Two blazes - trail head
One vertical blaze - keep going straight
Two blazes with the right higher up- right turn
Two blazes with the left higher up - left turn
Three blazes- Spur to a different trail and sometimes three lets the hiker know of a change in the trail
Easy peasy lemon squeezy right?
Ducks are three stacked stones marking trails in the high country where there aren't trees to blaze Cairns are a pile of stones that are around three feet high.
Simple enough right?
Oh and remember that blazes and (hopefully) ducks are painted in the color of the trail you are on. Did I mention that trails are typically assigned names and colors? So if you happen upon two yellow blazes with a third blue you have just found where the blue trail meets the yellow.
But even with all of this clear trail information, sometimes a fad comes into play like on Putney Mountain where fun loving visitors stack and balance stones everywhere and I mean everywhere! Then there are the trees with old blazes, new blazes, tin and wooden diamonds and blazed trees that have fallen to the ground. More exciting is when there is a boundary in the middle of the wilderness (why?) and the blazes are actually survey markers and not trail markers at all. My favorite challenge however is the prankster who rotates an occasional arrow or decides to add their own cryptic message to the fray.
In any event, Wayne, the dogs and I made it out of Roaring Brook Wildlife Refuge albeit later than we had planned, some very colorful words "spoken" and with a few more scrapes than expected. - Norma Manning
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| Wayne checks his map in a recently logged area of Roaring Brook Wildlife Refuge |
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| Four blazes three red then a yellow and red on the right just behind a survey stake |
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| Orange, red, yellow, blue and white. Good thing we brought a map |
Great blog!
ReplyDeleteNice pictures!
ReplyDelete