Hiking Trails and Markers:
Hiking trails and markers make great Wayspots. This includes urban footpaths and routes intended for pedestrian use. However, this doesn’t mean they should all be accepted. We’re happy to add some clarification to these as they are clearly a great place to be social and they spark exploration. Below you’ll find some details that we hope will help as you review similar types of nominations.
- These types of trail markers are definitely eligible Wayspots. They look official because of the country plates or have the trail names on them, love that! We would also love to see what is interesting about this trail. Was it the first trail in the area, does it highlight specific wildlife local to this region? All of this would help make it much easier to rate higher. The second point that comes to mind is how many of these trail markers are there? Are they distinguishable and far enough apart that it doesn’t make the others any less unique? For the second photo, while it may look like a street sign (which are not eligible Wayspots), it’s important to make sure it’s a footpath or trail maker during review. This one in particular is themed after planets, the one shown here is the Neptune path. Fun right! For the last trail marker, we narrowed in on the difficulty it might be to prove the actual location of this since it may or may not always be on street view. This highlights the importance of local Explorers who know the area, may have visited this area, or walked past it.
- These distance markers can also make great Wayspots. The challenge with these is at what distance will you find the other marker? Are they spaced out in a way that provides value to the trail? They’ll encourage exercise for sure. Similarly, what makes each one unique? Is each mile/kilometer named after a famous person (locally or regionally)? Do they look officially painted vs someone just using chalk or their own paint?
- Survey markers… of course they came up hehe So these were also heavily discussed by the team. While we understand that these are super generic in some parts, in others, they are very unique. From our experience, we’ve seen these to be placed at the peaks of mountain trails, historically significant areas, etc. While in other areas, they are overproduced and not interesting at all, similar to the one shown below. Now, if there is an interesting or historical story to the survey marker, by all means nominate it and make sure to add that to the title, description, and/or the supporting information. This one in particular didn’t have that and seemed to be the size of a coin along the ledge of the street without pedestrian access.
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(originally posted September 2022)