DayGlo neon that also glows in the dark. Better visibility that way. Should probably put a clapper in them, too. Clap twice and a speaker says, "You're still on the trail." Maybe in conjunction with some trip wires to warn newbies when they leave the trail, too.
Kerosene
10-10-2006, 09:45
I don't care what color, shape, or location they are, as long as they're appear somewhat consistently. I really, really, really hate it when the blazing has been pretty good, and then suddenly it disappears and you're not really sure if there are other trails in the area.
Two Speed
10-10-2006, 10:19
. . . Maybe in conjunction with some trip wires to warn newbies when they leave the trail, too.Gets my vote, but I'd like a second set of wires rigged to claymore mines to let the newbs know we're serious about the purity of our hike.
Lone Wolf
10-10-2006, 10:36
Does they signify the purity of those hikers who stick to the white blazes and don't veer off to the nearest bar?
It's to keep the anal sheeple on a straight line to Mecca (Katahdin).
gtothero
10-10-2006, 12:15
I once tried to follow a colorblind hiker on a trail with red blazes. He kept wandering off into the woods. To him, the blazes were about the same color as a tree trunk.
. . . that some guy had a can of white paint in his shed, and one day decided to go mark the trail near his house with it? So, by tradition, it's been white blazed (except there by Dartmouth).
It's not near as significant as the other theories here, though.
The Weasel
10-10-2006, 14:24
Why is it white? Don't you people have lives?
The Weasel
atraildreamer
10-10-2006, 16:34
Why is it white? Don't you people have lives?
The Weasel
Our lives are on the trail...all the other stuff we do is just incidental to getting back on the trail! :sun
Do the white blazes represent a racist idealogue by the trail blazing organizations?
That made me laugh! :D :D
The Old Fhart
10-10-2006, 22:00
The following is from my copy of the "Trail Manual For The Appalachian Trail", publication No. 1, forth edition, 1940 issued by The Appalachian Trail Conference (Incorporated) 901 Union Trust Building, Washington, D.C..
"The standard color of paint used on The Appalachian Trail is white. Experiments have demonstrated that a paint with a titanium oxide base has the greatest durability and presents a luminous appearence which aids in traveling in the evening hours.
General experience has shown that white is the most satisfactory color for trail marking. It has been stated that its distinctiveness is due to the fact that dead white is a color foreign to the woods. In some sections, by reason of local conditions, such as in areas of gray or canoe birch or quartzite rocks, the effectiveness of the white color is reduced somewhat. However, along the entire route, experience has demonstrated that white is the most effective color, resulting in its adoption as the standard for The Appalachian Trail."
Sorry, nothing philosophicial or any deep meaning, just science.
Just Jeff
10-10-2006, 22:26
I like the other explanations better. I'm becoming liberal now, so I don't need facts. (Sorry, couldn't resist... :p )
White is the most visible color under low light conditions.
From my experience with winter hiking in NJ and NY, it seems that the white blaze somehow signals the snow which side of the tree to stick on.
Kerosene
10-11-2006, 10:23
Experiments have demonstrated that a paint with a titanium oxide base has the greatest durability and presents a luminous appearence which aids in traveling in the evening hours.Of course, this only works when the local trail maintainer has taken the time to actually blaze the trail. [Sorry, I'm still a bit perturbed at the lousy blazing between Osgood Tentsite and the Mt. Washington Auto Road as the Trail takes a number of confusing turns without the benefit of any blazing to speak of. :(]
Does they signify the purity of those hikers who stick to the white blazes and don't veer off to the nearest bar?
"white is believed to signify life and purity..."
http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/middle/color2.htm
possibly because WHITE blazes show up better on trees!:D
sherrill
10-11-2006, 11:59
They're white because Chuck Norris told them they had to be.
Whoops, wrong thread. Sorry.
Just Jeff
10-11-2006, 12:05
They used to be all red until Chuck roundhouse kicked Mahousac Notch, and that scared the color out of them. Me, too. (Duck and cover...running back to The NEW Thread...)
hopefulhiker
10-11-2006, 16:14
The white blazes originated from Picasso and Cezannes' cubist period, but later evolved into the rectangularist period, the shape which is currently observed on the trail.. Possibly owing to the Fruedian influence, symbolizing the fact that the trail is longer than it is wide......
Because if they were any other color hardly anyone would have been able to find this web site.
WalkinHome
10-11-2006, 19:53
"Fig", 2000 & 2005 likes to tell folks (those that he thinks he can get away with it that is) that trees with white blazes will eventually turn into white birches and those with blue blazes will turn into blue spruces.
Hey, don't blame me-he said it!!!
The Weasel
10-12-2006, 13:50
MEMO TO SELF: Upon obtaining monetary riches, buy these people lives. If not enough money, sell a few hours of each of their days; they have too much time on their hands if they are analyzing 'white paint'.
The Weasel
Gray Blazer
10-12-2006, 13:55
What's wrong with being white?
The white blazes originated from Picasso and Cezannes' cubist period, but later evolved into the rectangularist period, the shape which is currently observed on the trail.. Possibly owing to the Fruedian influence, symbolizing the fact that the trail is longer than it is wide......
"...& sometimes a WHITEBLAZE is just a WHITEBLAZE!"
Of course, this only works when the local trail maintainer has taken the time to actually blaze the trail. [Sorry, I'm still a bit perturbed at the lousy blazing between Osgood Tentsite and the Mt. Washington Auto Road as the Trail takes a number of confusing turns without the benefit of any blazing to speak of. :(]
I hear you. I was up there in July, and after meeting some thru-hikers off the AT, decided to check things out.
The AT between Osgood Tentsite and the Auto Road is in a wilderness area. In wilderness areas, one thing that they do is try to reduce the trail maintenance, including blazing (most places the AT is over-blazed). But on this section of AT, it appears to be under blazed, especially at trail junctions.
People carrying and using a map should have no problems. It's the hikers that don't carry maps that may have problems following the AT.