Oregon Hikers

Way back in the summer we went for an Iron Mountain/Cone Peak hike. There are brand new interpretive signposts (see the old #4 and new #4 together)...and no guide to explain their purpose! So what do these numbers represent? I called the ranger district a few years ago and they didn't have a guide for the old signs. Here's a few to ponder.

Have you tried calling the Ranger Station recently? Their web site does say, "an interpretive brochure is available at the trailhead." It's so weird that they didn't think, when putting together that page, "hey, we should put it online too."

Is this a captioning contest?

Those look like campsite markers. Were any of them pull-throughs?

I have seen markers like that on quite a few trails over the years. In the cases where I knew for certain, they correspond to some point of interest on a self-guided tour. Sometimes they merely correspond to a type of tree or habitat.

More often than not when I see numbered posts along a trail, I don't see an accompanying brochure at the trailhead. My guess is that these things get set up with grant funding or something, years pass, staff moves on, money is tight, priorities shift, and the posts remain standing but the brochure doesn't get reprinted.

I eventually got around to taking @adamschneider's advice and called the Sweet Home Ranger district. They were nice enough to mail (!) me the brochure. It's available at the ranger station but not at the trailhead, and the ranger station is not open on weekends.

The numbers don't refer to any particular tree or feature but rather general areas. Here are the highlights:

1. The Rocks
2. Broadleaf Thicket & Moist Forest
3. Moist forest
4. Meadow Habitats
5. Meadow Maintenance
6. Recovery Forest
7. Habitats and Leaf Shape
8. Roadside and Trail Habitats
9. Moist Forest
10. Rock Outcrop
11. Scree
12. Mixed Habitat
13. Moist Meadow
14. Cliff Face
15. Damp Meadow
16. Boreal Forest
17. Snowbed
18. Xeric Meadow
19. Moist Forest
20. The Lookout