Of course you all know I live on Turkey Mountain and run there several times a week. What you may not know is that despite the state of chaos that swarms my head, I like my trails neat and clutter-free. 
Lately, someone had taken some fluorescent pink paint and marked several trees on the west side with obnoxious blazes. I am sure they had found some trails that they liked and wanted to make a route that they could follow. The problem with this is that the Turkey and Taturs race in September uses pink ribbons to mark the way, and someone would undoubtedly see these pink blotches on the trees and follow them right off the course. Couple this with the officials at the YMCA asking us if we knew anything about the painted trees and I came up with a plan. 
A trip to Home Depot netted a can of flat charcoal gray spray paint, which was a pretty good match for the gray tree bark. Now I am not a tree hugger and I am not sure if this paint is harmful to the tree, but it can surely be no worse than the lipstick pink crap that these bozos used.
Mark and Cameron called me just about the time I was through with my tree fixing, and wanted to run 4 miles.
I had them meet me at the top of Lip Buster, and we ran part of the Snake trail, and then cut over to the YMCA, and then ran the Jelly Legs trail back up through Rock City and headed back to the lower parking lot. We went very slowly through Bee Sting Pass with no casualties.
At that point, we met the usual Wednesday group and did a Red trail loop. Bee Sting Bob had taken a fall, which I did not get to see, but he still gets points for ample dirt on a white shirt, and a few scrape marks. WTG!!
I started with a rant, and I'll finish with another. My Wednesday group told me that while at the Sitting Rock on the north side of the mountain, some whiny mountain biker unloaded on them complaining of Tatur leaving their ribbons and trash all over the mountain and that Tatur was painting the trees with these pink blazes. Because Glen was wearing his Tatur shirt, this goofball thought he could do his little tirade on our group. For the record, all the ribbons that almost daily are showing up all over the mountain are not put there by Tatur. Some cross country team, or a soccer team had a planned training run there and marked some trails. Fleet Feet had their Escape From Turkey Mountain race last weekend, and I left the ribbons that this cross country team had put up thinking some of them MIGHT have been preliminary markings put up for the Escape race. However, Fleet Feet used YELLOW caution tape for their race, and did a very good job of cleaning it up after the race was over. The last race held on Turkey Mountain put on by Tatur was the Barkley Book Fair, and ALL of the ribbons were pulled by the following Tuesday. Same goes for the Tatur Estim8ur. I pulled ribbons for both of these races myself. (I had help for the BBF.) And yes, Tatur has used pink ribbons in the past. But the ribbons showing up on the east mountain and down Lip Buster were NOT put there by Tatur.
I am not sure if I should automatically pull down every ribbon I see when I see it, because someone puts it there for a reason, and they may be having a training run or fun run. That's all cool. But people NEED to take down their ribbons when they are through! And I am tired of Tatur being blamed for course markings that are not theirs.
So, whiny mountain biker, if you read this, please call me at 814-6433, or email me at trail_zombie@yahoo.com. Lets talk about it, and I'll buy you a beer.
Lately, someone had taken some fluorescent pink paint and marked several trees on the west side with obnoxious blazes. I am sure they had found some trails that they liked and wanted to make a route that they could follow. The problem with this is that the Turkey and Taturs race in September uses pink ribbons to mark the way, and someone would undoubtedly see these pink blotches on the trees and follow them right off the course. Couple this with the officials at the YMCA asking us if we knew anything about the painted trees and I came up with a plan. 
A trip to Home Depot netted a can of flat charcoal gray spray paint, which was a pretty good match for the gray tree bark. Now I am not a tree hugger and I am not sure if this paint is harmful to the tree, but it can surely be no worse than the lipstick pink crap that these bozos used.
Mark and Cameron called me just about the time I was through with my tree fixing, and wanted to run 4 miles.
I had them meet me at the top of Lip Buster, and we ran part of the Snake trail, and then cut over to the YMCA, and then ran the Jelly Legs trail back up through Rock City and headed back to the lower parking lot. We went very slowly through Bee Sting Pass with no casualties.At that point, we met the usual Wednesday group and did a Red trail loop. Bee Sting Bob had taken a fall, which I did not get to see, but he still gets points for ample dirt on a white shirt, and a few scrape marks. WTG!!
I started with a rant, and I'll finish with another. My Wednesday group told me that while at the Sitting Rock on the north side of the mountain, some whiny mountain biker unloaded on them complaining of Tatur leaving their ribbons and trash all over the mountain and that Tatur was painting the trees with these pink blazes. Because Glen was wearing his Tatur shirt, this goofball thought he could do his little tirade on our group. For the record, all the ribbons that almost daily are showing up all over the mountain are not put there by Tatur. Some cross country team, or a soccer team had a planned training run there and marked some trails. Fleet Feet had their Escape From Turkey Mountain race last weekend, and I left the ribbons that this cross country team had put up thinking some of them MIGHT have been preliminary markings put up for the Escape race. However, Fleet Feet used YELLOW caution tape for their race, and did a very good job of cleaning it up after the race was over. The last race held on Turkey Mountain put on by Tatur was the Barkley Book Fair, and ALL of the ribbons were pulled by the following Tuesday. Same goes for the Tatur Estim8ur. I pulled ribbons for both of these races myself. (I had help for the BBF.) And yes, Tatur has used pink ribbons in the past. But the ribbons showing up on the east mountain and down Lip Buster were NOT put there by Tatur.
I am not sure if I should automatically pull down every ribbon I see when I see it, because someone puts it there for a reason, and they may be having a training run or fun run. That's all cool. But people NEED to take down their ribbons when they are through! And I am tired of Tatur being blamed for course markings that are not theirs.
So, whiny mountain biker, if you read this, please call me at 814-6433, or email me at trail_zombie@yahoo.com. Lets talk about it, and I'll buy you a beer.
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