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Czech Trail Marking System the Best in the World

October 31, 2006 By Dana 2 Comments

Trail Markers on a Fence Post in BenešovIf you’ve ever taken a hike or even just an out-of-town walk to a particular sight in the Czech Republic, chances are you found yourself on a marked trail. You probably know what the markers look like. Two short horizontal white strips with a strip of color in between. In nature, the markers are usually painted on trees. If they are needed in a town, you’ll find them on whatever surface works – walls, fence posts, etc.

It is easy to run into these markers in the Czech Republic. They are used on tens of thousands of kilometers of trails that form a dense network, which not only makes the Czech Republic a hiking heaven, but a world trail marking superpower.

The very first trail marker appeared 117 years ago, on May 11, 1889. It was a red marker that marked the trail through the Štěchovice Valley to St. John’s Rapids on the Vltava River. This was then a major hiking route through one of the most beautiful natural areas in the country. A part of Smetana’s symphonic poem Vltava is devoted to St. John’s Rapids. Neither the marker nor the rapids exist today. They both disappeared under the Štěchovice Dam that was built during the Second World War.

Trail Markers and Signs in TřeboňUnlike trail marking systems in other countries, the Czech system was unified from the very beginning and hasn’t really changed since. Only red markers were used at first (red and white were the colors of the Czech flag at that time) but three more colors were added soon after. The use of the colors is not random but follows clear rules, each color signifying a different trail level:

Red – long distance and summit trails; you can pretty much walk through the whole country following the red markers
Blue – significant trails
Green – local trails
Yellow – short or connecting trails, shortcuts

Jít po červené/žluté, etc. means “to follow the red/yellow marker”, literally “to walk the red/yellow trail”.

A Corner Marker on a Trail Through TownBy 1938, Czechoslovakia had the longest and best trail marking system in the world with 40,000 km of marked trails. Today’s 39,742 km no longer constitute the longest marked trail network, but it is still the densest in the world. All trails are perfectly inconnected and the clear and frequent markers enable a hiker to hike without the need of a map. And when a marker starts rubbing off or gets damaged, it is simply painted over with a hand brush and looks like new in a matter of minutes.

The simplicity, clarity and ease of maintenance of the Czech trail marking system has inspired other countries. “Czech markers” are now used in Poland, Bulgaria and Hungary and some trails are marked with them in Romania and Croatia. The Canary Islands are considering switching to the Czech trail marking system as well.

Happy hiking!

——————-
Magazín Víkend that was aired on TV Nova on October 30, 2006 was used as a source.

Let the Games Begin!

June 10, 2006 By Jeff 1 Comment

Gabrinus signThe World Cup in footbal (soccer) is underway. The home team Germany won the opening match yesterday against Costa Rica 4-2.  The Czech Republic has their first match on Monday against the United States.  In the Czech Republic, it is showing on ČT2 in the U.S. it is on ESPN2.

It seems like all the pubs and bars in Prague will be showing the games.  Some of them have had their signs out for weeks, inviting people to come and watch on their large screen TVs.

Of course, the offical FIFA World Cup website run by Yahoo! is a good source of information.

If you can read Czech, here are a couple sites to stay on top of the excitement:
ČTK – Sportovní noviny
Česká Televize – ms fotbal ’06

The Olympic Struggle of the Czech Hockey Team

February 26, 2006 By Dana Leave a Comment

The Czech hockey players have done it. They reached for an Olympic medal and got one. Not gold and not silver. They got a bronze and should be happy for it. To be honest, I didn’t think they’d make it to the quarterfinals after losing to Switzerland, Finland and Canada in the preliminaries. But their win over Slovakia on February 22 got them into the semifinals … where they were killed 3:7 by the Swedes who played a superb, incomparably better game.

Overall, the Czech team didn’t seem to be together somehow during the Olympics. It was made up of many excellent, experienced players but they weren’t very well coordinated during some of the games, and didn’t seem motivated enough. It felt as if the bond that makes a team was missing. Their inconsistent results (four wins and four losses) make the bronze medal feel less deserved.

Jaromír Jágr announced today that the bronze-medal game in Turin was probably his last game for the Czech national team. A number of his team mates, the golden guys from Nagano, are supposedly leaving as well. What does it mean for Czech Republic ice hockey? We’ll find out during the 2006 IIHF World Championship in Riga that runs from May 5 to May 21. Something to look forward to!

Czech Olympic Team Update

February 23, 2006 By Jeff Leave a Comment

We are now on day13 of the Olympics and here is an update on Team Czech. So far, the Czech Republic has earned two silver medals – Kateřina Neumannová in the Women’s Cross-Country Skiing 15km Pursuit, who finished just 1.9 seconds behind Kristina Smigun of Estonia, and Lukáš Bauer in the Men’s Cross-Country Skiing 15km Classical.

The Czech hockey team, which had two wins and three losses in the preliminary round, beat Slovakia (undefeated in the preliminaries) 3-1 in the quarterfinals. The Czechs will face Sweden on Friday, while Finland meets Russia in the other semifinal.

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