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TOURIST MARKING |
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Many of the routes in the Bulgarian Mountains
are marked. Their purpose is to help the tourists for easy orientation
and to make their excursions safe even in bad weather conditions |
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BASIC CONDITIONS
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 | The paths leading to tourist chalets and shelters, summits, fountains,
springs, lakes, waterfalls, caves, natural phenomena, historical monuments
and other sightseeing are marked |
| Most frequently the marking connects towns or villages with chalets and
chalets in between |
| With proper
placement of tourist marking special training for excursions to the
appropriate object is not necessary |
| The
marking signs must be placed so that they can be easily visible from the
both sides of the path: |
| Usually the tourist marking marks the shortest and the most suitable paths,
passing through safe, beautiful or remarkable places |
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MAIN PRINCIPLE: In case of losing the marking on unknown route one have to
get back to the last noticed sign and from there to start searching the
marking |
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SUMMER MARKING |
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| The summer
routes are marked mainly with band marking. It consists of three
horizontal contiguous strips, as the middle is the main orientation color
and the side strips are for attracting attention. There are four orientation
colors: red, green, blue and yellow and for attracting color is used the
white one. Yet old marking might be seen and in it the attracting color is
the yellow one: |
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The professional band marking may be distinguished for that it is made with
stencil on static objects (trees, building walls, rocks, stones etc.), with the following
dimensions: |
| Recently very frequently ready metal three-color signs are used nailed to
the trees |
| The red
color, as it attracts attention very well, is used for marking ridge
routes and the rest colors – for marking secondary routes. The three
international routes, passing through Bulgaria – E-3, E-4 and E-8 are
marked entirely in red. For additional specifying the route small square
yellow signs with inscription E-3, E-4 or E-8 and an arrow pointing the
direction are used as well: |
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"Black
strip between two white ones" marking is not tourist, although it looks
like it and is of the same size: |
| Another
marking sign is the arrow. Most often it is a sign pointing not only
the direction but also the final place where the marking leads. There are
two different types of signs: yellow with black letters (the old ones) and
white with black letters (the new ones): |
| Sometimes the
arrow is made with stencil and paint, with the following
dimensions: |
| There
are indicative boards in front of the chalets, on the starting
points as well as on important crossroads. They show graphically with
schemes the important tourist objects, the distance between them and the
color of the marking: |
| Marking of
crossroads with band marking is done with the next two
ways:
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| On the
mountain ridges there are the so-called pyramids – stone heaps, put
by tourists or shepherds for orientation in bad weather conditions during
the summer or for choosing a route in technically complex section. In some
places there are some variants for one route marked thus, so the right
choice is perplexed |
| It is recommended to use the winter marking during the summer in bad
weather conditions although in most of the cases it is connected with
bigger displacement |
| On some of the new tourist maps the colors of the marked tourist routes
are pointed. Because of the many mistakes (in the colors, in the right
route layouts; there are non-marked routes pointed on
maps as marked and vice versa
etc.) we
recommend the tourists not to pay serious attention to it |
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WINTER MARKING
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winter marking consists mainly of metal rods (pipes of 1,5 to 2
inches; 1 inch = 2,54 cm) steady fixed into the earth (at least on 60
cm) and concreted. The rods are painted with
oil paint in contrasting to the snow black and
yellow strips with width 20 cm: |
| There are some exceptions as the winter marking from Musala
Chalet to Musala Summit, where the abandoned metal rails serving as
pillars of the former phone line to the summit are used as rods now: |
Musala
Summit with the former phone line
| The metal rods mark routes in the open mountain parts as well as routes
passing from forests through big open places (glades, cutting areas) |
| The winter marking is made along routes with no or small
avalanche danger – for more details see the
extremely valuable
"Winter Mountain Guide" by Asparuh Markovski |
| In Vitosha Mountain
some
winter routes
are marked with marking
rods with placed
in their upper end
triangular sign
with a number indicating
the number of the
rod on the route |
| In
some marked
with metal rods
routes in Bulgarian
mountains are placed
so-called azimuth
signs. Each sign
points how far the
previous and following rod, and
the direction
to them. Some
of the newer signs shows
also the number of the
rod and
its neighboring rods: |
Azimuth signs
of the route: "Malyovitsa Chalet-Strashnoto Ezero Shelter"
| Scheme
depicting all
placed on a route
azimuth
signs is
called
azimuth scheme: |
Azimuth scheme in the last part of
the route:
"Lovna
Chalet–Rilski Ezera Chalet" (through Zla Bara Area)
| The existing winter marking is mapped but these azimuth
maps are not commonly used |
| In certain parts
in the Bulgaria mountains the winter marking is in bad
condition, on many places the rods are broken or cut by "enterprising"
hosts |
| The
following monitory signs for avalanches and avalanche valleys are used as
well: |
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Copyright © 2000-2013 by
Krassimir Novakov, Translation by
Marina Nikolova.
All rights reserved. Last modified: 01-01-2013 |
