harperg76•24d agoTop Commenter

The trail marker that sent me 2 miles the wrong way near Lake Chelan

I was on the Windy Pass loop last August and took a fork I was sure was right based on the sign. Turned out someone had spun the marker around, probably as a joke or accident. After an hour of climbing, I checked my GPS and saw I was heading toward the wrong valley entirely. I backtracked to the junction and found the real trail hidden behind a fallen log. Has anyone else dealt with messed up trail signs, or do you always double check with a map?

3 comments

3 Comments

tylerpark24d ago

Someone had spun the marker around" - that's wild, but honestly not the weirdest trail sign trick I've seen. Up near Glacier Peak last year I found a sign with all the nails loosened so it just hung upside down, pointing every direction but the right one. Makes you wonder if it's just drunk hikers messing around or someone actually trying to mess with people on purpose. Did you report that sign to the ranger station when you got back, or just figure it wasn't worth the hassle?

jennifer_jenkins24d agoOG Member

Honestly @tylerpark I'd argue most of these "sign tamperings" are just bored kids or drunk hikers messing around for a laugh, not some malicious plot to get people lost. I wouldn't bother reporting it unless you're sure someone's actually in danger, because the rangers probably already know and have way bigger things to deal with.

grace8924d ago

Wow, that's a whole new level of sign sabotage. I once found a trail marker that had been completely replaced with a handwritten sign pointing to a "secret waterfall" that was just a dead end cliff.