When you decide to go on a mountain excursion, in addition to having a trail mapit is always good practice to pay attention to the signage present on site which tells us what the right way to go. Usually these signals – which can be signs or white and red flags painted on rocks and trunks – they are managed by the CAI and are essential for our orientation. Let’s go and discover some examples of CAI trail signs, what they mean and how to read them.
Signpost table
These signs indicate the destinations of the path and the Estimated time to reach them – considering the average speed of those who practice that route. They are found at the beginning of the walk or at important crossroads, they are usually made of wood, plastic or metal and measure 15×55 cm. Furthermore, they are always characterized by a bottom white, from a tip red (with possibly also an itinerary abbreviation) and from trail number on the tail.
White and red trail sign
The signpost it’s a half white and half red flag which usually comes painted on boulders, rock faces or tree trunks. These signs are placed along sections of paths that are more difficult to follow, such as in the presence of scree: in these cases the signs are repeated every 5/10 minutes of walkingbut the frequency may vary depending on how rough the trail is.
There is also a variant of this signal:
In this case, in addition to having the colored bands arranged differently, the trail number: this is especially useful at forks in the road, to make it clear to the hiker which path he is taking.
Picket Trail Marker
As an alternative to the white and red signpost just seen, it is also possible to observe some pickets Wood colored. These are mainly used along meadows, pastures or more generally in open areas where it is difficult to identify clear and visible reference points. Usually the poles have a height between 1 and 2 meters and a diameter between the 6 and 8 centimeters.
“Trail for expert hikers” table
In addition to the arrow-shaped ones, there may be rectangular signs from 15×25 cm characterized by a red and white flag in the top right and a panel with various useful information for the hiker. In this case it is a notice regarding the difficulty of the pathbut similar signals can for example indicate the presence of cycle paths you hate points of interest cultural, geological or naturalistic.
Little stone man
We conclude this list with the so-called “little stone man“, that is, a small pyramid of rocks. This is one of the most common signaling methods cheap, simple And recognizable at our disposal. These are preferable in areas where gravel abounds and where they can often occur snowfallgiven the greater visibility of these signals than those of paint.
So if you happen to see these strange pyramids while walking don’t destroy them: could be of extreme importance to some other hiker!
