Trail Manners
A Lesson from Mountain Living
We moved to park city in the winter of 2020 to be closer to skiing. Everyone we met told us that people come for the winter but end up falling in love with the summer. Once the snow melts, an entirely new park city is revealed. Miles and miles of easily accessible interconnected trails and pathways filled with bikers, hikers and trail runners. I had been exposed to trail running previously from my classmate and collaborator of the brand, Mac Moss. If you’re not familiar with his design work or athletic feats he’s well worth the follow. He’s currently in Idaho training for Heaven’s Gate Marathon and producing some incredible work in the outdoor industry. Being inspired by Mac and the newly revealed park city trail network, I dove head in to trail running, and of course the associated product.
It quickly became my go to off hours activity and my summer fix to the winter high that skiing provided. The fresh air, elevation, and rewarding views are nothing short of spiritual. And being so readily accessible and interconnected is truly democratic. I have a trail head directly out my back door that can take me to an overlook of Main Street, public parks, nature preserves, grocery stores and a plethora of cafes. Trail running to a cafe is a simple pleasure I don’t take for granted. The interactions with others on these trails are what led me to reflect further on what we can learn from this unique mountain infrastructure. Whenever people occupy the same space there has to be some code of conduct to allow for peaceful cohabitation. A simple sign at the trail head, and peoples willingness to cooperate, make these publicly accessible treasures safe and enjoyable. Beyond the simple right of way and no littering guidelines at the trailheads, the unspoken colloquialisms and courtesies offered by fellow trails-men stands in stark contrast to the bitterness and polarizations that feel so common place in our culture.
‘Trail Manners’ has come to represent peoples willingness to cooperatively allow anyone and everyone to take part in the fulfillment nature has to offer, whether they’re hiking, biking, running or on horseback. It’s a small piece of societal order in the chaos of nature that allows for meaningful experience. A maintained summer trail stands in parallel symbolically to a gondola traversing a ravine, or a two seater lift to the top of Jupiter. Small pieces of societal, technological, innovative order allowing for meaningful experience in a dangerous, awe inspiring, chaotic nature. ‘Trail Manners’ is the human willingness to cohabitate, to allow access, and to leave no trace. A lesson from Mountain Living I want to share with the world. This was the inspiration for this delivery—the organic ebb and flow of the ‘Trail’ juxtaposed above the structured, sanserif, ‘Manners’—with a subtle, trailhead-like, reminder to leave no trace.
