Re: [at-l] blazes, flames, and Garveys

[Tim Hewitt <thewitt@fairchildsemi.com>]

"Cora Drake" <cora_drake@hotmail.com> wrote:
> 
> You know those offset double blazes, the kind of trail turn-signal which 
> shows which WAY to turn by setting the top blaze a little to the left for a 
> left turn and vice versa? -- in the ALDHA newsletter someone's suggested we 
> call those Garveys, because Ed Garvey was so much in favor of them.  I'll 
> vote for that!

One thing to note however; this blaze "standard" is not univerally accepted by
the hiking clubs, and there are many cases where an offset blaze is NOT
indicating a direction you should turn. 

I had a run-in on the trail with another thru-hiker this year. I was taking a
break at a wide turn in the trail. Pilgrim had gone down a side trail to the
spring. Some day hikers were coming up behind us - we had passed them just a bit
earlier. This young thru-hiker was currently hiking with the day hikers, though
he had not been with them 30 minutes earlier when we went by.

He was a young kid who, in his best impetuous, know-it-all voice, announced that
the trail here turned left. I corrected him and told everyone that the trail
here turned right. He stood tall and said that he should know how to read the
blazes, he had walked all the way from Georgia to get here, and that the trail
here turned left.  I told him to go ahead and go left if he wanted, but the
trail to the left led to the spring. The AT here went right. The blazes were not
a direction indicator in this case, as they had not been for the last few days
in this state.  He then told me I was full of crap. I was not going to let him
lead the day-hikers off on a wild-goose chase, so I challenged him to go ahead
and go left if he wanted to. Just then Pilgrim came up from the trail to the
spring and was able to verify that the trail did indeed NOT go that way. The
young kid huffed off in the direction that the AT took after all, though he did
not speak to me when we passed him a few minutes later taking a lunch break.

Don't rely on the offset blazes alone. It pays to have the trail guide with you,
and know where the trail is going to go when you can.

-Paddler
GA>ME Class of 99
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