[vthompson]

Whenever you are in unfamiliar territory hiking or camping and you don't have a compass or a map, it is a good idea to blaze yourself a trail. You do this by marking the backside of trees along the trail that you are walking on. Take your knife or hatchet and cut the bark about the size of a silver dollar off of the tree until the new wood is exposed. As you are walking, turn around and look to make sure that you can see your marks on the trees so that you can find your way back if you have to by following the same trail.
You don't have to take a lot of bark off of th tree, just enough for you to see it. We don't want to cause any more damage than we have to.

[vthompson]

Have any of you guy's ever blazed a real mark on the sides of trees? I do whenever I go into unfamiliar territory, and it works really well. I try to mark a tree about every 20 or 30 yards apart. I use my tomahawk to chop a small amount of bark off of the tree that I picked out.

[AlpineZone]

Yes, have blazed many paths through the woods temporarily to find my way. I like to use trail marking tape to stick to the tree or trail ribbons and tie to small branches myself. If you don't have trail marking tape or ribbon you can unwrap christmas bows and use that or garling on the path. A can of orange or red spray paint works well also. Prefer orange myself it shows up better especially if night navigating with your headlamp but its more permanent so I try to avoid paint. Hope this is useful.

[garret]

i used to carry a can of the road making paint (it is water based and will be gone in 2-3 good rains) and because it is a fluro paint it stands out like dogs danglies

[Dick]

I always carry tree flagging tape, that way you can rip it down on your way out. The winter grade stuff is quite strong and can be used for cordage applications also.

[stairman]

I have blazed the bark of trees but only in swamps with no trails. Paint would not be one of my choices on any tree I use orange flag tape sometimes[useless in the dark] and bright eyes glowing thumbtacks. Also I like the glow-in-the-dark breadties for coming out at night but usually now I use my GPS and map-n-compass for a backup.

[vthompson]

Whenever I started this thread, I only meant to blaze yourself a trail if you didn't have any other means to mark your way with you. I meant it if you only had a knife or a tomahawk with you.

[Dang]

I know in a survival situation, it is fine. But is it generally not good for the trees to cut bark off of them?

[Mephistopheles]

I use bread crumbs or peanuts...only drawback is you have to kill every bird, chipmunk, squirrel and rat in the forest as your walk along.....but it works.

Actually I have a fair photographic memory and alway look back every so often as vegatation dictates. I never get lost. I can walk miles and return to within 50ft of my vehicle that way. Even when hunting I have no problem. My brother....walks 50ft and needs his gps to get back....but he always gets a buck, it's uncanny.

[AlabamaDan]

You guys ever hear of leave no trace?