Trailblazing

As part of the TrinityForward.com movement, I’ve been having conversations with a number of folks, ramping up video interviews (the first one to be posted here soon) and finding out the incredible stories from all walks of life about what makes Trinity County so special.

Today someone mentioned that keeping track of the “magic moments” would be a good exercise and also make for a great recorded narrative to help document our collective inspiration.

So this is the first edition of an ongoing series entitled “Trailblazing.”

My parents took me on my first backpack trip was when I was 5 years old.  I’m now almost 50 and for most of my 45 years of backpacking I was familiar with “the blaze” technique that the old timers used to mark a trail.

Cut into trees along the trail with axes (and you’ll see these a lot on the well used trails in the Trinity Alps), blazes were used to assist travelers to stay the course.  When the snow was very high in the back country old license plates were often used 15-20 feet above the blaze marks to track the trail in the winter months.

What I did not know until recently is that blazes actually represent a candle or a lantern.  The lower larger portion being the candle itself and the smaller portion above representing the flame.

Blazes light the way.  Trailblazing is the conscious act of lighting the way.   Trinity Forward welcomes your stories of special people and special moments in Trinity and we welcome your input to future episodes of Trailblazing.

Ever forward,

Jeff Morris