If you say you do not use trail markers then please read this!
Trail markers and trail marker systems have been around for some time. Some of the earliest trail markers were used by early humans for survival. They marked trails to find food, shelter, water and each other. Most of the trail markers they used are still being used today. There were and still are a lot of natural trail markers that were used in the past and are still used by us in our daily lives. The large Oak tree we go too and turn right, the creek we follow until it splits and turn left, the hilltop we try to keep an eye on while venturing through the forest are all trail markers we utilize. When they blazed their way west in the early days in search of GOLD in California and to the plains states in search of free land our ancestors followed trail markers. These were either natural trail markers or trail markers placed by earlier people to access the land. They found the easiest routes to follow and surely marked them for later use. Remember the rocks you stacked, the limb he broke, that spot you kicked out on the ground on the way to your stand? Yes those are trail markers as well. These are all great for day time use. What we have done is evolved so that we can find our way around in low light and no light conditions
. Instead of torches of fire we now carry torches with batteries. We have the best of light sources from LED’s to Krypton bulbs. They have shrank considerably in size from just a few years ago but, the increased candle power works very well in the darkened world of a whitetail deer hunter traveling to or returning from their stands in the periods of the day which lack any sunlight. We have began using GPS systems to point the way as well. These can be very handy and you can even share data with a friend by giving them datum about your waypoints. Have you ever followed a GPS at 4:00am to a coordinate given to you by your brother? Yes he told you which fork in the road to turn left at, how many fields to pass on the right and left and when you get to the dead tree struck by lightening on the right to turn left and follow that trail until your 4 wheeler can go no further. He told you it was a 45 minute to one hour hike to the stand. Oh yeah! Did he tell you that you could not miss it?
(By the way you followed those trail markers very well)
When you finally get the 4 wheeler to the end of the trail you unload your gear and fire up the GPS and allow it time to find all the satellites it needs, you find that you are but a mere 150 yards from the stand. It is still very dark and you know you have at least 2 hours until sunrise and the 150 yard trek to the stand will not take long. You pack on all your gear pick up the GPS and notice the little arrow is pointing you in the correct direction as you head off into the darkness lit only by the torch you carry. With in a few minutes of following the little arrow showing on the LCD screen, in a due North direction, you notice the forest up ahead is thinning. When you have traveled 20 more yards you look at the GPS screen to see you are now only 100 yards from the prize you seek. The only thing standing in your way is that you now realize you are standing at the edge of a gorge with what in the darkness appears to be a 40’drop and can see no way down.
Sure you can mark a lot of waypoints and go from one to the other or even use a lot of waypoints to generate a track to follow. Only issue is that GPS units are never right on the money and sometimes out as much as 100+ yards. If you read the directions it warns you not to use it to navigate at night? Hmmm weird for a navigation device to say that.
OK so let’s try it my way. Same scenario but, instead of the stand being marked on the GPS, I have marked a trail with some of our reflective trail marker tape that we started using over 10+ years ago. I marked this trail 3 years ago and have let my brother in on how to follow what he seeing. He gets all his gear on and shows to have 200 yards to the coordinate I gave him to this same stand and funny thing is the GPS takes him North East. As he approaches within 50 yards of the point marked he raises his torch and scans the direction of travel with its beam. He sees something shiny ahead and to the right and as he draws closer he finds my first marker and proceeds to turn off the GPS unit and travels by torch alone. As he travels he is continuing to scan ahead and finds each reflective marker in the distance. As he goes by each he reads the information it shares by the way it is applied and he knows which direction and approximately how far to the next one. Some are 25 yards from each other and others 200 yards apart. But he finally arrives at his destination with time to spare and could easily follow that hidden path down thru the gorge.
Now do not get me wrong I personally use GPS units when we are in the great outdoors. It is a great tool to utilize in the pursuit of whitetail deer. We mark scrapes, rubs, trails and other features we want to plot on topographical maps. I use them to take me to a gap I can see on a map by entering the coordinate as a waypoint. I only follow it during day light hours to avoid dangerous situations and never have had to only rely on it. There are even places we visit that there seems to be very limited access to the satellites needed for the unit to do its calculations and it tells us it needs a CLEAR VIEW OF THE SKY. With our system all you need is a light source and you can even use the batteries out of the GPS Unit if need be.
You can use the reflective trail marking tape during hunting, hiking, camping, mountain biking, ATV riding and horse back riding to mark trails as well as equipment. When fishing mark the tip of the rod, as well as other gear, trails to the river, camp site and even that favorite honey hole that is hard to find from a boat and even on trot lines (above water) and limb lines, use it around the farm to make fence lines, feeders and anything else easier to see at night.
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Do you still think you do not use trail markers?
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Reflective Trail Markers