[Cdt-l] A Grand Proposal / flagging tape

[Brett]

Having flagged a 700+mile route (the GET) several times over several seasons all by my lonesome, I can confirm that:

Flagging tape is not an environmental disaster when used judiciously, as the half life for plastic flagging 
is around 6 months to a year, and when it's gone it's pretty well gone, 
especially in a UV intensive environment like the CDT. The only disaster is the one you discover after laying flagging for weeks, only to return in a few months and find that it's already disintegrating toward nothingness. With higher quality flagging, you merely get to delay this sinking feeling for some additional months. Or you could use cloth flagging tape, which is equally biodegradable but probably not more so than the plastic stuff. Cloth tape can be more prone to shredding and fading, though.

Flagging tape isn't something you 
want to be dealing with every 100 yards, whether on the giving or 
receiving end, but is fine for marking occasional rough spots, 
junctions, and so forth.

Flagging tape would be a poor choice for marking the official route of the CDT, other than as a stopgap in areas of "undo navigational challenge" until approved, permanent markings are established.

Flagging tape would be a poor choice for marking the alternate routes of the CDT, other than as a stopgap in areas of "undo navigational challenge." The alternates routes are too numerous, divergent, and prone to personalization that marking them with a breadcrumb of any sort would serve little purpose unless your goal were to turn around and retrace the route you just took in reverse. For anyone but you, the breadcrumb provider, they would be an annoyance or distraction at best, and a bum steer leading to a bad deal, at worst.

While I really would love to think that a better marked CDT would be a more traveled CDT, and a more traveled CDT would be more of a self-maintaining entity, I don't know if that logic would hold up in the real world. There are plenty of reasons today's hikers travel a multitude of routes rather than sticking with the official CDT, but navigational facility has little to do with those choices. As long as there are incentives to go your own way (scenery, access to water, shortcuts, resupply opportunities, etc.) hikers will continue to do that, and navigation will remain an active pastime of the CDT hiker. The potential pool of hikers interested in taking on the additional challenge and effort of such a route will always be a thin sliver of the populace indeed.

- blisterfree

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