However, this is not to be a book of glittering generalities but, as far
as it can be made, one of practical helpfulness in outdoor life;
therefore when you are told to strike the trail you must also be told
how to do it.


=When You Strike the Trail=

For any journey, by rail or by boat, one has a general idea of the
direction to be taken, the character of the land or water to be crossed,
and of what one will find at 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 the uninitiated the trails will
appear the same, but there is a difference which, in a recent number of
_Field and Stream_, Mr. Arthur Rice defines very clearly in this way:
"Men step _on_ things. Animals step _over_ or around things." Then again
an animal trail frequently passes under bushes and low branches of trees
where men would cut or break their way through. To follow an animal
trail is to be led sometimes to water, often to a bog or swamp, at times
to the animal's den, which in the case of a bear might not be exactly
pleasant.

[Illustration: Returning to camp by the blazed trail.