Called the viral hiking tip a gimmick, now I eat my words

Last spring everyone swore by the orange marker trick to find trail junctions after dark. I laughed it off as influencer nonsense until I got caught in a drizzle near Roan Mountain with thick fog and zero phone signal. A ripped orange flag on a branch saved me 40 minutes of backtracking. Anyone else stubbornly dismiss a trend that turned out to actually work?

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the_viola5d ago

Used to roll my eyes at the whole flag thing too, thought it was just for the gram. Then I got stuck on a ridge in Pisgah with the sun going down and every tree looking the same, that little bit of orange tape was like a lifeline. Now I keep a roll of bright survey tape in my pack, costs like two bucks and saves a ton of headache. Real talk, sometimes the crowd is onto something.