10/22/24: Blazing Skyland
Yesterday Steve D. and I, TM Craig, hiked from Alexandria 4 Corners west on Skyland Trail. Hiking was slowed by fallen leaves that hide hazards like roots, rocks, limbs on the path etc., but in an hour we reached the col between Brown Mtn. and Church Mtn. After lunch we poured white paint into a large cup and painted westerly with a 1.5" sash brush. Due to twists and turns in the trail, we painted about twice as many blazes as last time. We blaze in both directions; on the return trip we just hike.
We painted thoroughly from that col west to Woodland Trail junction; at 1500 we turned back. We cut and blazed a short relocation around a steep slanting ledge, and made it back to our trucks by 1730.
Time: 1030-1730.
Alex 4 Corns to the col where we started painting is on private land, and the owner wants the trail moved, maybe next year. Stay tuned.
Blazing a trail is not especially fun in itself, until you count the satisfaction of finishing the job and knowing that hikers can safely follow the trail. Remember, our name is on trails we adopt.
Since mid-August, the weather has been warm and dry, with maybe two days of rain per month. People on our crews have brushed the trail on the ridge of the Cardigan range from Orange Cove to Alex 4 Corners.
Highlanders have re-blazed in WHITE from Orange Cove over Firescrew to Cardigan summit, and thence down past South Peak to Rimrock. Blazers trimmed branches hiding the blazes from approaching hikers, and painted new ones on trees now grown enough to hold a blaze.
Repeating some info for new readers of this website: We blaze trails closer than some manuals recommend, because...
A) Hikers unfamiliar with a trail do depend on blazes to guide them, and
B) At treeline, there is much open ledge and no obvious trail corridor to follow without blazes. Trails wind among clumps of spruce. Without blazes on rocks, trees, blaze boards, and cairns, there is no way to tell where the trail goes.
Craig Sanborn,,CHVTC
Trailmaster