Heart Trail Markers in CT and NY

[Little Brother]

My brother and I are section hiking, and have found trail markers that are a white tin can top with a red heart in the center. We first saw them just south of Salisbury CT and have seen them from there all the way down to Rte 301 in NY where we hiked this past week. They are not consistently present. We are simply curious if anyone out there knows what they are or were for?

[The Old Fhart]

If you use the WB 'search' feature for 'red heart blaze' you will find there have been a couple of other threads on this subject over the last two years with no definite answer; but there have been some interesting, and humorous, guesses.

[gsingjane]

I've seen the blazes you are talking about dozens of times but I think the answer of what they're doing there is destined to remain a mystery.

Jane in CT

[LIhikers]

I've seen them as far south as northern PA and as far north as mid MA. I'm section hiking the trail and only have done from Harper's Ferry to mid MA, and that's taken me a few years to do, so those heart markers may be beyond where I've seen them. But like Jane says, this may be one of those things that goes down in trail legend without an explanation.

[Brushy Sage]

I still think the maintainers should remove them.

[Cosmo]

Interesting, I thought they were just a local problem (SW Mass). I have not seen them north of Jug End. If you see one in Mass, feel free too take it down. That's what we instruct maintainers to do. However they can be difficult to remove w/o a pry bar or claw hammer.


Cosmo