What The Blazes?

[+Old Bet]

I thought I could read trail blazes from what I remember of my Boy Scout days...

staight, left, right, end-of-trail.

 

But while hunting for a cache not long ago, we found a blaze that comprized four

paint dabs on top of one another.

 

Anyone know what four blazes mean? Other side of the three had three blazes, which I think ,means trail ends, so maybe four means trail begins?

[+briansnat]

Never heard of four. Three indicates the beginning or end of a trail. Is it possible that one of the blazes was of a different color and part of a cross trail? Or perhaps one had been painted out and is showing through the masking paint?

[+briansnat]

I ran this by the guy responsible for the trails in northern NJ and he never heard of it either. He said two vertical blazes sometimes have been used to alert hikers that a turn blaze is coming up, but he's never seen four.

 

He guessed that it might be a boundry marker and now that I think of it, I've seen four vertical paint splotches on trees used as a boundry marker. But they're splotches (usually blue or orange) and not well defined blazes.

[+Harry Dolphin]

I've actually seen this. If the tree is narrow, and the "Turn Left" in one direction is too close to the "Turn Right" in the other direction, you can sometimes get a very messy blaze.

It can look like:

X X

XX

[avroair]

I have seen 4 before. Can't remember where though.

 

I took it to mean trail starts here --- now go straight ahead.

 

EDIT: Or maybe one of them is a geocache hidden to look like a blaze.... hmmm.... now where have I seen that?

Edited January 19, 2005 by avroair

[+The Frantic Cachers]

I have seen 4 before also.....but they weren't in a straight line.

 

it was to indicate the trail made a "U" turn

Like so:

 

XX

X X

[+briansnat]

I have seen 4 before also.....but they weren't in a straight line.

 

it was to indicate the trail made a "U" turn

Like so:

 

      XX

    X  X

Hmmm, even a U turn should just be an offset like this:

 

X

X

 

or

 

X

X

 

I've seen them look like four when you have a beginning blaze (blame Harry for this):

 

X

X X

 

and an end end blaze:

 

X X

X

 

on the same tree, with one of the beginning's blazes showing on the other side:

 

X X

X X

 

heeeey, how come my spaces don't stay?

Edited January 19, 2005 by briansnat

[+Old Bet]

Thanks for all who responded.

 

The blaze in question is in the exact same paint as the other blazes on this trail. It is not a boundary marker. The only way you can see it is if you climb a fairly steep cliff or walk in circles with your GPSr looking for a cache.

 

Four marks, vertically aligned:

X

X

X

X

 

Opposite side of the tree has the three blazes indicating end of trail.

 

If the weather cooperates, I'll take a picture on my next outing, since I have

to return to the area to eradicate a DNF.

[+The Frantic Cachers]

....heeeey, how come my spaces don't stay?

mine didn't either to show the offset