Seen While Running...and Another "Posted" Rant

Pastoral pasture scene seen while running on Shinham Road near my home.

First off is the perennial stupidity of the sign on the tree.  If you don't want people to trespass on your land--and that certainly is your right--you should put up a sign that says "No Trespassing."

Whenever I see such signage proclaiming "Posted," I think, well, all that means is that the property has signs on it.  And the owner is an English language nitwit.

The language police in me has ranted about this before (here, here and here) at Mister Tristan (the blog, not the 7 year old human being).  I get how the colloquialism came about:

When a landowner wishes to keep his/her property off-limits to others, he/she posts signs along the boundary that indicate that the land is private property and others may not trespass without permission.  

In common vernacular, such land is described as being "Posted."  For example, a hiker might tell a friend, "I'd like to take you there to see that rock outcrop, but the land is posted" or a hunter would say, "You can't hunt there, it's posted."  That descriptor--saying that land is posted--simply means that the owner has put up some sort of sign indicating that people should stay out.

However, somehow along the way, a clear and simple sign saying something unambiguous like "NO TRESPASSING" or "PRIVATE PROPERTY" or "KEEP OUT" has been supplanted by the "POSTED" sign as in my photo above.  

In other words, the shorthand description of a property being posted with signs (i.e., off-limits) has morphed into the sign itself.

I also took the shot to get a tree in the far treeline in the image.  That tree in the front dead center in the blow-up frame below evidently is inside a cattle pasture, because the browse line is virtually laser-perfect: as high as a cow can reach.

I've also seen similar browse lines in forested areas where the whitetail deer population is out of control.

Image credits Gary

Rules of the Road

I truly appreciate simple things and am an aficionado of signage, so this is right up my alley.

The reason for the sign is that this ramp goes from two lanes down to one:

Image credit Gary: on-ramp of Halfway Blvd to I-81 northbound near Hagerstown, MD

Trail Work in the Black Forest of Germany

While on our recent European adventure we paused in Germany's fabled Black Forest, site of fairy tales, legends, and lore.

Perhaps it's the brothers Grimm tales, maybe it's life living up to expectations, or whatever, but the forest really is, well, black is really the only word that comes to mind. It truly seems "deep and dark and dangerous," to borrow the title from a Mary Downing Hahn book.

I peered down the trail, and the bride and I even ventured a few hundred meters in.  I wanted nothing so badly as to gulp hard, lace up my running shoes, and head into the forest to face the demons that I felt sure would be there...abut alas, the tour bus beckoned.

I did take a photo of this trail sign, and felt comforted that over in Germany, right this moment, there are volunteers just like us who look out for their beloved trails:

Image credit Gary

Trail Maintenance...and Ultrarunning

This week I have some signage to install in the vicinity of "my" overseer site: the Reese Hollow Trail and Shelter.  This is a feeder trail to the Tuscarora Trail just east of Mercersburg in southern PA.

The Tuscarora is a dry, ridge top trail so the Reese Hollow Trail brings backpackers down about a mile off the ridge to a shelter and spring.

image credit Gary

I did these signs with my Dremel Tool and with practice, I think I've gotten fairly proficient.

The link to Ultrarunning?  I've beaten this drum before, but trails do not magically appear and stay maintained all by themselves, just for our running pleasure.  There's a LOT of sweat involved, so I'd encourage you to take the plunge and volunteer with your local trail organization.

Nothing Happened

Saw this recently as I was running home from the car body shop, where I had dropped off my minivan to get the rear window replaced.  The sign was alongside the road, bolted onto the base of what looked to be an old lime kiln:

[image credit Gary]

Now that's a historic marker!

I should comment that the broken window occurred when I was taking Mister Tristan (the 6 year old human being, not the blog) on a hike.  I was attempting to park alongside a wooded dirt road, and in backing up to get suitably off the road I failed to see the tree that must have jumped out behind me.

BOOM!  The window shattered with a loud noise as though it had been shot out.  Needless to say, the hike was over before it even started.

No good deed goes unpunished, I guess.

More Trail Work...and Ultrarunning

On Monday I headed up Alice Trail to its junction with the Tuscarora Trail for some serious weed whacking of briars.  This is in southern PA, just south of where the Tuscarora crosses PA Rt 16 between Mercersburg and McConnellsburg, and heading south from there.

But first, the installation of a signpost I had made to mark that junction.  Up there on the narrow Pennsylvania ridgetop there is a scant covering of dirt, then the underlying rock.  I had hauled up a digging iron to try to make a hole...the best I could get was about  12" deep after several test holes, so I resorted to piling stones around the post as in a cairn.

At the bottom of the buried end of the post I had inserted a 12" piece of re-bar laterally through the post.  When the dirt and small rocks are firmly tamped down around the post, the re-bar serves as a physical deterrent to someone (or some bear, seriously) trying to pull out the signpost.

The signpost is quite stable and should last awhile.  Of course, in the backcountry, if someone wants to destroy a trail sign with bullets or brute force, they'll do it.  I hope that the remote location weeds out the idiot faction, and only serious hunters and hikers will pass by here.

The weed whacking went slowly.  Very slowly.  As in forward progress of about 1/2 mile in 90 minutes slowly.

I was assisting my trail buddy Peter, who's is the overseer for that portion of the Tuscarora.  The briars in some places had rendered the trail  almost impassable in a practical sense.  The technique we resorted to in a few areas of particularly heinous briars was to bring the weedwhacker down from about 6' up, chewing up the briars from top to bottom.

This section, to my knowledge, had not been cut in 2013, so this was 2 years of growth.  My hope is that with the briars now cut back to a 6' trail width, future weed whacking efforts will be more akin to maintenance than (virtually) cutting new trail.

The link to Ultrarunning?  I love trail running.  Somebody has to maintain those trails.  It's pretty simple.

Oh, and another reason:

Box turtle on the Alice Trail.  All photos by Gary.

More Trail Maintence Stuff--Esp For Whitetop66

Whitetop66 left me a comment to a trail maintenance post I did back on 18 Dec.  I just posted a reply there but he/she may not see it.  So in the public interest here's a dedicated post that gets into the nitty-gritty of creating a trail sign (just in case you thought trail signs magically materialized in place on posts that dug themselves). 

This post is in the weeds, but we Ultrarunners love us some weeds, right?

[image credit  Gary]

Whitetop66,

 

I am sorry I did not see your email till now—I have blog comments dumped into a folder that I do not see as regularly as I should. 

1. DREMEL TIP: My Dremel tool is the Model 4000 Series, about the size of a large cucumber.  The Dremel tip I used is # 117 (on left in photo).   

2. DREMEL CUTTING GUIDE: I put on the Dremel Cutting Guide (item on right in photo) that comes with the tool, which allows the Dremel to rest vertically on the wood and you just guide it along the traced letter outline.  I think it’s much like using a router.  I set the depth of the cutting blade to be between ¼” and 1/8”. 

3. FONT: The font I used is Arial Rounded MT Bold.   

4a. CREATING THE STENCIL, EXACTO KNIFE METHOD:  In Microsoft Word, I used Insert and Word Art to create a text box with the right signage and font above.  In Word Art you can stretch the text box horizontally and vertically.  I used  1.5” high; on length I just used a gut feeling to gauge the appropriate length.  In Word Art there is an option to vary the space between letters, so I maxed that spacing out.  Then I printed the words of the sign (which will likely be individual words that you must align for the mock-up of your sign).   I then used an Exacto knife to cut the letters out into a stencil, then traced the letters onto the wood in pencil.  

4b. CREATING THE STENCIL, TRACING METHOD:  Create the printed words as above, then skip the cutting out/stencil part and use some type of carbon paper to transfer the letters to the wood.  I just bought this craft tracing paper but have not used it yet:  “Saral Transfer (Tracing) Paper blue non-photographic 12 1/2 in. x 12 ft. roll”   I got it from Amazon for about $12.00.  It should work pretty well and save the cutting-out step. 

5. PAINT: I painted the whole board, with cut letters, in basic Rustoleum Brown, then painted the cut letters in white. 

 

[image credit Gary]

 

Hey, way to go on your AT hike!  That’s not realistic for me but I’m with you thru-hikers in spirit!

 

 

Guess I Ought to Rethink the Afterlife...and Ultrarunning

 

[image credit Gary, mailbox/sign of conservative Mennonite church on Zarger Road, Franklin County, PA]

 



This church frequently changes its signage, and this new one tickled me.  Since I am prone to impure thoughts--let's face it, "prone" doesn't even come close to my propensity for a dirty mind--so I'd better rule out heaven.

Plan B would be to run Ultras here and now like there's no tomorrow, and thereby achieve heaven on earth.  That's probably a better plan.

Trail Maintenance...and Ultrarunning

Was up on Monday to "my" Reese Hollow Shelter and Trail where I am the volunteer overseer for the Potomac Appalachian Trail Club (PATC).  There were several inches of snow on the ground, which made for slow going, but all in all it was a fun trip.

It was part winter hike and part work trip.  The primary purpose was to install some trail marker signs and to clear a couple blowdown trees that I had noted on my last trip a few weeks back.

For those of you anal about signs, here's the progression of work:

Info carved with Dremel tool into pressure-treated decking board

 

Next, painted Rustoleum brown

 

Letters painted white

 

 

Installed on sign post

 

 



 

Note that I don't have a router but the Dremel tool makes a pretty decent substitute...with a bit of practice.

Oh, the connection to Ultrarunning is obvious: trail construction and ongoing maintenance don't just happen.  I obliviously ran for many years on trails all over the country without thinking too hard about their origins and ongoing existence.  But over time awareness dawned and I began to think about how I could give back once I had more time.  With retirement, I had no more excuses so I signed up with PATC and truly enjoy the volunteer work.

Trail Work: Reese Hollow Trail

Couple days ago I did some recurring trail maintenance work on "my" trail.  The Reese Hollow Trail is a side trail in southern PA that links the dry, ridgetop Tuscarora Trail with a shelter and spring.

The weeds are bad this year and I used my gas weed whacker to keep the trail open and the weeds to a manageable height.


I use the term "weeds" rather loosely, becasue I never would have imagined that I would have to weed whack ferns. Turns out that ferns are ubiquitous in this area and in places would totally encroach and cover the trail.

[image credits Gary]

I used up 3 tanks of gas, and was about shaken to pieces from the chronic vibration.  Note to self: next time don't leave the goggles and hearing proection in the garage.  I also cleared 2 minor blowdowns.

I also mounted a couple of signs I made.  I don't have a router so I used a Dremel tool to cut the letters. Mine is the lower yellow sign to provide spring and distance info.

 

 

Hikers should note that Tuscarora Trail is again VERY overgrown this summer with briars (actually I think they are wild raspberries). There are some quite negative comments in the trail register on the TT near top of Reese Hollow Trail.

This ridgetop is pretty clear (many trees gone, perhaps due to gypsy moths) so that a ton of sunlight reaches the forest floor, promoting a lush growth of understory...including the briars.

Frankly, I cannot recommend hiking the southern PA section of the Tuscarora Trail (south of PA RT 16) right now unless you wear jeans and long sleeves; you will get badly scratched up.

I tried an experiment last month on a 200-yard stretch of the Tuscarora Trail just north of its junction with my Reese Hollow Trail.  Rather than clip or cut the briars since they are very shallow-rooted, I simply pulled the briars out by their roots using thick leather gloves.

That 200 yard stretch of trail remains clear enough to hike easily: grassy but the briars are still at bay off to the sides of the trail.  However, it'd take a big crew of people to cover a dozen miles using this technique.

Where I Run: Compensate Much?

[image credit Gary]

The founding fathers who named the features and local governmental entities near Mercersburg, PA, seemingly had something else on their minds.

This shot is along Church Hill Road just east of town.  I've run by here a couple times.  This site will be on the route of the Flannery's Pub Run half marathon to be held on 13 April, right near the start, about a third of a mile into the race.

 

 

More Incisive Coverage of "POSTED" Signs...and Ultrarunning

Well, I happened to have my camera when yet another abuse of the concept of No Trespassing hove into view.

My previous rants about using the word "POSTED" on a sign to denote "KEEP OUT" or "NO TRESPASSING" are here and here. 

Another prime example:

From a distance, all this sign means is that the property has signs on it.

 

 

It's the fine print carries the real intent:

 

But the way I read this sign, running would be OK.  See, I get the prohibition on hunting, fishing, and trapping...but then  the sign goes on to also include "...TRESPASSING FOR ANY PURPOSE...."

 

Since we all know that Ultrarunning--which mostly is running long distances in the woods--is a sport inherently without purpose, then it must be OK to do it on property otherwise closed to other activities.

 

 

Someone Else Dislikes "Posted" Signs...and Ultrarunning

I posted last winter about what I called English Language Nitwits and their misuse of the term "posted" to denote a No Trespassing area.  (You should really click over there to read my impeccable logic, but in a nutshell, the shorthand description of a property being posted with signs  (i.e., off-limits) has morphed into the sign itself.)

Well, the stupid continues, except this time some irate viewer (no, it wasn't me) decided to vote with a shotgun:

[photo by Gary]

Of course, I am aware that the shooter really wasn't annoyed with the grammar so much as they were annoyed with the prohibition of trespassing. 

See, for some people, when they have a gun in their hands, it makes it easier to take an annoyance to another level...which, if you think about it, has some implications for the present discussion about guns in society.

The link to Ultrarunning is that we sometimes encounter No Trespassing signs in the backcountry.  By and large I tend to be respectful of such signs and avoid the property, but on occasion I have deliberately trespassed. 

One example that comes to mind is one time I was just plain whupped on a backcountry run and decided I needed to bail by the shortest possible route.  Turns out that after I committed to that bail-out route, I encountered some No Trespassing signs near the end.  Given my physical condition at that point, rerouting was not a viable option so I pushed on through.  Luckily, I encountered no irate property owner.

 

POSTED...or English Language Nitwits

A sign on private land adjacent to the C+O Canal:

When a landowner wishes to keep his/her property off-limits to others, he/she posts signs along the boundary that indicate that the land is private property and others may not trespass without permission. 

In common vernacular, such land is described as being "Posted."  For example, a hiker might tell a friend, "I'd like to take you there to see that rock outcrop, but the land is posted" or a hunter would say, "You can't hunt there, it's posted."  That descriptor--saying that land is posted--simply means that the owner has put up some sort of sign indicating that people should stay out.

However, somehow along the way, a clear and simple sign saying something unambiguous like "NO TRESPASSING" or "PRIVATE PROPERTY" or "KEEP OUT" has been supplanted by the "POSTED" sign as in my photo above. 

In other words, the shorthand description of a property being posted with signs (i.e., off-limits) has morphed into the sign itself.

Whenever I see such sign, I think, well, all that means is that the property has signs on it.  And the owner is an English langauge nitwit.

Correct English...and Ultrarunning

I’m a stickler for correct English.  I hope that this has been evident here at Mister Tristan (the blog, not the human being).  Whenever I do notice an error in a post, I cringe that my editing skills were wanting.

Anyway, every day as I commute with my carpool up I-81 northbound here in southcentral Pennsylvania, I get crazy when I pass through one particular construction zone.

There is a flashing electronic sign, 3 lines tall, that flashes 3 times with 3 sequential messages:

CAUTION

CAUTION

CAUTION

Flash 3 times, followed by

ROAD WORK AHEAD

ROAD WORK AHEAD

ROAD WORK AHEAD

Flash 3 times, followed by

PLEASE DRIVE SAFE

PLEASE DRIVE SAFE

PLEASE DRIVE SAFE

It’s that PLEASE DRIVE SAFE that drives me nutzoid.  Of course, since the word SAFE modifies DRIVE, a verb, it should be the adverb form…i.e., SAFELY. Thus, PLEASE DRIVE SAFELY.

Let’s hope that PENNDOT constructs highways better than they write.

Oh, and the link to Ultrarunning?  I cannot figure out how I can be so laid back about trail running, and yet so anal about a road sign, that while grammatically incorrect, is nevertheless understandable.  Maybe I should lighten up.  At least I haven't written an angry letter to the authorities...yet.

 

Tales From the Perimeter: Church Sign Generator

Perimeter meaning the 6 mile patrol road inside the fence of the military installation on which I work, where some half a dozen of us comprise a pool of running “talent” and strive to show up for a noontime run a couple times a week if we can escape our desks. We share a lot and these guys are one of the core pillars of my sanity.

Another typical email that we send among ourselves to provide a humorous update as to what's been going on:

Guys,

I was out at Dayton OH this week but am back in the office today. Next week I'm heading to Denver.

Despite the rain, I plan to run today. Anybody else interested?

By the way, I had an early day on Wed and was able to take a run along a beautiful paved trail alongside the Miami River. Attached JPG sums it up.

Regards/Gary

(I forget where I got the site, but you can just Google "Church Sign Generator")