{"id":1604,"date":"2009-10-22T17:45:51","date_gmt":"2009-10-22T21:45:51","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/?p=1604"},"modified":"2012-12-12T10:16:28","modified_gmt":"2012-12-12T14:16:28","slug":"trail-building-and-trailblazing-at-the-center-road-natural-area","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/2009\/10\/trail-building-and-trailblazing-at-the-center-road-natural-area\/","title":{"rendered":"Trail Building and Trailblazing at the CRNA"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>There is a new park along M-37 (Center Road) called the Center Road Natural Area. Part of the park is cleared orchards, which are connected by grassed-over two-track roads. The more exciting parts, however, are the new single track trails that have been added and blazed. <\/p>\n<p><iframe width=\"500\" height=\"300\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" marginheight=\"0\" marginwidth=\"0\" src=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&amp;source=s_q&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Traverse+City,+MI&amp;sll=41.945106,-87.644107&amp;sspn=0.009815,0.016544&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=Traverse+City,+Grand+Traverse,+Michigan&amp;ll=44.786282,-85.570064&amp;spn=0.004569,0.010729&amp;z=16&amp;iwloc=A&amp;output=embed\"><\/iframe><br \/><small><a href=\"http:\/\/maps.google.com\/maps?f=q&amp;source=embed&amp;hl=en&amp;geocode=&amp;q=Traverse+City,+MI&amp;sll=41.945106,-87.644107&amp;sspn=0.009815,0.016544&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;t=h&amp;hq=&amp;hnear=Traverse+City,+Grand+Traverse,+Michigan&amp;ll=44.786282,-85.570064&amp;spn=0.004569,0.010729&amp;z=16&amp;iwloc=A\" style=\"color:#0000FF;text-align:left\">View Larger Map<\/a><\/small><\/p>\n<p>Today, thanks to Jason and Paula, I learned the difference between trail building and trailblazing. Jason explained trail building in a few definite steps, which I&#8217;ll detail below. Paula shared more about trailblazing that I could ever have imagined existed. I expected trailblazing to be a vicious attack on nature, but instead it is the act of painting six inch by two inch stripes of purple paint on trees along the trail to guide hikers. I&#8217;ll note some tips below.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trail Building<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>When you&#8217;re building a trail, you&#8217;re either on the side of a hill or you&#8217;re not. If you&#8217;re not, then the trail building is significantly easier. You simply clear a path with you tool, remove roots, stumps and rocks and then pack the trail. With wear, it should become defined enough to be identifiable by hikers. If not, that&#8217;s where trailblazing comes in!<\/p>\n<p>There is more of a technique to trail building when walking along the side of a hill where the ground is higher on one side and lower on the other. The best way to describe this process is to present it in 5 steps.<\/p>\n<ol>\n<li>Rake the leaves, needles, and loose organic soil <em>up the hill<\/em>.<\/li>\n<li>Dig into the hill and drag the dirt down the hill. &#8220;Broadcast&#8221; (as Jason says) the dirt away from the trail and down the hill.<\/li>\n<li>Drag your tool along the path of the trail from the higher point to the lower point. There should be a curb on the higher side that gives way to an 18-24&#8243; path that slopes slightly downhill. Like this: \\____<\/li>\n<li>Pack the curb. Pack the trail.<\/li>\n<li>Brush the debris that was raked uphill back over the trail to allow for a more natural look.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<p>Follow Jason&#8217;s tips, keep your space and communicate and the trail practically builds itself! Not really. It&#8217;s hard work, but the time passes quickly.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Trailblazing<\/strong><\/p>\n<p>It was nice to learn what trailblazing actually was. I have a good appreciation for it because, having hiked many trails, I am aware of how easy it is to get lost if the &#8220;blazes&#8221; (aka &#8211; confidence markers) are not readily identifiable. If you are not a confident outdoors-man, then the sense of confusion and fear of being lost can ruin an otherwise enjoyable hike.<\/p>\n<p>When trailblazing, keep these tips in mind.<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>Blazes should be a bright color and uniform in shape and size.<\/li>\n<li>It is ideal to place the blazes at six feet in height to prevent snow cover.<\/li>\n<li>Hikers should be able to identify the next blaze while standing at the current blaze.<\/li>\n<li>It may be necessary to trailblaze in both directions.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>There was a lot more that was mentioned, but that&#8217;s the gist of it. The bottom line is that you don&#8217;t want to mislead hikers or allow them to mislead themselves. Common sense applies here!<\/p>\n<p>It was a great experience and it was nice to meet a few people passionate about the park and the environment. I&#8217;ll be back out there again soon building and blazing away.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>There is a new park along M-37 (Center Road) called the Center Road Natural Area. Part of the park is cleared orchards, which are connected by grassed-over two-track roads. The more exciting parts, however, are the new single track trails that have been added and blazed. View Larger Map Today, thanks to Jason and Paula, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1604","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-our-experiences"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1604"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3147,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1604\/revisions\/3147"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1604"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1604"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/yugflog.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1604"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}