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  1. #1

    Default Blood Mountain Wilderness; pink ribbons everwhere

    I was exploring the Blood Mountain Wilderness yesterday.

    I stopped on the AT on the base of the south side of Blood Mnt to grab some water and an older gentleman coming down the mountain stopped to chat. I noticed he has pink plastic ribbon hanging out of his pocket but didnt think twice about it. He didnt have any "official" clothing on. Meaning he didnt appear to be a government employee.

    As I started my ascent up Blood Mnt I noticed pink ribbons tied off every 20-30 ft or so all the way up the Mountain. It was un-sightly, over the top and detracted from the wilderness experience in my opinion.

    Anyone have a clue what they could have been for? Why were so many....every 20-30ft?

  2. #2

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    Also interesting note, I counted at least 35-40 people up on Blood Mnt. I know that place gets ALOT of traffic on the weekends but I was surprised to see that many on a Thursday. One group had at least 20 backpackers.

    I also removed an ungodly amount of trash from this sacred spot. The Cherokee and Creeks raged war over the rights to call this Mountain home. I hate to think about all the lives lost for the privilege to climb this mountain and to go up there and find plastic bottles, beer cans , toilet paper and blunt wrappers all over the place...so disrespectful..... DO BETTER HUMANS!!

  3. #3
    Registered User Tennessee Viking's Avatar
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    Being in a wilderness area, Forest Service would not be too keen on this.
    ''Tennessee Viking'
    Mountains to Sea Trail Hiker & Maintainer
    Former TEHCC (AT) Maintainer

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    october is breast cancer awareness month, thats what the pink ribbons are. maybe he knows someone who survived or died from breast cancer who enjoyed hiking in the area? thatd be my guess.

    i'd file this under well intentioned terrible idea, which is basically how the world rolls these days.

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    yeah....

    i believe there was a breast awareness hike in that area recently.......

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    Quote Originally Posted by TNhiker View Post
    a breast awareness hike
    i wish people would tell me about these things in advance.

  7. #7
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    Can't be sure without seeing the ribbons, but it sounds like it could be flagging tape. It may well have been a GATC trail maintainer flagging sites for trail maintenance work to be done, although typically there would not be more than a couple dozen sites flagged. Many of us are older gentlemen, and we don't wear uniforms (although we do sometimes wear Tshirts (earned by doing 6+ trail work trips in a year) that identify us as trail volunteers.

    If it was a GATC member, we'll pick up the flags as we complete the work.

  8. #8

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    Quote Originally Posted by skater View Post
    Can't be sure without seeing the ribbons, but it sounds like it could be flagging tape. It may well have been a GATC trail maintainer flagging sites for trail maintenance work to be done, although typically there would not be more than a couple dozen sites flagged. Many of us are older gentlemen, and we don't wear uniforms (although we do sometimes wear Tshirts (earned by doing 6+ trail work trips in a year) that identify us as trail volunteers.

    If it was a GATC member, we'll pick up the flags as we complete the work.
    It was flagging tape for sure. And yes your description pretty much fits the gentleman I saw. The ribbons/tape seemed to be spaced evenly up the mountain about every 25 ft.

    Mostly just curious

  9. #9
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    I'll follow up with the maintainer, but sounds like he's just setting up a work trip.

  10. #10

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    Could have been marking for a trail race, I’ve encountered a few while hiking in GA. They always go back and remove the markers.

  11. #11

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    When setting up work projects, we used surveyor or "flagging" tape to mark the start/stop points of treadway improvements work parties were scheduled to work on. We would place a marker at one end (usually the uphill point) of the trail section needing attention and mark the end of that particular treadway improvement using flagging tape. If water water diversion structures were involved in the improvement area the drainage start and exit points would also be marked, either with different colored tape or a note made on the ribbon denoting the type of structure required. As an aside, when tying the flag to a branch or tree we would orient the knot so it "pointed" in the direction of the work area up/down the trail or to the sides. I see this practice still used today and can quickly tell if the markers are for a work party, though its not as common used as it used to be.

    Steep grades can require several sections of treadway to be repaired or re-designed to reduce erosion and offload water that would use a number of markers at stop/stop points as well as water diversion structure start/stop points. This at times created the appearance of markers every 10 yards or so for long stretches of trail. Typically we would mark out the trail improvements about a week prior to work parties arrival which are removed once the party starts their work. Not seeing these flags along the trail, my guess would be work party as opposed to breast cancer awareness in a wilderness area.
    Last edited by Traveler; 10-30-2018 at 07:50.

  12. #12

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    Quote Originally Posted by Traveler View Post
    When setting up work projects, we used surveyor or "flagging" tape to mark the start/stop points of treadway improvements work parties were scheduled to work on. We would place a marker at one end (usually the uphill point) of the trail section needing attention and mark the end of that particular treadway improvement using flagging tape. If water water diversion structures were involved in the improvement area the drainage start and exit points would also be marked, either with different colored tape or a note made on the ribbon denoting the type of structure required. As an aside, when tying the flag to a branch or tree we would orient the knot so it "pointed" in the direction of the work area up/down the trail or to the sides. I see this practice still used today and can quickly tell if the markers are for a work party, though its not as common used as it used to be.

    Steep grades can require several sections of treadway to be repaired or re-designed to reduce erosion and offload water that would use a number of markers at stop/stop points as well as water diversion structure start/stop points. This at times created the appearance of markers every 10 yards or so for long stretches of trail. Typically we would mark out the trail improvements about a week prior to work parties arrival which are removed once the party starts their work. Not seeing these flags along the trail, my guess would be work party as opposed to breast cancer awareness in a wilderness area.


    Interesting! Thanks for the info friend

  13. #13

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    We use orange construction flagging tape when we are doing Orienteering course work set up. The next meet I'm doing course mapping/set-up for, is mid-December. But we've already been out flagging and doing course mapping work on the computer. But we only are flagging the actual location of the orienteering control. And we also write on it "NTOA - 2018 #312". We always have the scout ranger, or local park management aware that we are flagging. When we actually deploy the controls in the park (weekend before the meet, or even just the day before if it is a local city park), we then REMOVE the flagging tape. Post-event, the controls are all picked up AND we tell the teams picking up stuff "clean up as you go....water bottles, papers...pick it all up so the park is BETTER than when we started". When we deploy the gear, we also pick up trash as best we can.

    There can also be a lot of other activities going on. The current park I'm working on, they had loggers in about five areas! So there is "logging boundary" flagging tape (which they left so they know where they were to work or not), there was also some flagging along the Scout trail, plus there was one interesting area. The Scout ranch and a neighbor had up "disputed boundary" flagging tape!!! There is an old fence in that area and I guess they were some discussion on that. And here in Texas, some of the area's we have access to orienteering in, have oil and gas exploration flagging tape in when they are doing exploration.
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