Trail blazing
Trail blazing, or trailblazing (way marking in United Kingdom and Ireland), also used in North America, Australia and New Zealand, is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with blazes, markings that follow each other at certain — though not necessarily exactly defined — distances and mark the direction of the trail. Originally a tree would be blazed by hatchet chops (still the dictionary definition) but today other methods have become more common, with environmental and aesthetic concerns sometimes playing a part in the choice of blazing method.
Other navigational aids, such as cairns, are used where blazes are unsuitable.
Types of blaze
Paint
Nowadays, most commonly, a painted marking of a consistent shape or shapes (often rectangular), dimension and colour or combination of colours is used along the trail route. The system by which blazes are used to signify turns and endpoints in trails (see below) strongly favors the use of paint blazes. Commonly, in the USA and Canada, to avoid confusion, it is one single colour, often white, red, blue or yellow. Other trails, especially in Europe, may use more complex systems of painted shapes in more than one colour. Some Austrian trails, for example, use a combination of white and coloured stripes, while Central European countries such as Czech Republic, Slovak Republic and Poland use coloured bars with different meanings attached to different colours. Trails in South Africa are often marked by yellow footprints painted on trees and rocks.
