On the Trail | Page 4

the end. So it should be in striking the trail.
Learn all you can about the path you are to follow. Whether it is plain
or obscure, wet or dry; where it leads; and its length, measured more by
time than by actual miles. A smooth, even trail of five miles will not
consume the time and strength that must be expended upon a trail of
half that length which leads over uneven ground, varied by bogs and
obstructed by rocks and fallen trees, or a trail that is all up-hill climbing.
If you are a novice and accustomed to walking only over smooth and
level ground, you must allow more time for covering the distance than
an experienced person would require and must count upon the
expenditure of more strength, because your feet are not trained to the
wilderness paths with their pitfalls and traps for the unwary, and every
nerve and muscle will be strained to secure a safe foothold amid the
tangled roots, on the slippery, moss-covered logs, over precipitous
rocks that lie in your path. It will take time to pick your way over
boggy places where the water oozes up through the thin, loamy soil as

through a sponge; and experience alone will teach you which hummock
of grass or moss will make a safe stepping-place and will not sink
beneath your weight and soak your feet with hidden water. Do not
scorn to learn all you can about the trail you are to take, although your
questions may call forth superior smiles. It is not that you hesitate to
encounter difficulties, but that you may prepare for them. In unknown
regions take a responsible guide with you, unless the trail is short,
easily followed, and a frequented one. Do not go alone through lonely
places; and, being on the trail, keep it and try no explorations of your
own, at least not until you are quite familiar with the country and the
ways of the wild.
[Illustration: Difficulties of the Adirondack trail.
Facsimile of drawing made by a trailer (not the author) after a day in
the wilds of an Adirondack forest. Not a good drawing, perhaps, but a
good illustration.]
=Blazing the Trail=
A woodsman usually blazes his trail by chipping with his axe the trees
he passes, leaving white scars on their trunks, and to follow such a trail
you stand at your first tree until you see the blaze on the next, then go
to that and look for the one farther on; going in this way from tree to
tree you keep the trail though it may, underfoot, be overgrown and
indistinguishable.
If you must make a trail of your own, blaze it as you go by bending
down and breaking branches of trees, underbrush, and bushes. Let the
broken branches be on the side of bush or tree in the direction you are
going, but bent down away from that side, or toward the bush, so that
the lighter underside of the leaves will show and make a plain trail.
Make these signs conspicuous and close together, for in returning, a
dozen feet without the broken branch will sometimes confuse you,
especially as everything has a different look when seen from the
opposite side. By this same token it is a wise precaution to look back
frequently as you go and impress the homeward-bound landmarks on
your memory. If in your wanderings you have branched off and made

ineffectual or blind trails which lead nowhere, and, in returning to camp,
you are led astray by one of them, do not leave the false trail and strike
out to make a new one, but turn back and follow the false trail to its
beginning, for it must lead to the true trail again. Don't lose sight of
your broken branches.
[Illustration: Blazing the trail by bending down and breaking branches.]
If you carry a hatchet or small axe you can make a permanent trail by
blazing the trees as the woodsmen do. Kephart advises blazing in this
way: make one blaze on the side of the tree away from the camp and
two blazes on the side toward the camp. Then when you return you
look for the one blaze. In leaving camp again to follow the same trail,
you look for the two blazes. If you should lose the trail and reach it
again you will know to a certainty which direction to take, for two
blazes mean camp on this side; one blaze, away from camp on this side.
=To Know an Animal Trail=
To know an animal trail from one made by men is quite important. It is
easy to be led astray by animal trails, for they are often well defined
and, in some cases, well beaten. To