Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail. A blaze in the beginning meant "a mark made on a tree by slashing the bark" (The Canadian Oxford Dictionary). Originally a waymark was "any conspicuous object which serves as a guide to travellers; a landmark" (Oxford English Dictionary). Today, paint (most prevalent), carvings, affixed markers, posts, flagging, cairns, and crosses, are commonly used. Blaze frequency and recognizability varies significantly. In some wilderness areas, such as those governed by the US Wilderness Act requiring that the land seem "untrammeled by man," blazes are kept to a minimum. Alternatively, highly utilized public areas, such as busy municipal, county, or state parks, will use frequent and highly visible blazes to maximize trail recognition.
Types of signage
Paint
A painted marking of a consistent shape or shapes (often rectangular), dimension and colour or combination of colours is used along the trail route. The system by which blazes are used to signify turns and endpoints in trails (see below) strongly favors the use of paint blazes.
European countries usually use systems of painted bars or shapes in more than one colour. The Czech Hiking Markers System uses three bars – usually one color in between two white bars, with different meanings attached to different colours – in a 10 cm x 10 cm square. Red is often used to mark difficult or summit trails. Arrows of similar design signal a change of direction. This system was first used in today's Czech Republic in May 1889, to mark a trail from the town of Štěchovice to a nearby spring. Today there are 42,000 km (26,000 mi) of marked trails in the Czech Republic. This system is used also in Slovakia, Ukraine, Croatia, Romania, Albania, Brazil, Philippines and Mongolia. Poland, Bulgaria and Georgia used very similar system. French, Italian, Austrian and Swiss trails use a similar system of white and coloured stripes. Slovenia, Croatia and other former members of Yugoslavia use Knafelc trail blaze. In the United States and Canada, a single colour is used, usually white, red, blue or yellow. Trails in South Africa are often marked by yellow footprints painted on trees and rocks. In Israel, trails are marked by three stripes. A painted stripe surrounded by two white stripes can indicate length with black, green, blue, or red representing short (<10 km) trails, and purple or orange representing longer trails (60 to 100 km). In addition, some trails are represented by specific colour combinations such as the Golan Trail (white, blue, green), the Jerusalem Trail (blue, gold, blue), and the Israel National Trail (white, blue, orange). Blazes may also be painted on obvious rock surfaces or on posts set into the ground (or on utility poles, fences, or other handy surfaces) where the trail follows a road or goes through fields and meadows.
Carvings
Originally a tree would be blazed by axe or hatchet chops (still the dictionary definition) or knife. Most often these are informal routes made by loggers or hunters, or trails descended from those routes, examples of which are found in North America, Australia and New Zealand. Today, environmental and aesthetic concerns dictate blazing method on public lands, with other navigational aids, such as cairns, and machine-carved posts, used where blazes are unsuitable.
Affixed markers
Long lasting plastic, metal, or even sometimes wooden markers may be affixed to trees, usually with nails. Historically, affixed metal markers often included the shapes, logos, colors, and identity of prominent trailkeeping organizations, such as the Appalachian Mountain Club (AMC), or just the trail's identity (as in the Voyageur Hiking Trail image above).
Flagging
Flagging such as surveyor's tape tied around trees or branches is sometimes used to indicate trail routes, but usually only for temporary or unofficial trails, most commonly when a trail route has been selected but the trail itself is under construction. Trail flagging is the predominant method to mark a mountain hiking trail in Japan. Red ribbons usually indicate an ascent route while yellow ribbon indicate a descent route. On some mountains, a non-standard ribbon colour (white or blue) is used to identify a specific trail.
Poles
Poles (also known as "wands"), colored or not, often temporary, are often used to keep the trail visible during winter and under snow cover. Poles are standard trail markers in Austria, Canada, USA, the Czech Republic, Switzerland, and Slovakia.
Cairns
Cairns are carefully arranged piles of stones. Cairns are most commonly used to indicate trails in open areas, such as higher-elevation alpine areas, where no trees are available, or where conditions may make blazes hard to see. An ancient example is the inuksuk (plural inuksuit), used by the Inuit, Inupiat, Kalaallit, Yupik, and other peoples of the Arctic region of North America. These structures are found from Alaska to Greenland. This region, above the Arctic Circle, is dominated by the tundra biome and has areas with few natural landmarks. Below the tree line, cairns are used less frequently, often like flagging to indicate informal or unofficial paths or just their junctions with official trails. They may become obscured by snow in areas with heavy winters and may be easily knocked over. In some areas the recreational building of numerous cairns has obscured the proper use of cairns to mark junctions and crossings. In some areas of the United States, park rangers and land managers must disassemble excess cairns when they become eyesores or when they mislead navigation. Where rocks are scarce, poles can be used. Poles are also frequently used to mark ski and snow shoe trails.
Trail ducks Duck is a term used in some parts of the US, generally for a much smaller rock pile than a cairn, typically stacked just high enough to convince the observer it is not natural. For most, two rocks stacked could be a coincidence, but three rocks stacked is a duck. In some regions, ducks also contain a pointer rock (or a couple of stacked rocks) to indicate the direction of the trail.
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