
Reading and using trail blazes
Posted by Claire Walters on Mar 5, 2013 in Hammock/Backpacking Tips, Trail Gear Gallery | 0 commentsHere’s a great video talking about reading & using trail blazes done by a user on Youtube Woodarrows
Here’s the description from Woodarrows
A short video about reading and using trail blazing, along with a couple of common sense tips. Nothing spectacular just an introduction to using trail blazes.
Volunteers working in Harriman State Park in the 1930s for the newly-formed New York — New Jersey Trail Conference developed a system whereby a vertically stacked pair of blazes, with the upper one generally offset in the direction that the trail turns; a triangular pattern of blazes would indicate a terminus, its point up or down depending on whether that was the beginning or the end. These began to be used elsewhere and are now fairly common throughout North America, though variations of this system exist.
Remember, if you are hiking a blazed trail and you realize you haven’t seen any blazes for a while, retrace your steps to the last blaze you saw and then pay attention looking for blazes you’ve missed.