Discussion: Trail blindness

I wonder about the factual and psychological underpinnings of this - it's a problem for Dan as well, though I'm not at all sure she'd back you up about the large trails being less distinct than the smaller ones. It can't be simple inattentional blindness since one generally expects to see and looks for the trails. Is it just that this one of the earlier capabilities to degrade under stress or are some of us significantly better than others at seeing trails, indistinct and/or buried under leaves, regardless of physical and psychological stress? Or does greater ability at other aspects of navigation mean some of us are better at knowing when to keep an eagle eye out for the trail? I don't think I've ever seen this discussed in any technique manuals. Most common errors people make I have at least an inkling of what corrective or preventive action might help but I'm at a loss what to suggest to someone who has trouble noticing less distinct trails when they cross them and/or following them once they've been found.

The thing is, I'm not trail-blind, which is what made it all the worse. I'm generally pretty good about it, and I'm not naive about fall leaf cover. I just can't believe I missed the big trail coming down off Green-X #6 on Day 2. I sure saw it when I finished crawling up the reentrant from the boulder field below. It was like a highway. But having missed it, I should have pulled up much earlier, because it really was a short distance, but my radar was turned off because I thought it was something I couldn't miss. I think that's really the lesson at the bottom of all this: you have to have all systems on all the time in this sport, because one or another of them is going to let you down occasionally.