Leading the way.
You think "blaze," you think fire. Blazing away means loading your musket and unloading like a madman, as much as such can be done with a musket.
But the etymology of trailblazing — marking trails in the wilderness — has nothing to do with fire. Those who are familiar with horses know that facial markings are called blazes. Blazing a trail is creating marks.
Marking trees is an American invention originating from the colonial period. These nuggets from Thomas Walker's Journal of Exploration, circa 1750, provide an early citation:
I Blazed a way from our House to the River.
I blazed several trees in the fork and marked T. W. on a Sycamore Tree.
Today, nearly all blazes are made of paint. They have grown somewhat more complex than the stonepiles and treenotches of our forebears: some European blazes are color-coded or formed of concentric circles. Of course, some just stick a pole in the ground with a mylar sign on the end reading "walking trail".
Go to a national park and you will be provided with literature outlining the meaning of its blazes. I am not here to parrot park literature. Follow the blazes included below at Yellowstone and you will die alone in the foliage. These are the blazes of self-excommunicated souls living in hide tents in the woods: marks you will make yourself in trees and rocks and saplings where there is no national park. Should you choose such.
Types of blazes
Marking your blazes in treebark is the most reliable way to go. Find trees with thin bark and, with your ax or machete, strike down almost parallel to the shaft of the tree: you want to shave off a piece of bark, not carve out a chunk of wood. And don't swing too hard. You'll cut your shins off.
Generally, you want to make your blazes at breast height — both to make them visible and to indicate that this is, indeed, a man-made mark rather than the teething-abrasions of a wandering moose. When following blazed trails, you'll find that markings have a mechanical quality to them. Straight cuts, evenly spaced marks, &c.
Tree markings are as follows:
| | | | | | | o |
| O | | o | | o | | o |
| | | O| |O | | o |
/ \ / \ / \ / \
On Trail Turn Right Turn Left Warning
The rock blaze is the tree blaze's less-cultured younger cousin. It is named Cairn. It appears thus:
/`\
/`\ /`\ /`\ /`````\
__/`````\__ __/`````\/`\__ __/`\/`````\__ __/`````````\__
On Trail Turn Right Turn Left Warning
Making blazes out of bundles of grass is a less strenuous way of marking a trail than, say, hacking at nearby trees with your ax. Without uprooting the bundle, tie a knot low enough so that a loose top portion has enough to point in your desired direction. Naturally, the inherent flexibility of grass and its tendency to disintegrate in dry weather make this a sketchy endeavor.
Sorry, I'm done with the askey art. Point the loose end straight up to indicate on-trail; Turn the loose end right to indicate a right turn; turn the loose end left to indicate a left turn; tie three bundles in a row pointed straight up to indicate a warning.
Blazes of broken saplings and branches are for the harder-core-than-thou hikers. They were a favored option of Native Americans looking to mark their trails without the unwanted privitude of the White man. A broken and unsevered sapling indicates that you're on trail; a severed branch, leaves pointed right or left, indicate a right or left turn respectively; a severed branch propped leaves-down in a Y-stick indicates a warning.
Smoke signals possess only a tenuous hold on the moniker trailblaze. The trailblaze is the road sign of the hiker's world; the smoke signal is the formation of neon searchlights. Smokesignaling is a complex art, but the basics are good to know:
Single plume of smoke says: Camp here.
Two plumes of smoke says: Lost, help!
Three plumes of smoke says: Good news!
Following a blazed trail
Depending on its purpose, a blazed trail may lead any number of places. A hiking trail may direct you in a loop to its origin, or to the main trail exiting the forest. A hunting trail will lead you to a fishing river or a set of traps. A woodcutter's line takes you on the easiest route to choice timber.
Now, in the case of amateur blazes, you're in for some hairy work.
To verify the age of a tree blaze, don't look at the height of the blaze. The blaze stays at the same level: trees grow from the top up. Cut a billet of wood from the blaze and count the number of annules contained in its scar: one annule for each year. Blazes on trees that shed their bark — such as poplar, locust, and chestnut, among others — are not permanent. Contrariwise, blazes on spruce and pine grow more clear with age due to the accumulation and hardening of sap.
If you've run out of blazes, mark your spot and return to the last blaze. Make sure it isn't a natural abrasion, caused perhaps by another tree falling or some troublesome gnawing animal. It's possible that the next blazed tree has fallen. Try as best you can to orient yourself according to the blaze and move forward.
Sources
Tawrell, Paul. "Camping & Wilderness Survival: The Ultimate Outdoors Book." Tawrell: Ontario. 1996.
Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trail_blazing
The Phrase Finder
http://www.phrases.org.uk/meanings/66700.html
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