When you've lost the trail, it is an unnerving feeling if you're not close to some area you're familiar with. You then realize the value of blazing, both as to its frequency and uniformity. An untrained blazer can create a mess and/or problem for all of us in our woods... from too many to too few, blotches on trees/ rocks/ posts vs. detailed blazes, hidden blazes, etc. Blazes should be visually attractive, the corners square and crisp, there are no natural objects like this in nature.

Any of us who blaze should take our time to learn from one who as done it and takes pride in maintaining our 2" x 6" blue blazes which guide us along any part of the NCT trail. Pride in doing it right, perhaps, even artistically (due to lack of flat surface blaze must be put on). The blaze and trail represents all the members and volunteers of the North Country Trail Association.

A "blazer&qout; should be a hiker willing to follow our standard of 2" x 6", both for new trails and for maintaining old blazes. Here's a list to use when blazing:

• use a 2" x 6" piece of cardboard to gauge the blaze or a dollar bill will work- it is a bit larger
• use a 1/2" or 1" wide, thin short bristle brush to control your paint flow (any large brush reduces your control and can cause you to "blotch blaze"), old brushes work better because they are stiff.
• obtain a carrier for 1 quart (or a plastic peanut butter jar/ container) of our blue paint, brush and holder (ex. bottom half of an old plastic oil quart container)
• rag or two
• rubber glove for your painting hand
• small container of solvent for cleaning your hand(s)
• bark scraping tool, to remove rough bark, do not scrape smooth trees too deep, or use a wire brush on a smooth bark tree
• one can of flat black spray paint (to correct a blaze or to eliminate a blaze when it's not needed
• wear old clothes

Height, at least six feet off the ground

Paint both sides of the tree. [editor's note: this is not always the best choice] Note: it does not matter if trees are on the left of right. Choose a tree that is most visible. Not necessarily if the other side isn't prominently seen. Sometimes yes, sometimes no.

All of this seems so simple, since you can say, "Now, I'm ready to blaze," -but- you're not! Someone should go with you initially to show you how to paint a blaze or two, to go over the distance between blazes, to show you how to correct bad blazes, how to replace blaze trees that have fallen, and to help you feel comfortable in your creative blaze painting.

For any of our club, blazing needs to be taught and then done by trained hikers in insure the blazes are uniform.

Inagine hiking the entire 4,200 miles of our trail and all blazes are as near to 2" x 6" as you or I can make them. It takes pride in our work to do this and build the best trail in the country.

Notes: The blazes in the Allegheny Forest are plastic; we hope to gradually change them to paint. We are also working with the American Youth Hostel to develop a better blazing plan.