Flagging vs cairns vs blazes | Information & Issues | Kananaskis Outdoors Forum

Growing up in Ontario many years ago, the norm to mark trails was blazes painted on trees (or where trees were absent, on rocks). The Bruce Trail had a standard of single blazes to mark the trail, double blazes to mark a substantial change in direction, white blazes for the main trail and blue blazes for side trails. Every other major trail (Grand Valley, Oak Ridges, Ganaraska) was similarly marked, but with different colours. Getting lost was nigh on impossible.

In the west we seem to like flagging & cairns to mark routes, if the routes are marked at all. Unfortunatly I find that flagging tape fades or blows off, and cairns have no standard and some are quite pathetic (a stack of 2 or 3 rocks?).

I can think of several lightly used official trails that are so overgrown as to be uncertain there's a trail there at all, and when following them, how easy it is to get lost. I can also think of a few unofficial trails that are flagged but only partially, others where everyone and their mother has built a cairn — in short, no accepted standard for marking trails even if they're done by individuals.

Is there a particular reason trails in our area are not better marked?