jackl, obviously you don’t get it
the water trails you are talking about seem to be marked OFFICIALLY.
If some of the marking has gone missing I have no problem somebody trying to reestblish them.
No different than me coming across a blown down trail sign that obviously was put there by the ranger.
I probably will put it back.
I don’t run around removing signage that the RANGER has put up.
I don’t believe the OP is a ranger asking s for advice.
No, I think he is a member of the public and he was asking if it was OK for HIM to put up tape where no official signage exists.
Can you see the difference?
So you decide to go on an EXPLORATORY paddle in some marshes that you have not paddled before.
How about a decent map and a GPS.
You do your OWN findings and not just blindly follow somebody’s else trail.
If you can not find your way in, or wherever you wanted to go, too bad. Eventually you will. Or maybe not.
At the same time I am a paddler that happens to go where you went and not knowing the area I see all this bright tape.
It kind of sux! I wanted to find my own way. A challenge. If I don’t find my way then so be it.
But I will be really pissed if some shmuck in front of me put up this tape that I foolishly then follow to find out that it leads in the wrong direction (been there) and he/she CONVINIENTLY forgot to remove!
You know what: I WILL REMOVE THAT TAPE AND ANY OTHER TAPE that is not an official marking.
As far as the fishing line goes I don’t see any where I paddle for the reason I told you above.
I like to be in a place where there are no crowds and visual and physical pollution.
But if yours truly prefers the safety of a tape, all I can say don’t rely on it because I am not the only one that share the sentiment of REMOVING it.
Would that be on the water or in the backcountry.
I repeat: If you can’t do without tape you probably have no business in that place.
Cheers
Gnarlydog
Hey they used to call
Blazing a trail. You take a hatchet and smack the side of the tree with it skinning back the bark and leaving a white streak in the wood. Hope that helps…
It is
the same type of tape that you remove, nothing offical looking about it, yellow, cheap, thin and abundant. If someone get’s lost, other than the 1 extra night, and freaks, calls for a search party. How much does that cost???
No, I get it but you don’t !
I don’t use tape and never will, but I would be damned before I removed some that some one else put up.
I respect what others have to do to find there way, and will gladly share the wilderness wuth them.
If you are so disturbed about a silly little piece of tape, you need to take a trip to a remote barrier Island and see the truckloads of trash that line the wilderness beaches.
Get a barge and remove some of it, and you just might be doing the world some good!
cheers,
JackL
jackl, I am not a militant
environmentalist that is out on a crusade to save the world or even less clean up other’s mess.
I simply hate tape.
I will remove it.
I am not braking the law.
Till the day they will try to pass a law to prevent such crime of mine I will continue to do so.
'nuff said
For what it’s worth.
A 300 to 400 dollar GPS with the mapping soft ware will be a help with any type of navigation, but always it still electronics, crap happens and be a boy scout and “Be Prapared”.
looneytick, so how is that different
than somebody going in the stix and following some markings that have been put up arbitrarily and getting lost coz he/she can not find the markings again?
Lost in the woods. Happens all the time.
Rescues abound and often is the novices that where ill prepared and did not know navigation that are plucked out of the woods eventually.
How are you going to prevent that?
So having tape (as has been mentioned “abundant”) will solve the shortcoming of a over confident and foolish hiker?
Not really.
I see tape that has been there for a while.
The party has gone on a one way trip. They put the tape down for the “just in case can’t find their way and want to retrace”.
I am the one that finds it obtrusive.
Removing it might enhance the next person’s experience.
None of the experienced navigators acquaintances of mine use tape.
They use maps, compass and some a GPS.
They frown at the tape when they come across it.
In the society where the general consensus seems to lean towards “pave it all” so we can make it easy and accessible to everybody everywhere, I like to differ and preserve that little that is left untainted.
Gnarlydog
Listening to you…
I can only wonder how many people got lost and died in the marsh because you removed their tape so they could NOT find their way back out.
till somebody spots you doing so and
reports you.
You can hack all you want in your backyard but behavior like that in a National or State Park will gets you a stiff fine.
The trick is catching hacks like you…
Bozo
actually they had it on the news
there was truckload of them 
Maybe less reality TV and more reality would help folks like that.
Does the compass
Yes, that is my understanding.
Way points
Thank you. That is a great idea, especially if I investigate nooks and crannies. I don’t want to backtrack every paddle stroke; only the ones that get be back to my put-in.
Thanks for all your input
All of your comments and suggestions have been very helpful. This will be my first tracking GPS, I have decided to purchase a unit without the electronic compass, use my magnetic compass and take along a topo map, set way points to compliment my (back)tracks, and see how it goes, being very conservative as to how far I venture in or out of the marsh. If based on my experience, I decide to purchase a unit with an integrated electronic compass, I can sell it on Ebay.
Thanks again.
No, what you are…
…is incredibly self-righteous! You have no way of knowing who put up tape or why, or whether they have legal authority to do so or not. You’re just ASSUMING that YOU have the right to take it down, just because it annoys you. YOU don’t make the rules in the backcountry and you have NO right to enforce them or impose your own rules on other trail users. If you want to pick up obvious trash on the ground, that’s one thing, but altering trail markings that you know nothing about is just plain wrong!
Our rule is:
You have to investigate all the smallest side trails and always see what is around the next bend.
Cheers’
JackL
I can’t belive this
garbage about removing tape. Only a city-slicker Eco-Nazi would even think about it in our backcountry, particularly during hunting season. The Div. of Wildlife teaches using tape for route marking and marking the location of downed game, and recommends it as part of a survival kit (done through Hunter Safety Training.) They also state to remove it when your mission is accomplished. I suspect that removing tape that is marking downed game could be considered interfering with a hunt, which in Colorado is a crime. I sure wouldn’t want to be caught tampering with markers when the owner of the markers, who just might catch me, is armed.
Looneytick is correct
and at Assateague this year Andy S pulled out his Colorado, we looked at the loaded map, compared it to a USGS map and so ended the argument as to where we actually were.
They are useful. Carry backup.
Jim
so you are saying
that there is a law that prohibits individuals removing tape that somebody has arbitrary put up?
How about the instance where the RANGER has asked me if I come accross any tape that ohters have put up to please remove it! I am not making that up.
Actually that very occasion has sparked the action of me removing all tape that I would come accross in the future.
I know that old habits are hard to change and trail blazing (even with tape) is one of them.
Let’s not get me started on campfire rings in remote areas…
Reviewing the Leave no Trace policy would inform people on the most correct behaviour for this day and age.
I don’t paddle or walk
in any areas where hunting is allowed
On the few occasion I do go to those areas I make sure it is not in hunting season. Why would I want to risk getting shot?
The point that everyone
has been making is that there are legitimate reasons for markers to be placed and you have no business judging that reason/validity or removing them.