Have to disagree with you on this one partner! The acreage I have hunted for the past 40 years in northern MI is such that if I didn't use white thumbtack reflectors in a number of spots I would be stumbling around stinking up my area since there are very few ways to distinguish where I'm at. A GPS does help once in a while and all my stands are waypointed, but as we were talking in another thread, if a GPS goes bonkers you are out of luck. I've been turned around a few times over the years in the heavy cover I hunt up there and have had to use my compass to get out safely several times and mind you, I've hunted it since 1973.

But Oldtimer is correct. Tape and tacks ( bright-eyes) could be considered litter if some Conservation Officer was writing citations. Bet he would.
And I understand your point Top. You walk an area you know like the back of your hand and it is so easy to get turned around quickly in the dark.. Been myself just last week in a dang little 40!
What is one to do?
But public is public. If you are not there first you can't lay claim to anything. Even a stand you own. All you can is wish good luck and move on because you could be the one arrested for hunter harassment. The word is PUBLIC. You don't own it you share it.
JW.

Neither tape or tacks are considered litter up here in MI, but I can see where he's coming from if everyone was using the stuff. Then it might even be hard to follow a line if those tacks are all over the place! I'm lucky enough that the ground I hunt hardly ever has anyone else hunting it because it's landlocked by private property on three sides and the one side along a public road is a really nasty swamp that nobody in their right mind would try to go through to get to the high ground 1/2 mile or more from that road. What I was disagreeing with is that I don't feel in many instances that using tacks or tape shows that a person isn't prepared or lacks knowledge of the area. I use tacks to get to some of my ten or so stands and I know the acreage like my front yard.

Just a comment on hunting public land and it's something that happened to us this year out in Wyoming. We had parked our two trucks that had Wyoming plates on them at a spot we hunt quite a bit for deer and elk and were back in the area and over a big ridge over a mile before it got light. When we came back later in the morning to where we could see our trucks there were three nonresident trucks parked all around us there. IMHO when there are several thousand acres like there is where I'm talking about it would be common courtesy to at least go down the road 1/2 mile or more, rather than make the place look like a Walmart parking lot, LOL! Even if you're in a spot on public land first I realize it doesn't give you the right to expect that you'll have the place to yourself. However, if those other vehicles had been there before us I can guarantee that we would have gone to one of our other spots and given them the courtesy of not doing what they did.

Sadly, courtesy and many of today's hunters are total strangers. Those people saw your local truck tags and I would bet my bottom dollar they said "oh I'll bet this is a good spot, these guys are local!"

Getting turned around in heavy woods is a danger not uncommon to even the BEST of us outdoorsmen. When blood trailing your focus is down rather than paying close attention to where you are actually going. And if you are afternoon hunting with a bow you are trailing into darkness most times. Hell I got turned around one time on my own dang property in Pa. 220 acres isn't all that much but it actually took me a few minutes to figure out just where I was! Was blood trailing a fat buck that I had a lung/liver hit on (arrow took a weird turn at impact) so it was a fairly long trail. Found the deer after about 1.5 hours blood/hoof trailing. Was so turned around it was actually hilarious. Dang deer had made 2 full circles like a figure 8. Never seen a whitetail do that before. It had me so bumfuggled I was laughing like a crazy person. Thinking "just how in the hell am I lost on my own damn property!?"

Well down here in Florida like the area I am hunting part swamp and it is THICK. In the dark you wouldnt be able to distinquish a easy path because when it rains old brush and branchs fall all the time changing the look of it as well. We have the clip on markers a mile back in the woods and the road we take is all overgrown barely a 4 wheeler could fit. We marked the spot were we park and we know when to enter our spots down the path a mile back. You wouldnt see my bright eye unless you are really looking for it. We take them down after the season. Worst thing to do is get lost in the swamp a mile back in the dark.

I don't use markers but you can bet if I hunted a mile back in a Florida swamp I would.

There have been times I have disturbed my hunting area a little more than necessary in the dark because I didn't have markers though

They can be handy at times that's for sure. Even in the hills and hollows that I hunt. Used very sparingly their meaning is lost to anyone else that happens to see them.

I have seen where folks mark a route from the road right of way all the way to where they are going with out loosing sight of the next tack from the last one. :confused0024:

Ive even had trespassers do that.

Around here, There is no better way to get a stand or other stuff stolen by "road hunters" than to do that. And many of them generally carry the tools with them to get the job done in short order.

Instead of marking your path to your stand use a GPS (either dedicated or an app on your phone). Use completely portable rigs like climbing stands, climbing sticks + hang on or a Guido's web. The goal is to go in and out unseen - especially when you tag out.
And 1 mile in isn't far enough to get away from the crowds, unless it's a small property. Find the areas where hunters aren't - when you scout don't just look for deer sign look for human sign.
I hunt metro public land in Minnesota and use a boat to get to my hunting location. Never saw another hunter and I've taken two by bow so far this year (buck and a doe), and have seen some large 140 class deer.
Keep hunting hard and you'll find that sweet spot.