If you’ve been out on the Northside Community Trail or the Cheadle Lake Trail the past week or two, you’ve probably spotted the beautiful new trail signs. Trailhead signs have maps and mileage, and other waypoint signs just have the name of the trail and an arrow pointing the way.

BLT was responsible for researching the information and getting the signs designed, approved by the City, and constructed. The City installed them. This was a multiyear project led by Carrie Simpson, Jan Diamantine, and Jim McKinnon, and it sure feels good to have the initial group of signs finished!

As is usual for BLT, we had all kinds of community support. Two students from the FLUX design team at Oregon State University, Genna Mettler and Lexie Rietze, created the designs for us. They used colors from the City of Lebanon’s color palette, plus the City’s fonts. The designs were reviewed and approved by the City and the Lebanon Arts Commission.

Then came deciding how large to make the signs and what material to print them on. We ended up with aircraft aluminum. Once installed, some of us thought the signs were perhaps too small, but on the other hand, their distinctive colors make them easy to spot. Overall, we’re thrilled to have our first signs up!

Thanks to Linda Ziedrich for the photo, taken at Marks Slough on a snowy day this past week. I added some overexposure to make the sign details stand out.