TRAIL MARKING

Trail marking is an easy way to keep yourself on a true heading.  It is even more important if you need to return to a specific spot later.  Walking in a straight line is not as easy as it sounds.  We all have a predominant leg just as we all have a preferred hand.  This will cause anybody and everybody to walk in a large circle unless you use a compass or landmarks to keep yourself on track.  In cities and towns the roads and buildings allow us to make the tiny corrections unconsciously that keep us walking that straight line with ease where trail marking is done with street signs.

In the wilderness you need other landmarks such as a distant hill, the setting sun, or a distant peak kept at a constant spot, like just off one shoulder or the other, to accomplish this.  Trail marking is a way that allows you greater accuracy.

The natural features of wild country conspire to get the unwary or unobservant off track.  In densely wooded areas this is particularly true.  The use of trail marking makes the task of navigation fairly simple.  A decent pair of binoculars will make spotting land marks easier at a distance.

When trail marking through the woods, (you might have to return for an injured friend or valuable equipment) just put your back to a tree while facing the direction you wish to go.  Now, turn around and with a knife or axe cut off the outer bark revealing the lighter colored wood beneath at about head level.  Put your back to this tree and pick out another tree about a hundred or so feet away and walk directly to it.  Mark this tree as you approach it.  Always look back and make sure you can see the last tree you marked.  Now go to the other side of this tree and mark it again as you did the first one.  Now pick another and go to it repeating the process until you either get to where you want to be or find help along the way.   This  survival hatchet is a quality tool that will last for years, doing a multitude of tasks.
 
Your methods of trail marking can be changed to piling stones, tying tufts of grass together in a bunch and bending or breaking them to indicate a particular direction, laying branches to form a symbol such as an arrow, or some Flag Tape tied to a tree.  Just use your imagination and what is at hand when trail marking.  The methods outlined here work much better than a trail of peanuts that will just get scarfed up by critters that live there.

If you have to stop and camp for the night, trail marking will keep you sure of your orientation and headed in the same direction in the morning.

You always have the option to simply retrace the way you came in.  You have already seen this country, however briefly, and you will likely remember more than you thought you would.  Your ability to keep from becoming lost in the woods and finding your way back will be greatly enhanced by trail marking.