Old trail markers vanished near Mount Adams, GPS saved the day

Last weekend I hiked the loop past Mount Adams and noticed the painted blazes on the rocks are almost gone. The Forest Service must have stopped repainting them a few years back, and now you have to guess where the path bends near the second creek crossing. My map got soaked in a sudden shower around mile 4, so I pulled out my phone and thankfully had the route saved offline. It added maybe 20 minutes of backtracking near that old beaver pond, which I never had to deal with back in the 90s. The trail itself is still fine, just the markings are fading, and I wonder if they plan to replace them with something more permanent. Has anyone else run into this on other long-distance trails in the region?

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tessa_kelly25d ago

Carry a GPS unit anyway, or learn the beaver pond cutoff before it fades completely.