cairns on mountain paths

[PenGun]

I figure they are for people with a broken sense of direction and distance.

I like to wing it. It's over that way ... lets go. Point to point is a lot of fun. I even have a game I play where I get from point to point as fast as possible. Kinda primate unleashed in the bush. I keep that one fairly short these days, I'm old.

The cairns just make me smile. Like the groups with sticks and water bottles earnestly hiking. In my area there are mountain streams everywhere, why would you carry water? Don't get me started on the stupid sticks.

[Stephane]

Upsetting threat that reveal a group of self-righteous people who take pleasure in destroying things, this behavior to me is bordering racism or religious fanaticism, both of which are definitely not tolerant with others. No shame in speaking out and proud of their doings.
We all share this planet, but how the f**k we can we do it if a pile of stone along a path can cause so much negative feelings and reactions...

[Thebes]

When hiking the AT in the Presidentials I found the cairns to be extremely useful especially in bad weather.

PLEASE do not kick them over if they might at some point be a necessary navigational aid. If they are really needed and not someone's idea of rock-art then kicking it over might contribute to the injury or death of a fellow hiker.

Remember that not everyone is hiking on a nice sunny day like you are. I know plenty of experienced long distance hikers who had trouble finding the next cairn in a storm. To think someone might have intentionally kicked them over makes my blood boil.

[goamules]

There is always a dichotomy between the Control-conformity crowd and the Confident-individualism crowd. But the idea that a hiker is out in a blizzard, anxiously scanning with his binoculars for the next cairn so they can move forward another few yards is ridiculous. When you are a "long distance hiker" you use maps and woodsman skills, you don't rely on some farcical stack of rocks to lead you.

But again, I've crossed a stream or a patch of slick rock where the "exit" was marked with a stack. And I think "good, I'm going the right way", as most would. But I also think the stack is about as useful as those warnings that say, "Open package before eating", "don't operate radio in bathtub", etc. Other than in rare, tricky spots, if you need a path dotted with little cairns, you should stay at home with your aluminum walking stick and GPS.

[Bill_1856]

In my area there are mountain streams everywhere, why would you carry water?

Giardosis.

[jp]

Thanks for the many responses, it has been quite interesting! I do understand how a few sparse cairns could be useful in preventing a rescue on Mount Washington or other 12 month a year snowy places. Barring snow cover, I prefer a little dab of paint on a rock for a trail marker; the paint isn't distracting in photos and will naturally disappear in a couple of years.

Here's a scene where things get really out of hand, to show an extreme. (Camden ME)

Yeah, it's become really trendy to do this kind of stuff. I find them all over the beaches too, along with driftwood constructions. I sort of imagine the people who make them congratulate themselves for being so eco-chic, but to me it's just another way that humans are making natural places less pleasing.

However, there's a fun game you can play with them, which takes away the irritation somewhat; you can play "try to reassemble a natural looking degree of disorder from these piled up rocks and/or driftwood." It's a little more challenging than it sounds at first, because you can't just knock them down; you have to move them around and make the right kind of distribution of small & large pieces. Also you have to pay attention to things like moss and/or weathering to make sure the right sides are facing up. It's actually kind of fun.

Be careful, you might mess up their feng shui in the process

[Thebes]

There is always a dichotomy between the Control-conformity crowd and the Confident-individualism crowd. But the idea that a hiker is out in a blizzard, anxiously scanning with his binoculars for the next cairn so they can move forward another few yards is ridiculous. When you are a "long distance hiker" you use maps and woodsman skills, you don't rely on some farcical stack of rocks to lead you.

But again, I've crossed a stream or a patch of slick rock where the "exit" was marked with a stack. And I think "good, I'm going the right way", as most would. But I also think the stack is about as useful as those warnings that say, "Open package before eating", "don't operate radio in bathtub", etc. Other than in rare, tricky spots, if you need a path dotted with little cairns, you should stay at home with your aluminum walking stick and GPS.

Binoculars??? No no no, its more like your partner goes forward in the talus and scree and tries to find the next cairn while you stay at the current one.

FYI by the time my wife and I got to the Presidentials we'd hiked over 1500 miles each as had all of our friends who similarly had problems in the mist and fog and sleet and rocks and could also not see more than about 20 feet.

There are some places that have no woods, no dirt. There are places that humans leave very few footprints to tell where they have been. I guess you aren't enough of a hiker to have aver been in such a place during truly horrible weather?

So, basically, go stick it.

BTW, those little aluminum poles were LOVED by through-hikers... I'd have dropped off the AT in Virginia with fudged up knees if not for them. So again, stick it.

You and others are just trying to cover your reckless disregard for human life when you kick over a line of cairns so they aren't in your more precious than my life photograph.

BTW the Appalachian Mountain Club, the official maintaining body for the AT in the Presidential Range, they actually build many of those cairns. I suppose maybe I should cut down the ugly no passing signs on the highway because they mess up my pictures???

[cowanw]

And when are you going to get rid of that nasty eyesore of a defaced rock, The Independance Rock: talk about graffitti! It should be sandblasted to return it to its natural state.
Up in the north north, we wouldn't dream of disturbing an Inukshuk. Bad Kharma (to mix cultural appropriations)
Regards
Bill

[Kirk Gittings]

In some areas of New Mexico, some cairns are believed to be pre-historic, particularly near old Navajo residential sites where they appear to be some kind of boundary markers. I have seen some almost 8 feet high on some restricted Pueblo lands with associated pottery chards that suggest great antiquity. I don't always assume here that they are recent or of no cultural value.

[Marko]

Did you see any sandcastles to step on while you were there? It is just as legitimate to destroy them as to make them. Don't mind the kids, they don't know what legitimate means anyway. Petroglyphs too. Rip all that stuff up.

I guess I just don't have the same sense of outrage at a couple of rocks stacked up that others do... Does this mean I'm autistic?

No, Jack, it only means that you are one of the remaining few who seem to have enough of a life to NOT be bothered by other people's abilities, tastes and choices in life.

I thought the type of behaviour (some would call it pathology but I prefer a more diplomatic approach ) exhibited in the usual film vs. digital, canon vs. nikon, pc vs. mac and such "discussions" was limited to toy (or technology)-related topics, but this thread indicates that it might be a more general human trait after all.

Wonder if junk-food aficionados take similar umbrage to someone else's choice of, say, a Fatburger or a Junkburger when the entire world knows the Jackburger trumps both?