Blazing by adopters
Thank you for the example, Roy. Perfect example of why blazing should be left to the adopter, who has after all been informed of the normal guidelines for trail marking.
On Mt. Cardigan, for example, the tourist trails are somewhat overblazed save where we have a wide treadway and clearing through the trees. More remote trails have much sparser blazing, more in line with normal guidelines. However, after decades of hearing both the good and the bad from hikers I have concluded that if we have limited crew time then that time is better spent keeping the blazes clear and visible rather than cutting brush. Usually we have a crew of two, one to trim brush especially where it screens a blaze and the other to paint. We move slowly, about a mile an hour, and the trimmer trims almost constantly save in places with a tight canopy overhead and little undergrowth...
We use latex gloss enamel paint. It does not hurt the bark of trees, is very weather-resistant, and the gloss does a fine job of reflecting headlamps and flashlights in dim light. We find that blazes last about eight years in the woods, but only four years in the alpine zone where sun and wind are harsher. On that granite dome mountain where trails cross ledges too smooth and steep for cairns (if there was rock enough near enough, which there ain't), paint blazes are the only way to show the trail route. Given the thick fog that covers the summit on occasion, we have blazed those ledges as close as five yards between blazes, which is none too close for that place.
I offer this as but one example of how adopters have adapted the guidelines to a specific mountain and user groups.
Creag nan drochaid