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  1. #1

    Default Graffiti along the Appalachian Trail deemed a massive problem - WSLS 10


  2. #2
    Some days, it's not worth chewing through the restraints.
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    Don't forget all the little Gnome gardens. I'm sure plenty think they're cute, but they're just another form of tagging to my eyes. I don't get it... these people bring their sharpies with them everywhere.

  3. #3
    Registered User hobbs's Avatar
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    I posted that article to this years class page on FB told them they made the news locally..
    My love for life is quit simple .i get uo in the moring and then i go to bed at night. What I do inbween is to occupy my time. Cary Grant

  4. #4

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadeye View Post
    I don't get it... these people bring their sharpies with them everywhere.
    They bring everything that people hike the trail to get away from with them.

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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadeye View Post
    Don't forget all the little Gnome gardens. I'm sure plenty think they're cute, but they're just another form of tagging to my eyes. I don't get it... these people bring their sharpies with them everywhere.
    You mean those little gnome sculptures? ... Honestly, that sounds to me like some junk to help pack out with all the other garbage I help clean while I'm out hiking (can't pack out too much extra on a thru hike but I try to do what I could otherwise).
    NoDoz
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    I'm just one too many mornings and 1,000 miles behind

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    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by LazyLightning View Post
    You mean those little gnome sculptures? ... Honestly, that sounds to me like some junk to help pack out with all the other garbage I help clean while I'm out hiking (can't pack out too much extra on a thru hike but I try to do what I could otherwise).
    I think Deadeye is talking bout the rock gnome gardens .
    And the white rock overlook above penmar Park is pretty disgusting with graffiti as well. Why people can't just leave things the way they are, I just don't get it.

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    Now who can argue with that!

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    I think that would qualify as graffiti on the white blazes

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    Some days, it's not worth chewing through the restraints.
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    I was referring to these: but there's also the stacked rocks (I call 'em hoodoos) at White Rocks on the LT/AT and other places. I like the old Long Trail admonition to "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints"

  10. #10
    Some days, it's not worth chewing through the restraints.
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    it appears rdljr took the warning that his post didn't have enough characters to heart

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    Ramdino too talked about this phenomenon in one of his videos. My own theory is that trail trashing (graffiti, genome villages, trail markers, etc.) exploded with AT YouTubers as many take selfies next to those tree trial markers and post them on YouTube. I don't know if that's a word, but I call this "Youtubization" as in "the youtubization of the Appalachian Trail".

  12. #12
    Is it raining yet?
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    The self-centered, the self-ordained, and the otherwise self-obsessed. It's not YouTube it's Instagram & SnapChat.

    I knock down all piles of rocks except where cairns are needed above tree line.
    Be Prepared

  13. #13
    Registered User JNI64's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Deadeye View Post
    I was referring to these: but there's also the stacked rocks (I call 'em hoodoos) at White Rocks on the LT/AT and other places. I like the old Long Trail admonition to "take nothing but pictures, leave nothing but footprints"
    Oh, ok I didn't realize people actually did this. They carry all this crap into the woods and just leave it like it's their own backyard,
    Can't nothing stay sacred anymore. People = s#*#!!

  14. #14

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    Quote Originally Posted by Traveler View Post
    Now who can argue with that!
    That's a LOT of WB Graffiti!
    For a couple of bucks, get a weird haircut and waste your life away Bryan Adams....
    Hammock hangs are where you go into the woods to meet men you've only known on the internet so you can sit around a campfire to swap sewing tips and recipes. - sargevining on HF

  15. #15

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    Quote Originally Posted by BlackCloud View Post
    I knock down all piles of rocks except where cairns are needed above tree line.
    I'm glad I'm not the only one who feels this way.

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    I figured those piled rocks were meant to be there for one reason or another, at the least put out for show by people who maintain the trails. I didn't realize it was a thing to just do this on your own. I guess the main reason I thought that is because they have what they call a "rock garden" on part of the Metacomet Trail (New England Trail) in CT, they even mention it in the CT Walk Book, put out by the CT Forest & Park Association. They had some very unique stackings of rocks and I thought it looked like some really neat art. I know that was meant to be there but apparently it's frowned upon elsewhere. I was a little disappointed to see it all knocked over the last time I went through, I figured it was just some people that don't care out in the woods during the pandemic with nothing to do. I would help knock these over but I wouldn't want to where they are meant to be there.

    I do recall a lot of these stackings on my thru hike in VT and I just figured they were meant to be like the "rock garden". I appreciate the art of some of it but then sometimes it's just a pile of rocks - and if they aren't meant to be there it's another story all together.
    NoDoz
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  17. #17

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    I hate having to clean stuff up like that too rdljr!
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    ..........
    Last edited by 4eyedbuzzard; 06-20-2021 at 20:56.
    "That's the thing about possum innards - they's just as good the second day." - Jed Clampett

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    Here is one article from the Smithsonian Magazine asking people not to stack rocks. There are many others online talking about the deleterious effects to the micro-environment. I have seen signs at several NPS units asking people not to stack rocks. I THINK Delaware Water Gap may have been one of them...

    https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart...ood-180955880/
    Be Prepared

  20. #20
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    A massive problem?

    Not so much.

    The tremendous decline of songbird populations along the AT is a massive problem. There are others.

    Mileage marker graffiti is more like an an assault on some people’s egos — it makes them feel disrespected.

    Better not to participate or encourage so as not to bruise any feelings, but of all the things to stress about, it’s pretty far down the list, IMO.

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