Introduction

Hello, my name is Seanna Kelly and I am a senior Girl Scout of Central and Southern New Jersey. This blog outlines my Gold Award Project where I posted new trail markers and hosted a hiking day at the Tulpehaking Nature Center located near the Abbott Marshlands. 

Upon discovering the Abbott Marshlands, my mother and I walked through their trails and realized there were unclear trail markings. The trails were previously blazed by the Friends for the Abbott Marshlands and although they were blazed with good intentions, there were a mix of paint and plastic blazes. Due to weather damage the painted blazes began to chip and their colors became distorted. I decided to re-blaze the trails as my project and host a hiking day to advertise the newly marked trails and outline how to read and decipher trail markings. 

Trail Blazing Research

Before I could begin ordering the trail blazers, I did extensive research on what type of trail blazers were the most effective and whether I should use screws or nails to post them. The first informational website I found highlighted the basics of trail blazing and where they should be posted. The following is a link to the website: http://sectionhiker.com/trail-blazing-conventions-and-guidelines/

The next article I discovered was the most informative and helpful article. It outlines the different types of trails, trail safety, and the multiple different types of trail markers. Overall this article helped me determine what types of trail markers to use along with how deep I needed to drill the screws into each tree. The following is a link to the PDF file: https://parks.ny.gov/recreation/trails/documents/TrailsTechnicalSignageGuidelines.pdf

Determining Which Trees to Blaze

Once again before ordering my trail blazes and screws, I walked through both trails and determined which trees to blaze. The Abbott Marshlands consist of many smaller trees as it is mainly marsh. Choosing which trees to blaze was challenging as some trees were too small to blaze, while other trees were perfect for blazing but either too close or too far from the previous blaze. Another challenge was the amount of foliage surrounding the trails.

Abbot Brook trail on June 4th 

Broken and worn plastic trail blaze (Abbott Brook trail) 

Upon walking the trails, Kelly and I wrapped marking tape around each tree that I planned to blaze. By doing this, I could count how many trail markers I would need and order them accordingly. When ordering the markers, I ordered at least ten more than I needed in case anything went wrong during the posting. Overall, for the yellow trail I ordered 80 trail markers and for the red trail I ordered 50 trail markers.

Old painted blaze with distorted color (Abbott Brook trail)

Ordering The Trail Markers

The trail blazers that I chose to use was Voss Signs. I went to multiple websites and read reviews of Voss signs and found that they were the most durable plastic trail blazers. Once I ordered the trail blazers and received them I had to order screws. Each trail blazer has two holes to either drill or nail them into a tree. I decided to use wood screws instead of wood nails because the screws will result in less damage to the tree and the blazers will be securely posted. By using nails, the blazers will be easy to remove, while screws cannot be removed without a drill.

Upon walking through the trails, there were multiple old plastic trail markers which had been posted with nails. These trail markers were broken or dangling on a tree by a single nail. By using screws, the trail markers will not be prone to falling off and people will not be able to remove them. The next step was to determine the size of the nails. I was originally going to use 1 and a half inch nails but upon visiting the trails once more, I chose 2 inch nails instead. Some of the trees were older and quite thicker and 1 and a half inch nails would not securely post the markers. I decided that 2 inch nails would easily secure markers onto both small and large trees. 

Posting The Trail Markers

Upon receiving the trail markers, I examined them and determined the type of screws to purchase. The screws I decided to purchase were:

After purchasing the screws, I asked my friend, Cole Montplaisir, to help me post the trail markers. I informed Cole of the type of screws I was using and he brought over his power tools. Cole and I walked through each trail and placed the markers in their appropriate and previously designated spots. A challenge we faced though was that the marking tape that I had marked specific trees with was missing on multiple trees. As the trails are open to the public, I assumed that people walking through tore off the tape as it was found crumpled and away from its designated area. 

Luckily, Cole and I are both experienced hikers and were able to post the markers accordingly by following the notes I had taken during research. The Red trail was shorter and was only missing a few marking tapes, but the Yellow trail was longer and missing the majority of its marking tape. 

After completely reblazing the Red trail, Cole and I took a break and assessed when to begin the Yellow trail. We decided to reblaze the Yellow trail and finished despite the majority of marking tape missing. 

When reblazing a hiking trail, trail markers should be a minimum as 50 yards away from the previous marker. If there is bountiful amounts of foliage along the trail, the foliage should be trimmed back and the next trail marker should be visible when standing near the previous marker. Due to high amounts of foliage, I had to trim back certain weeds, bramble bushes and poison ivy vines. 

Upon posting trail markers, the screw or nail should leave about 1/2 of an inch between the marker and the tree to allow future tree growth. When posting the markers, I made sure to not post any on dead or dying trees as there would be risk of the markers falling down with the trees or being easily removed. 

Overall, Cole and I successfully reblazed both the Red and Yellow trail in the Abbott Marshlands despite loss of marking tape and bountiful amounts of foliage. 

The Hiking Day

To introduce my work to the public, I decided to host a Hiking Day at the Tulpehaking Nature Center on June 4th from 1:00pm-2:30pm. I created a pamphlet that outlined hiking safety and outdoor etiquette, along with information about the nature center.

My hiking day consisted of two hikes, one through the Abbott Bluff trail (red) and one through the Abbott Brook trail (yellow). Throughout the duration of both hikes, I went over the details of the pamphlet I distributed in the beginning and explained the posting of the trail markers. Around the end of the event, I handed out compass key chains as a gift for attending my event. Everyone who attended my event could also utilize the key chains whenever they go hiking or camping.

Special Thanks

I would like to give a special thank you to the American Legion post of Robbinsville who donated money to support my project. Without their generosity, I would not have been able to reblaze the Abbott Marshland trails and host my Hiking Day.

I would also like to give another special thanks to Kelly Rypkema, Manager of the Tulpehaking Nature Center, who supported my project and assisted me when needed. 

I will give my final thanks to Karen Freundlich, my Girl Scout Adviser, who helped and supported me throughout my Gold Award Project.