Man your always thinking outside the Box . That's a great idea, you even could tie One knot for each 100 Meters of distance a target location is ahead. Great video

Another amazing video. Talk about blazing a trail. 👍

I worked for the Forest Service as a Wilderness Ranger in the late 70's and had to look for, find and follow old blazed trails. However I have only seen a long blaze with a short blaze on top or below the long blaze. Nobody mentioned a code nor could they explain the differences. In the Boy Scouts we did have training in different trail marking techniques. This is a great video. Glad to see blazing techniques that won't damage the tree. As long as people go back to remove the temporary tape otherwise some areas would be cluttered lots of fluttering stuff.

Great info! You should have a talk with National Forestry Service, as they have a particular use of colored flagging tape for things like utility lines and underground piping and borderlines etc. We also used it for Search and Rescue designations.

For a VERY TEMPORARY trail marking, we use crape paper streamer used for party decorations. Hint: Pull from the center of the roll.

Good information. Plenty of us follow our own ways in the wilderness. Not all trails are marked in a way we can follow.

Great video. I used blazing often when hunting public land for my trail markings. Until others became entertained by cutting the blazing tape off the tree or bush. It works great when it is respected by others.

If possible i recommend applying these concepts but also utalize a black light and florescent tape or string so it glows in the dark. Also then you could make a trail only you can see

Great video Dave thanks for sharing the information

Wow, always such amazing information, tricks and tips!

... Back in my Boy Scouting days ,, trail markings were done with 3 rocks ,, stacked for (the way) or top rock set to one side or the other (for direction change).. Can also make arrow pointer from rocks or tree limbs... and an "X" ,would mean not the way ... Many times since,, when leaving a known trail for any reason , I use a piece of bright survey tape (usually fluorescent orange) to show change when I backtrack ..extremely helpful when there is snow with depth and constantly filling tracks ..

Great video. Maybe you could tie a quick overhand knot in the band around the tree to the right or left instead of relying on the placement of the knot. Maybe tuck one of the tails into the right side or left. Unless it was temporary, lasting a week or two, I don't think I would rely on the knot being in the same place.

I mainly make markers for going in and out in the dark. I take clothspins and put relective tape on them.

Good info Dave. Keep the vids coming. Super excited about the revamp of the 21st century long hunter series.

With a blue light as with blue headlamp some flourecent colors glow at night. Good for finding your way at night.

Enjoying these video's good information and content. Thanks

Thank you for sharing this with us.

Great tip! Would it be possible for you to do a video on how to mark your path discreetly, marks that only your specific group were looking for, but for outsiders the marks wouldn’t be noticeable? For more of a survival situation.

Dave good one, saves damaging the trees

Thank you. I might not be understanding the second code well, but if I am, it seems like there is potential for confusion with continue, left, and right. If the knot is facing you, and that is continue, but the knot to the right means turn right, for example, what is the means to distinguish the "turn right" from "continue" in the left (from current, not-lost position) direction, should you happen upon it after getting turned around? EDIT: If I have not misunderstood, I propose the knot always refer to the same direction relative to the trail's continuation in order to remove ambiguity. E.g. "forward along the trail is opposite the knot," to keep with the initial "continue" signal you've established. In practice, that would switch the left and right signals, but you could always know when finding a marker, that the direction to head is opposite the knot (or vice versa to return). Upon reflection, I suspect that this is probably what you intended and that left and right were accidentally switched in the making of the video. Much respect. :)

BRILLIANT Dave!!!

Thanks for the update.

Great info to have for sure.

This sounds like a great coding system for blazing Trails there's a possibility for this to go National

Great techniques

What if you are approaching the tree at a different angle to the person who blazed it? A left turn knot will look like a straight ahead if I was approaching the tree from a left angle. Same for a right turn. If I was on an established trail and approaching from the same direction as the blazer then this is not a problem. If I was search and rescue and trekking through the brush then I could come up on this blaze at any angle. I am thinking making an arrow with the tape to precisely show the direction. 1. Tie the initial blaze around the tree leaving a long trailing tail. 2. Wrap that tail around, either right or left of the tree, and pull the tail through to make the arrow (Direction of travel). 3. Wrap the tail in the opposite direction so that you are pulling back on the signaling tape. This will make an Arrow symbol. 4. One final wrap as you go in the opposite direction below the arrow symbol and tie off. It will use a little bit more signaling tape, but there will be no confusing direction of travel. Then just use the simple knot wrap for straight ahead.

If your approach to a blazed tree was from a slightly different angle/direction to that of the person who marked it, there's a danger that the left or right indicators could be interpreted as straight ahead. In the same scenario, the inverse is true of the 'continue straight' marker. There's a bit too much margin for error for my liking.

Cool info. Thanks

Thanks Guys

I like the idea but I'd worry about the knot sliding around the tree and changing the meaning of the siignal. Instead I'd maybe add some half hitches on the side of the tree you're turning, or wrap the tag end around one side or the other several times like you would with a timber hitch. So maybe if you wrapped both tag ends in with half hitches it would mean go straight, but if you wanted to turn you would leave one end loose

Good idea dave

Great topic, I've seen this but it's been mostly trail hiking or thru hiking stuff. Thanks for covering this. Kind of goes with land nav, but most won't spend the time 😮😢

Very simple & effective way in communication. Easy to read when there is an obvious trail but what if there is no obvious trail? Could we somehow use a compass for assistance or might we use the Sun? How do we present markers at night time? Help....! S.O.S.....! Mayday..!! Cheers DC from Australia.

Did you say that was orange mule tape? Never seen orange. Stuff is awesome.

Hello Dave!!!

I don't know why i'm thinking of this during this video. I know I am off topic. I have heard you in the past quite a bit talk about manipulating wood and manipulating metal. Would you consider a series in the future of manipulating and utilizing scrap? Wheel weights, scrap metal and steel, springs, wood repurpousing, ect,

👍👍👍 Cool ! ...Alan 🇨🇱

For the turns, how do you work out how far you turn left or right? Or is it all assumed at a set angle?

i like the idea, but how do you know which "side" of the tree it is on?

Don’t forget to cut it down later so you don’t damage trees.

My only question is with the right and left turn. Do you turn right or left immediately, or veer gradually going forward down the trail? Thanks, Sean

Interesting

👍🙏

One change I would advocate for is the left and right turns should be essentially eliminated. This is because they are the same as the straight ahead indicator. Instead I would interpret the straight ahead as straight ahead from the opposite side of this tree. If using a compass, this follows the advice of shooting your azimuth to an object and then moving to the opposite side, back to the object to shoot your next azimuth. This has an additional benefit in that it no longer matters if you approach the blaze from the correct direction, as reading them wouldn't be directional anymore.

Y don't u add that's 2 yr rope management system take like a 100' ft. Piece cut it up in2 6'ft pieces with bowline knot that has a 🛑 knot in the end & just a 🛑 knot in the other end bring a 100'ft unknotted of course All of them hanked up in there own bag

A Blazing code. You lost me. What code?