marking trails long term that others cant read or understand.

[Hunter Fishman]

I want to share & get some opinions on ways to mark the places, trails & paths I have been so I can tell if I have been there & help myself remember that spot & whats in that area. I hunt thick thick thick thick blanketed forest. I can not stress that enough!

Now,
 ((OTHER THAN)) a GPS, map, marking tape or any new age technoledgy, what are ways to mark trails in all sorts of areas (like bush mazes,tree cover,open country, rocky turrain or any area you could possibly go) that other people wont understand what my markings mean or how to follow them?

I was thinking of making my own map legend or marking guide with symbols that only I will understand
to carve in trees, stack rocks in certain configurations, break limbs on bushes high,low,or on a certain side of a bush to have different meaning.

Do you have any other suggestions or ideas of how to mark these places,trails & areas without them being detected by other people?

I saw a show a while back about high country treasure hunters in Colorado that discover markings on the aspens they fallow that tells a story of the area or marks somthing near to that area.

I thought this was very interesting & want to do the same thing in my area. The hunting pressure in my area is very high but nobody currently knows the land like I do. I dont want to educate hunters in my zone of my knoledge.

With an over grown blanketed forest like where I hunt, it is a maze of realy dense scrub oak, manzanita & about a billion other plants, dead falls cliffs & trenches, that makes it very difficult to navigate & find your way through.

I dont want to alert other hunters of my heavy presents in certain areas.
Over all I have a 7x15 mile area that I go to regularly & hike in from different directions so I have allot af land to cover & areas to mark. It ranges from 4,000 ft in elevation down to around 1,500- 2,000 ft. above sea level. Just when I think I have been everywhere on this mt. I find new areas that I have walked past hundreds of times.

On google earth, I have this area so taged up with place markers that I cant even see 30% of the land when I zoom in to view it.
This is another reason why I need a way to physicaly mark trails, paths & specific locations to have as a reminder of the info of that specific area.
The more high tech stuff I use in the field, the less I enjoy my hunt. I am a very simple traditional person
& dont like complicating things or becoming dependant on technoledgy.

[FLNT4EVR]

Because of the regulations in my state against marking or damaging trees in the state forests, I have come up with my own method of remembering the trails and good stands without giving them away.What I do is look for  unusual natural markings or deformaties on the trees,rocks ,and landscape,in the areas I hunt.  I even name some of them , like  a stand of oaks that I call the 5 sisters,or the rock out crop that I call the angry man. It can make the trail much easier for me to remember.You sound like a very observant person and probably are doing it already without even knowing it.I have found my way back to certain areas that I had been away from for a couple of years by using this method. It may take a bit more time to find your landmarks, but you will get there.

[Cheesehead]

I have used black electricians tape and/or neutral colored zip ties to mark trails, used a distance from the trail so not to be obvious. I have found the markers years later.

Cheese

[Hunter Fishman]

one of my main reasons for needing to mark so many places is to let me know that I have already cut trails through there or passed through looking for sheds so I am not wasting time covering the same trails I have already been that year. Theres way to many to remember or fit on a map or GPS. I take hand pruners with me every time I go out because its absolutely necessary to navigate through the bushes. I cut something about every 10 ft or so... all day long!
Most of where I am needing to mark is like this...
I walk the edge of the brush/tree line looking for trails going in to bedding areas, I like to mark these. Then I walk generally less than 30 yards needing to mark something else because it splits or divides into two trails then I walk 20 ft & it splits again, another 40 ft another split, then 20 yards again & so on and so forth,all on steep hill sides, narrow draws, ups, downs shelves, I'm on rock,sand,heavy ground cover, over/under dead falls ALL WITHIN LESS THAN A 200 YARD STRETCH!
I cant stress enough how thick, tall & dense the cover is here, most is impenetrable by humans & the only way through is on game trails. On average the farthest you can see ahead of you is 30 ft to 30 yards if that!
I spent all my time from spring till September cutting trails to walk through because if I don't, I cant walk through quietly during hunting season & the trails get over grown with in that time every year.
Yeah, its that bad! Its where the deer are & there are allot of em in there. Its where I still hunt bow season during the day with no competition from other hunters because nobody wants to hassle with it & likes to stay out in the open where they have they're shots out to 60 yards that they never get to take.
Gun season is another story, this is where the trail marking concealment comes into use.
during this time there is no stopping anyone from going anywhere. I need ways to mark the specific trails that I know bucks use regularly going to & coming from the only water source within proximity.

Now that you have a better idea of what I'm up against, do you have any other thoughts or advice?
besides find another place to hunt! My whole hunting zone is like this. I am comfortable with these conditions, not happy but comfortable. I have learned to adapt to my surroundings quite well.

[41 mag]

Just a simple observation from my perspective. We hunt similar vegetive stuff in the river bottoms here in Texas. Similar to what your describing when it comes to the trails and getting back into where some of the deer actually head once hunting season begins.

We have found that we're WAY more successfull learing to parrern the individual bucks in the areas rather than trying to get an overall idea of what everything is doing.

From reading your post your trying to figure out the whole herd, and if you would simply concentrate on one or two areas, with one or more good bucks you ight simplify your situation. Not that you should dismiss all of the trails and such, just concentrate on the ones that are showing the most promise. Look for the biggest rubs on trees, and areas that have close food and water. When the biggest bucks go into rut, we have found, they will stick within an certain area and most times the older more mature does will come back into their areas. Now this isn't the case everywhee with every mature buck, but the bigger ones we have hunted stick tight to heavy cover and the does will hang in there as well as long as there is an available fod source nearby. We have native pecan, and several variteies of oak, all which fall at different times, and the deer know just when to be there. 

When we try to cover too many areas we usually end up disappointed. The best thing we have found is to locate one or two areas, and set them up to hunt depending on wind. Most times, here the wind is out of the SE or NE, but we setup for something in differnt areas for just about all the normal directiosn. This way depending on the wind, we do not orer use one particular area. This also might help you descern which places might be better to narrow down you list. Find the best percentage areas then look at them from the general wind directions and you will see that they aren't all good for huting at any given time.

Hope this makes sence and help ya out some. I know once we got serious about trying to get on one or two deer we had been after it sure helped us settle the dispute on where to go and when.  The thing that was most surprising to us were the bocks we saw back in there we had never seen before. So once you get things lined up be ready for some exciting huting and unless your completly dedicated to one big buck, be ready for something you might not ever have expected.

Good luck,

[Hunter Fishman]

Just a simple observation from my perspective. We hunt similar vegetive stuff in the river bottoms here in Texas. Similar to what your describing when it comes to the trails and getting back into where some of the deer actually head once hunting season begins.

We have found that we're WAY more successfull learing to parrern the individual bucks in the areas rather than trying to get an overall idea of what everything is doing.

From reading your post your trying to figure out the whole herd, and if you would simply concentrate on one or two areas, with one or more good bucks you ight simplify your situation. Not that you should dismiss all of the trails and such, just concentrate on the ones that are showing the most promise. Look for the biggest rubs on trees, and areas that have close food and water. When the biggest bucks go into rut, we have found, they will stick within an certain area and most times the older more mature does will come back into their areas. Now this isn't the case everywhee with every mature buck, but the bigger ones we have hunted stick tight to heavy cover and the does will hang in there as well as long as there is an available fod source nearby. We have native pecan, and several variteies of oak, all which fall at different times, and the deer know just when to be there. 

When we try to cover too many areas we usually end up disappointed. The best thing we have found is to locate one or two areas, and set them up to hunt depending on wind. Most times, here the wind is out of the SE or NE, but we setup for something in differnt areas for just about all the normal directiosn. This way depending on the wind, we do not orer use one particular area. This also might help you descern which places might be better to narrow down you list. Find the best percentage areas then look at them from the general wind directions and you will see that they aren't all good for huting at any given time.

Hope this makes sence and help ya out some. I know once we got serious about trying to get on one or two deer we had been after it sure helped us settle the dispute on where to go and when.  The thing that was most surprising to us were the bocks we saw back in there we had never seen before. So once you get things lined up be ready for some exciting huting and unless your completly dedicated to one big buck, be ready for something you might not ever have expected.

Good luck,

I'm good on patterning bucks, I been doing it for years. Its somewhat of a challenge to try & pattern a buck all year & hunt him in pre-rut! My deer are wierd
Our season is sept. bow season, Oct. general gun season.

I basicly was wondering ways to mark somthing every 20-50-100 ft. or so to remind myself that I have already been there & when I see it, it triggers an instint reminder of whats around me & the path I took in & out of that area the last time I was there.
I dont get lost or anything, I just cant remember specific areas I go because everything looks the same.
I shed hunt year round & find myself walking the same paths over & over, so now I need a way to mark trails for personal reminders.

I found this galiath shed yesterday, 12/21/09 right next to a bike trail that gets used every week!


The base is as big as a beer bottle!

[pastorp]

If you've traveled the area that much you should just be able to reconize the trails by the landscape. No marking needed. I once spent 3 weeks on the Yukon river out in the western artic. By the time I left I could just look at the brush along the river and know where I was and how far camp was. I was ranging out about 15 miles along the yukon and a tributary.

I would not mark the area someone will fine the marks and if you blaze the trees you'll be in trouble with the law. Regards,

[Hunter Fishman]

If you've traveled the area that much you should just be able to reconize the trails by the landscape. No marking needed.

I wish it were that easy.
This isnt just for deer iether, Its for every week use. hiking,shed hunts,scouting,wildlife photography & so on...
I know what you mean, I remember most of the heavily active areas but not specific trails used because the shrubs choke out allot of trails every year & the areas look completely different from season to season & even more so, year to year. I cut trails year round while scouting & shed hunting & still cant keep up with clearing out & memorizing every place I have been from 30yards to the next, so the only way to know the area is to mark it to activate a memory of when I was there last & whats in the area.
I'm talking about 100's, maybe even 1,000's of trails & areas over a 10 mile by 7 mile mountain with all kinds of terrain at levels from 2,000-4,500 ft in elevation! mostly steep rolling ridge sides of innerwoven foliage & scrub oak.
there is no way on earth anyone could remember all these places. most, but not all.

I have narrowed the areas I want to mark & remember down to active beddig areas, known food sources, travel routs east to west & north to south, merging funnels, quick escape & easy access routes, stand locations, rubs & scrapes, migratory routes, active preditor areas, common trails & areas used by average hunters, fence jumps & distinct markings of the game preserve border line. These alone will keep me busy all year as is, I dont want to use a GPS or map because they would be cluttered with way points & a map would be all marked up & I couldnt read the last few I had after a year of use. I'm going old school with this one.