"i" Carvings in Trees

[fireneck]

uploadfromtaptalk1408547994553.jpg

Any CT history buffs out there? Just finished my hike. I was wondering from Denver to Durango about these "i"s were up and down the corridor marking the entire trail. Some were old and overgrown and others were pretty fresh. I've done some searches about them and no luck. Anyone have more info. about them? The CTF does not make a mention of them online.

CT July 20-Aug. 15, 2014

[garlic08]

A ranger once told me the old "dotted i" was a blaze used for the stock trails in the West. I don't know if rangers or stockmen or both cut them. Since much of the CT follows those old trails, you see a lot of them there, but they're all over the place on the old trails.

After a lifetime+, many decades, most of them are still effective and sometimes they're really good to see.

[Mags]

These are old school blazes commonly found out West. Less common then in years past, but you still see them. It was what was used in place of paint (ala the AT). Not part of the CT per se, but part of the CT that happens to use older trails that existed before the CT.

The USFS suggests only "freshening" the older blazes and not making news ones

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/...age11.cfm#mark

Traditionally, these blazes were done with an axe. I am sure they were done back East as well in the past, but seem to be a lot less common by far.

Congrats on your CT hike !!!!


EDIT:

Found this post I made from last year:

In general, these "I" blazes are old school blazes found through out the american west (and maybe on rare occasions back East?). In fact, the original understanding of a blaze was an axe cut on a tree to mark the trail.

From the USFS:

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07232806/page13.htm

The classic reassurance marker is a blaze cut on a tree. The standard Forest Service blaze should always be used to differentiate it from the freeform blazes and antler rubbings that appear on nonsystem trails (figure 87 (http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpu...ge13.htm#fig87)). Cut blazes carefully because a mistake can't be repaired. If a blaze is consistently buried by snow during part of the use season, the blaze can be cut higher on the tree, but not so high that it becomes difficult to locate from the tread. Cut blazes may, on rare occasions, need to be freshened—recut them carefully.

Naturally, these blazes aren't as popular on newer trails for obvious reasons. But you still see them a fair amount.



Portions of the CT use older trails that havr been around quite a while (La Garita Stock Driveway for example)
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/riogrande/recreation/hiking/recarea/?recid=29066&actid=50

[TOW]

These are old school blazes commonly found out West. Less common then in years past, but you still see them. It was what was used in place of paint (ala the AT). Not part of the CT per se, but part of the CT that happens to use older trails that existed before the CT.

The USFS suggests only "freshening" the older blazes and not making news ones

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/...age11.cfm#mark

Traditionally, these blazes were done with an axe. I am sure they were done back East as well in the past, but seem to be a lot less common by far.

Congrats on your CT hike !!!!


EDIT:

Found this post I made from last year:

In general, these "I" blazes are old school blazes found through out the american west (and maybe on rare occasions back East?). In fact, the original understanding of a blaze was an axe cut on a tree to mark the trail.

From the USFS:

http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpubs/htm07232806/page13.htm

The classic reassurance marker is a blaze cut on a tree. The standard Forest Service blaze should always be used to differentiate it from the freeform blazes and antler rubbings that appear on nonsystem trails (figure 87 (http://www.fs.fed.us/t-d/pubs/htmlpu...ge13.htm#fig87)). Cut blazes carefully because a mistake can't be repaired. If a blaze is consistently buried by snow during part of the use season, the blaze can be cut higher on the tree, but not so high that it becomes difficult to locate from the tread. Cut blazes may, on rare occasions, need to be freshened—recut them carefully.

Naturally, these blazes aren't as popular on newer trails for obvious reasons. But you still see them a fair amount.



Portions of the CT use older trails that havr been around quite a while (La Garita Stock Driveway for example)
http://www.fs.usda.gov/recarea/riogr...29066&actid=50

Cool, learned something today did....

[fireneck]

You're the best Mags, thanks!

[Nooga]

I too was curious about these blazes during my CT hike. If they are "old school", who / why are new ones being carved? I saw some that were probably cut this year.

[Nooga]

[QUOTE=Nooga;1902149]I too was curious about these blazes during my CT hike. If they are "old school", who / why are new ones being carved? I saw some that were probably cut this year. If they are not specific to a trail, it is hard to understand their benefit.

[bamboo bob]

Saw them on PCT and CDT as well. FS makes sense.

[Mags]

As mentioned above, they are not new ones, but old ones that are "freshened" per USFS regs.

http://www.fhwa.dot.gov/environment/...age11.cfm#mark

"Cut blazes may, on rare occasions, need to be "freshened." If a blaze has "healed" to the point where it doesn't resemble an official blaze, it may be carefully recut."


In IT, we call this RTFM. :-P (Read the fine manual )

[Another Kevin]

About a month ago, Elf and I were hiking for a bit on an 'unofficial, unapproved, unmaintained' trail, and saw that it was marked with axe blazes, some of them quite fresh. I hadn't seen fresh axe blazes in quite some time.

All the 'witness trees' marking the survey lines of the Forest Preserve in New York were axe blazed once upon a time. Nowadays, the survey blazes here are refreshed with paint, most often huge irregular splashes of yellow, although I've also seen blue ones (which may be New York City survey marks). Some of the property lines have herd paths along them, both from landowners and rangers cutting paths when they beat the bounds, and because bushwhackers follow them. The privately-maintained Yankee Smith Trail from Winter Clove to Countryman Kill, and the unofficial herd path up Vly Mountain from County Route #3 both follow the property lines most of the way.

[Nooga]

[QUOTE=Mags;1902157]As mentioned above, they are not new ones, but old ones that are "freshened" per USFS regs.

Thanks for the clarification. I had mistaken the "freshened" ones as new. Again, I fail to understand their purpose if not specific to a trail. When hiking, I know I am on a trail, the question is am I on the correct trail.

[Mags]

[QUOTE=Nooga;1902417]

Thanks for the clarification. I had mistaken the "freshened" ones as new. Again, I fail to understand their purpose if not specific to a trail. When hiking, I know I am on a trail, the question is am I on the correct trail.

Some trails are less well defined than others esp on older trails out west. These older trails are not as well used many times and the trail can be difficult to find esp in wooded areas. The blazes help keep you on the trail. Suspect that's why they were/are used.

Be too much to have different blazes for every remote trail with a color coded system like the AT corridor.

[Another Kevin]

Some trails are less well defined than others esp on older trails out west. These older trails are not as well used many times and the trail can be difficult to find esp in wooded areas. The blazes help keep you on the trail. Suspect that's why they were/are used.

Be too much to have different blazes for every remote trail with a color coded system like the AT corridor.

Even in the East, we have some stretches with old trails - or remote ones - that don't see a lot of maintenance.

What New York does outside of areas like Fahnestock and Harriman (where there are mazes of crisscrossing trails) is a three-color system. North-south trails are blue, east-west are red, spurs, loops and connectors are yellow. You very seldom have two trails of the same color meeting at an intersection. But you also don't see a lot of reassurance blazes. You learn to look for cut blowdown, crampon scratches, the grades of old haul roads now grown to trees again, and the like, because there may not be more than a blaze every quarter-mile or so. And if the trail isn't popular, it can be hard to tell from a game path or a stream. A trail ordinarily has more bootprints, and a stream more trout, but this is not guaranteed.

There's a whole spectrum of walking between tooling down a well-blazed and popular trail and an out-and-out bushwhack.

[Mags]

There's a whole spectrum of walking between tooling down a well-blazed and popular trail and an out-and-out bushwhack.

Indeed. I think for people who stick to well marked and well maintained trails, these "in between" type trails are often a shock.

[Nooga]

Thanks for your reply. I would add that on the CT, I also saw some of these i blazes that were painted metal, rather than actually cut into the trees. Some of the axed blazes looked rather brutal, do they have an adverse effect on the trees?

[Another Kevin]

Thanks for your reply. I would add that on the CT, I also saw some of these i blazes that were painted metal, rather than actually cut into the trees. Some of the axed blazes looked rather brutal, do they have an adverse effect on the trees?

They can indeed have an adverse effect, although certainly there are trees that live for decades or centuries after being axe-blazed - long enough for bark to grow out over the scar. Hence the discussion of blazes being refreshed. New trails are generally not being blazed that way, and as I said, where I hike, the old axe cuts on witness trees are usually re-marked with splashes of paint.

[peakbagger]

My section of AT corridor boundary in Maine was very aggressively ax blazed when laid out. After 25 years, the paint is quite faded but the ax blazes remain on the mature trees. We are not allowed to make new blazes or put paint where paint didn't already exist. It can make things real difficult in areas where fresh growth has moved in.

I routinely follow old ax blazed routes in the whites over 50 years old.

[garlic08]

I hiked the PCT with a young Brit and he was aghast at the concept of an axe blaze. We saw plenty. I tried to explain to him the viewpoint, at the time the blazes were made, that lumber was considered an inexhaustible resource in the West. I think he saw it as yet another American foible, down there with our cheese, tea, and even pool tables. I do have to respect the guy, though--he returned to England, quit his job in health care, took a huge cut in income and became a forester.

[Twogears]

Hiking in Wyoming much of my life, I have seen axe blazed trees for decades. Many of these blazes were cut in the 1920s to 1950s. Based upon the age of these trees, I suspect that they aren't as harmful to them as some are representing.

It is interesting to follow the old stock driveways in the Sierra Madres (in WY). No "trail" exists in many instances. You simply follow the blazes. But, make sure that you see the next one before going too far as they often times make unexpected turns. I have often followed abandoned trails and thinking myself "lost" have been sitting down and just by happenstance look up and there is a blaze.

[10-K]

Man! I can't believe this question was asked. I took a picture of one myself and was going to ask the PCTA what they meant. They were on the PCT pretty much regularly the whole way.