The Dream

Return, in your mind's eye to gentler times when life was not so hectic and the joys of immersing oneself in the great out-of-doors were as close as the nearest sidewalk or trail. You can almost smell the honeysuckle as you make short local trips on foot or bicycle instead of cranking up the car. Children walk or bike to school safely with no need of carpools.

Today, as then, we Baldwin County residents cherish our quality of life, our intimacy with nature, and our friendly small town sense of community and place. The Baldwin County Trailblazers hope to preserve and enhance this quality of life by taking a lead role in the development of a countywide network of connecting community to community, town to country, and people to people and by educating its citizens about the advantages and safe use of our nonmotorized transportation facilities to promote healthy lifestyles.

Such trails encourage people to keep physically fit at every stage of life by offering appealing places to walk or bike year-round. Non-drivers, school children, and the handicapped enjoy new freedom using these safe pedestrian arteries. Additionally, Baldwin County communities, served by a well planned pedestrian ways, experience improved air quality and reduced traffic congestion.

The Dreamers

The Baldwin County Trailblazers is a grassroots organization of volunteers whose mission is to establish a countywide network of biking, hiking, jogging trails in partnership with local government.The trailblazers are registered by the Internal Revenue Service as an Alabama non-profit corporation with tax-exempt 501(c)(3) status. All contributions to the organization are tax-deductible.

The Baldwin County Trailblazers arrived on the scene in south Alabama in 1995. Their founding members hope was to shield this vast Gulf Coast county from runaway urban development and loss of "belonging." Trails seemed to be the ticket.

Since then the Trailblazers have matured in their organizing and design skills by attending international conferences such as those hosted by Rails to Trails and other non-motorized advocacy groups. We've learned to write grants, work with public officials and planners, and to see beyond the next roadblock.