Trail blazing

Trail blazing or way marking is the practice of marking paths in outdoor recreational areas with signs or markings that follow each other at certain, though not necessarily exactly defined, distances and mark the direction of the trail.

A blaze in the beginning meant "a mark made on a tree by slashing the bark" (The Canadian Oxford Dictionary). Originally a waymark was "any conspicuous object which serves as a guide to travellers; a landmark" (Oxford English Dictionary). Today, paint (most prevalent), carvings, affixed markers, posts, flagging, cairns, and crosses, are commonly used.

Blaze frequency and recognizability varies significantly. In some wilderness areas, such as those governed by the US Wilderness Act requiring that the land seem "untrammeled by man," blazes are kept to a minimum. Alternatively, highly utilized public areas, such as busy municipal, county, or state parks, will use frequent and highly visible blazes to maximize trail recognition.