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squirrel bait
01-19-2004, 19:18
{rain, wind, direction, fog, height :datz , terrain, location, trends, history, etc....}
Which can you [hiker after some miles/days/weeks/years] on the trail smell the longest away?

a] wood smoke
b] tobacco smoke
c] cologne/perfume
d] a town
e] other hikers
f] something else

rickb
01-19-2004, 22:12
Number 1: A town with a paper mill still working. Berlin, NH could be smelled at least as far north as Gentian Pond, probably farther. Not sure how far these days.

Peaks
01-20-2004, 10:24
Rick, an interesting reply. But, one thing that struck me while on that section was how far you could see the smoke from the cog railway.

If the paper mills smell bad, I wonder what the zinc smelting plant smelled like in Leigh Gap when that was operating.

But I think that wood smoke has the most lasting scent in the woods. I remember hiking through burned over sections that you could still catch the smell in.

Doctari
01-20-2004, 11:23
I think that wood smoke carries furthest, or as posted the smell of a factory. I havn't been near a factory yet on the AT, and I don't notice wood smoke usually. But I can smell cigarette smoke a mile away.
And I smell Pot smoke even further, well, I don't exactly smell it, I am allergic to it, so I "sense it" by starting to have trouble breathing.

Doctari.

icemanat95
01-20-2004, 11:55
I voted for cologne, but upon reflection, woodsmoke/burning carries very well. Though this is hard to quantify since the concentration in the air from smoke is much higher than cologne or perfume.

I could smell folks upwind from a LONG way away based on the small amounts of material given off by their colognes. perfumes, soaps, deodorants, etc. and was actually able to track people by scent back to which vehicle they got out of.

Taken on a parts per million level, cologne is probably more potent, but smoke has greater volume and thus longer carrying ability.

The scent that surprised me most on the trail was perfume type scents. I was amazed at how far away I could smell them. Woodsmoke is hardly a surprise at all. The perfume scenting represents a significant change in sensory perspective. I'm sure I always smelled it, but my mind filtered the information out as "normal." Out in the woods, hiker body odor, dirt, water, etc. all became "normal" and perfumes and such became abnormal and thus noteworthy. So for me, it is not so much what scents I could catch from furthest away, as which scents became most noticeable to me from further away than I ever imagined possible.

Jaybird
01-20-2004, 12:09
i can smell a town (when hiking near one) if there's anytype of fast food cooking! Pizza, burgers, etc.,etc.,etc.


those are the good smells......


ON THE OTHER HAND (as Randy Travis would sing....)


if the smells are bad....i can smell.....those rendering type plants from far away....cigar or cigarette smoke & i am especially in tune with the smell of alcohol near-by! (or those consuming said beverages) :D


see ya'll out there in 2004!

Kerosene
01-20-2004, 12:11
I wonder what the zinc smelting plant smelled like in Leigh Gap when that was operating.I walked through this section in 1974 and again a few years later. It was not pleasant, but what was worse was the sense of dread and death as you walked along the ridge above the plant. What a mess.

Kozmic Zian
02-12-2004, 14:14
I think that wood smoke carries furthest, or as posted the smell of a factory. I havn't been near a factory yet on the AT, and I don't notice wood smoke usually. But I can smell cigarette smoke a mile away.
And I smell Pot smoke even further, well, I don't exactly smell it, I am allergic to it, so I "sense it" by starting to have trouble breathing.

Doctari.
Yea, Smoke............I think Doc hit it. Wood smoke or smoke from the fire pit. I can always tell when I'm gettin' near the shelter, if someone's there with the fire goin', and I'm downwind. Perfume second, but who wear's that on Da Trail? Pot smoke....we'll, yea, you can smell it, OK. Not as offensive as Cig's to me, I don't smoke either one. I just dodge the cig smoke...like a runnin back headin to paydirt. Sometimes Pipesomke smells pretty good, makes ya wanna try some...Na ain't gonna hatchie GI. A good hard wood and fur branch camp fire is the best, though. Good smokin'.....KZ@

walkon
03-09-2004, 12:52
after a couple months on the trail i have smelled some perfume up to 5 minutes before i came across the wearer.
walkon

flyfisher
03-09-2004, 13:23
woodsmoke would be my second furtherest...

However, the smell of coming rain, ozone I guess, comes from a long way away.

ga2me97
03-09-2004, 13:33
It would have to be wood smoke for me. I'm a forester / wildland firefighter with the Florida Division of Forestry so that's something I'm trained to zero in on.

Skyline
04-29-2005, 17:58
There's some kind of factory near the long bridge in Pearisburg that I recall stinking for miles going north. And yeah, the smell of that paper mill in Gorham (Berlin) is the worst.

Otherwise, of the choices given in the poll I think wood smoke would be tops. And it's a pleasant, feel-good aroma that beckons one toward it. Forest fires excepted of course.

TDale
04-29-2005, 19:39
I'll have to go with rain, too. Such a wonderful smell on the breeze.

The Old Fhart
04-29-2005, 20:39
"And yeah, the smell of that paper mill in Gorham (Berlin) is the worst."To be fair, the paper mill in Berlin has cut way back on the smell. I grew up in West Milan, a small town 13 miles NW of Berlin, and in the 1940s and 1950s you could smell the mill up there, if the wind was right.

Roland
04-29-2005, 20:46
To be fair, the paper mill in Berlin has cut way back on the smell. I grew up in West Milan, a small town 13 miles NW of Berlin, and in the 1940s and 1950s you could smell the mill up there, if the wind was right. Smell? What smell??? ;)

LEGS
04-29-2005, 21:30
Coffee! Nuff Said!