Whaddaya think of the Schaeffer signs?

[Squirrel Girl]

I haven't had a chance to see any of the signs that were put up at Schaeffer. What do people think of them? Should other parks in the area think about using them, too?

[BadMammaJamis]

what do the signs say?

[markie]

Dont feed the squirrels!

[RetroG]

Whatever happened to blazes? Simple marks on trees. It seems everyone wants clear signage telling them every turn to take. It takes the exploring aspect out of riding.

[Vecsus]

I don't mind signs at some main points along a trail but it can be easily overdone. I have not been to Shaeffer since the new signs went up. How frequent are they? I personally saw nothing wrong with a simple blaze on a tree now and then. If they went overboard on signs then it will feel like a guided tour or a nature walk. Were people getting lost out there or something?

[Squirrel Girl]

The signs are, I'm told, two posts with a map in between. They are placed at intersections and possibly a few more places. I hope they have a You-Are-Here thing on them.

IMBA is recommending signs and numbers for trails because if an accident occurs, you don't want to have to tell the paramedics, "Wahlllll..... Ya go down thisie here trail for a ways. And when you get to the dead racoon, you turn left. Then you follow that for a ways more...."

Over at ConRob, I've been out there and helped a woman who had a map, but wasn't sure where she was and the whole patch of forest is only about 1 square mile. I also came across a father and two sons on bikes. The one boy, perhaps 10 was left behind and was going cross country to get to his dad while I was out painting blazes on the trail. I was following the newer idea of blazes every 200' or so, and not so that you can always see a blaze at every point along the trail.

I'd like to get some sort of signage at ConRob, so I'm just seeing what people think. One expects MORE people to be a little more on the ball than all trail users, though, so land managers also need to address a more diverse community.

I *had* been thinking of interpretive signs. And, yes, I was going to write something up about Sciurus carolinensis, the Eastern Gray Squirrel. But I'll probably forego those and stick with something simpler.

[drewdane]

I haven't had a chance to see any of the signs that were put up at Schaeffer. What do people think of them? Should other parks in the area think about using them, too?
I was there Sunday, and didn't notice any signs.

[Squirrel Girl]

I was there Sunday, and didn't notice any signs.I think they put more signs up on Monday, but I thought they had a few up before then.

[Johnny Bravo]

I have yet to make a trip to Schaeffer so I can't directly relate to the signs, but I ride at Greenbrier (State Park; Wash. Co.) a lot and they have such signs there. I personally like them there as there are quite a few deer trails & "unblazed" trails (they look pretty "blazed" to me though & I'd have no problem riding them) that criss-cross all over the park that can sometimes be confusing since they look similar. They have trail maps posted only at the trail junctions though so they're not everywhere and then just have regular painted blazes on trees the rest of the way. Greenbrier might be a bit different though as all of the trails there are cleared very well and pretty easy to follow even without a map or tree blazes.

On a related note I finally made my way over to Gambrill yesterday and since I didn't have much time I rode the Red then the Green trails. Both are marked reasonably well, but the forest makup there is noticably different from Greenbrier. I only had the map I printed out from the Gambrill website to guide me and it wasn't much help. I would've been nice to come across a map somewhere along the way I think, but generally their trails are very well marked. I did lose the Green trail up by the lookout/picnic area though and it took me a few min. to figure it out (along with the help of some guy in an Explorer). :D