Blazing Trails

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As I prepared my hiking plans for Denali National Park in Alaska, I was quite frankly surprised. In a place so wild and lonely, they not only allow but encourage that visitors blaze their own trails. I found this strange because of all the grizzly bear warnings as well as the forboding landscape of the national park that contains America's highest mountain peak. Then, I gave it some more personal thought.

One of the trails I chose sounds a lot like one I have taken several times at Red Rock NCA. If you go to Turtlehead Peak, be prepared. It's a long and grueling hike that takes you up 1000 feet in about a half mile of trail length. By the time you reach that point, the well-worn path becomes very unclear as it winds around and over sharp rocks in a steep streambed or along the eroding edge of the arroyo. For those who make it this far, usually people break apart and take vastly varied paths, sometimes crossing each other and never completely out of eyeshot but largely unguided.

During one of our hikes, my friend and I noticed there were piles of stacked rocks along a route. Piles of rocks are frequently used as trail markers to guide those who come along behind you. As we followed this trail, both up and down, we realized that in the multiple times we had hiked Turtlehead this was the most circuitous and difficult of all the trails we had taken. Accordingly, on the way down, we took it upon ourselves to topple the piles of rocks lest anyone follow them to their detriment.

We live in a world full of paths and choices. People have worn down some sections by constant trudging. Some of the paths are more difficult or dangerous or misleading than others and lead to danger, yet people take them anyway out of convention or out of fear to blaze the right trails in the right directions.

Have courage to blaze trails. There is a famous Robert Frost poem about the road less traveled. I hear it quoted constantly by people who do not do that when it comes to coerced conformity. They fall in line and comply rather than standing out. In the wack-a-mole of morality and principles, people are frequently afraid to stick their neck out because if the hammer comes down on them it might hurt.

There is a great danger to taking the wrong paths. Just because someone has left piles of rocks to mark the way does not make it the best way. I have taken a dozen trails or so at Red Rock where I could not understand to save my life why those who went before me chose that particular route over other alternatives. Just because "that's what everyone else is doing" does not mean it is wise, safe, good, or praiseworthy. We want to arrive and in good order, not follow a trail. Few enough people have reached the summit of goodness such that the trail vanishes after a point like Turtlehead's hike, where people decide the cost outweighs the benefit and go down or diverge enough to expend their energies without ascending the summit.

Blaze the right trails. In the almost-as-yet-by-our-generation-unexplored wilderness of righteousness, it is easy to see the McKinleys of Morality. People take the bus and stay on the road even though none of those trails lead to the peak. It is not enough to say you have seen morality. That does not make you moral. Only a hike on Mount Morality makes you one who has or may one day reach its summit. Let other people choose what paths they may. Choose your own adventure. You just might make it where few others have dared. If you do find a good path, mark it for those who follow you.