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Warning: The Appalachian Trail has over 160,000 white blazes, and I spent a week of my thru hike just counting them
Found that number in a trail maintenance flyer at a shelter near Hot Springs, NC, and it stopped me cold. Suddenly every painted tree I had walked past for 3 weeks felt like a small gift from a stranger with a bucket. Anyone else find a random fact on trail that changed how you looked at the markers?
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murphy.blair16d ago
That line about every painted tree feeling like a small gift from a stranger with a bucket hit me. I read somewhere that the white blazes basically work as a team effort, just random volunteers and trail crews out there repainting them year after year so nobody gets lost. Nobody pays those people and half the time you never even see them. Kind of wild that a dumb stripe of paint on a tree is really hundreds of people quietly looking out for you.
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