Trail marking material that will last a few years
I'm currently trying to remark a trail that seems to be forgotten or had very little use in the past few years. The markers that remain (different types of ribbon) are fraying or crumbling depending what material they are made out of. They are mostly tied to trees. I've started by tying up some "flagging tape" to trees in a similar manner, but I wonder how well the flagging tape I've chosen will hold up. I don't want to have to do this again next year and I'd like someone who comes upon the trail in a few years to be able to enjoy it as I have.
I wonder if anyone has suggestions for ribbons or other materials that will be resistant to sun and weather and keep their color.
The stuff I'm using is quite thin and about 3.50 USD for 300 feet (90 metre), which seems to be enough for a maybe a mile (1.6 km) of trail. I'd be willing to pay a bit more for something that would last. $35 would be okay, but $350 is too much. It also needs to be pretty quick to apply.
Additional information
There are already colored plastic fragments of old trail markers strewn around the area of the trail. Another reason that I'd like the markers to last is that I'd like not to add more fragments like this every year. Markers that fade without a trace (like paint) might avoid this also.
A few of the comments and answers mentioned terrain and temperature. The trail is mostly wooded and in a temperate climate. It's a bit rocky in places. The coldest days in the winter get down to 0°F (–18°C) and the hottest days in the summer are around 105°F (41°C). Parts of trail typically may flood in the spring.
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Probably the easiest and most durable version is the use of cairns. Provided there is enough rocks around, they are easy to build, unaffected by bleaching of the sun and weather. If they are built big enough, they can even be seen at a certain level of snow.
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Permanent trails in NZ were marked with cut up bits of Venetian blinds - the aluminium ones and preferably white, nailed to trees with stainless steel (IIRC) nails. You can (could) often get these free from people renovating their homes. Now people seem to use triangular orange trail markers, as a more modern system - they go for about NZ$ 0.45 per marker here, so about US$ 0.30ish.
You need two nails for both of these, one at the top and one at the bottom inserted at about 80 degrees off vertical. This stops the marker spinning on the nail in the wind and eventually falling off because it has worn the nail through or enlarged the hole. Having said that, one nail will work in a pinch, so long as it is not horizontal, so that it can rest against the tree and not spin so easily.
The nails also need to not be inserted fully so that the tree has room to grow; pushing the marker out as it does. We used 50 mm (2 in) or 75 mm (3 in) nails, and markings in this way can last many many years (25+) with occasional maintenance to re-nail markers before the trees consume them or as small trees die off.
Edited to add the third option - As you already have flagging tape mentioned, this is also for less permanent marking. Marking spray paint, like this one - it's the fluorescent stuff you see marking construction sites. It lasts a surprising amount of time on the ground (~6 months) and even longer on trees.
Also edited to add - I agree with the other posters about contacting the local authority and making sure that you are allowed to mark trails yourself. In my experience, trails that have been removed are often removed for safety issues or to protect fragile ecosystems
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Before marking any trails, please speak to the forest service or whatever local authority is in charge of the land.
They likely have established methods for trail marking that should be followed, and using other means may even counteract their conservation efforts. In many areas, marking trails is illegal. See this article for an example.
Marking a trail may confuse people more than it helps. You probably do not know who uses the area and what alternative paths and destinations exist. People who set out on one of these alternate routes may come across your markers and be led astray. For example, there is a trail I hiked a few years back that many well-intentioned hikers had placed cairns on. Unfortunately, so many people had done it on so many parallel and perpendicular paths that it had obliterated the trail and made navigation without a map nearly impossible. Anyone who hikes there now bushwhacks through a cairn infested land because they can't find the trail at all. Re-establishing the trail would require a titanic effort for whoever undertakes it due to the misguided actions of the cairn-placers.
On a personal note, ribbons, paint, and bits of plastic are garish and make me cranky when I see them in the wilderness. I don't believe I am alone. If I want to explore a poorly marked trail, I bring a map and revel in the lack of trash (or as some might call them, trail markers) littered around the trail.
Please leave the trail marking to the experts.
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If you want the quickest way to mark a trail, you could go for forestry marking paint. Some brands will advertize around 5 years of permanence. It requires careful placement of your marks so they are visible along the trail but this is true for any type of marker anyway. The advantages are:
- No need to carry physical marks
- No need to carry ancillaries like nails or hammers
- No need to poke holes in trees
- Very fast to mark
The main disadvantages:
- Not the most environment-friendly contents
- Doesn't work well in freezing temperatures (unless you're using non-aerosol liquid applications)
- Requires touch-ups every few years.
There is a good reason why paint is the method of choice for most East-American trail systems like the Appalachian Trail or Long Trail. It gives the best permanence to ease of application ratio.
Furthermore, the problem with markers that are too permanent is that if the trail's course has to change, for example to combat erosion, it is much more work to disassemble them than to just let them fade off over time.
In trying to stick the closest to leave-no-trace principles, paint is also easier to deal with. You don't need to go back and remove the marks if the trail is decommissioned, and there will be no physical remains if it is abandoned.
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