Ridecamp: Re: Re:[RC] Trail Marking

I learned the hard way about yellow, yellow and black stripes, etc.  Lime
green and blue don't work in forests, either.  We use pink and white (two
ribbons on each clothespin) and for a separate section.....pink with black
polkadots.  I make signs on neon pink card stock with a simple printing
program (Print Artist).....arrows, information, landmark names, etc.  For
the nighttime trail I'm starting to use white card stock instead of pink.
And green light sticks, too, plus red ones for hazards, such as low branches
or irreparable holes in the ground.

Barbara McCrary
Ride manager, Swanton Pacific 75/100

----- Original Message -----
From: "Linda B. Merims" <lbm@xxxxxxxxx>
To: <ridecamp@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Wednesday, September 04, 2002 11:08 AM
Subject: Re: Re:[RC] Trail Marking


> Good ideas that turn out to be bad ideas:
>
> Yellow marking ribbons
>
> Reason:  sunlight through green leaves creates a yellow
> "halo" around the leaves.  The yellow ribbons disappear
> into the yellow halos.
>
> Red/Black striped marking ribbons
>
> Reason:  can you spell "camouflage"?  The red just
> doesn't show up, and the black melts into the
> shadows.
>
> Yellow/Black striped marking ribbons
>
> Combine both reasons above.  There's one ride manager
> around here who always marks this way and one
> simply can *not* persuade her that it's a bad
> idea.
>
> The problem with trail marking is that it's hard to
> figure out what you've done wrong until the ride is
> in progress and the first people come back and
> start telling you how they got lost.  The worst
> mistake I ever made as a trail marker was putting
> up a sign on the dirt road into the camp.  The riders
> were going to be departing along the same dirt road,
> so I put up a hand-lettered sign taped to a step-in
> plastic fence post that directed the arriving rigs to
>  "Go slow.  Horses on road."  I didn't look at the
> *back* of the piece of 8.5 x 11 laminated plastic sign
> I had grabbed out of my marking box.   It was printed
> with a big arrow that pointed the departing
> riders in exactly the wrong direction; telling them to
> turn right as they left camp when they should have turned
> left.  Miraculously, it only screwed up two groups
> of riders.  Everybody else followed the day-glo
> orange surveyor tape like they were supposed
> to.
>
> Linda B. Merims
> lbm@xxxxxxxxx
> Massachusetts, USA
>
>
>
>
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