[Tagging] relations & paths

Kevin Kenny kevin.b.kenny at gmail.com
Tue May 12 17:43:04 UTC 2020


On Tue, May 12, 2020 at 1:03 PM Peter Elderson <pelderson at gmail.com> wrote:
> My view is that a route should have an indication on the ground. A sign, a trailhead, something. No verifiable indication whatsoever, then it's not a route.
>
> The length or the number of ways in the route does not make a difference to me.

That's indeed the meaning of 'waymarked' in Waymarked Trails.  If a
trail has a distinguishable waymark (signage, blaze, ducks,
guideposts, whatever is used in a given locale) it gets a relation. No
waymark, it doesn't. Length has nothing to do with it.

I'll bend the rules slightly for named routes that are listed in
multiple guidebooks, because otherwise some major trails would be
lost. The Benton MacKaye Trail is not waymarked in certain wilderness
areas, but is described in numerous guides, named, and maintained to
the extent of occasionally cutting brush, clearing blowdown, and
repairing water bars on the treadway. In general, wilderness trails,
even if nominally waymarked, require good navigational skills, since
trail visibility may be very poor indeed. The more remote trails also
don't have a lot of vegetation control or get a lot of traffic. I've
occasionally gone an entire day without meeting another party -
although that was often 20-30 km from anywhere you can park a car,
which filters out a lot of hikers.

In the US, walking and MTB trails are likely to have only a splash of
paint on trees at intervals.  The blue-green paint blazes seen in
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ke9tv/14018094576 are pretty typical.
The trails that they mark range in length from a few hundred metres
(short access trails leading to parking lots, campsites, views,
whatever) to a few thousand km (the National Scenic Trails). In remote
areas, trails might go a few hundred metres between even paint blazes;
they don't have a lot of reassurance markings. More popular trails, or
ones nearer the 'front country' are likely to have marks frequent
enough that you're always in sight of one.

-- 
73 de ke9tv/2, Kevin



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