When you cairn too much

[maverick]

I remember Mark was high as a kite; I could have had him continue to the lake's shore.

[Gogd]

(Cairn) help me find my car, and likewise find my way home from the senior center.

That's what those little bumps on the road are for, Ed. They're just cairns to keep you in your lane.

What are the traffic authorities thinking? If I followed those bumps I'd never get home! Anyway, it seems the bumps are not very effective at keeping people in their lanes. Perhaps they should replace them with more K-rails. Yea, K-rails are very effective at preventing people from straying out of their lane. Maybe they could be installed in the BC, too, to keep people from cutting switchbacks. And they could be installed along XC routes to eliminate excessive, unsightly ducks and cairn. I should txt Mr. Kimball (the county agricultural agent in Green Acres) this concept, he has an analytical mind and likes creative solutions. A parting thought: if good fences make good neighbors, do you thing a fence made of rugged K-rails would make for even better neighbors? Dear HOA, I have an idea...

Ed

[creekfeet]

Always found the hatred of cairns super perplexing, but to each their own. Not that I find them particularly useful most of the time, but I kind of enjoy being on some old livestock trail and coming across the occasional duck or two. It's like a treasure hunt in a way.

Anyhow, all this business reminds me of a classic moment in the history of Elizabeth Pass from a few years back. An ill-fated trail crew was tasked with building massive cairns up the Sequoia side in order to cut back on all the use trails that plague the pass. Well a few days later a trailhead ranger is making his way up that country, and he's absolutely appalled by these monstrosities. Thinking some well-intentioned visitor jackass has put them up, he spends a day on a GS-5 government dime systematically destroying the damn things. Needless to say, I don't think they ever tried building cairns up Elizabeth Pass again.

[balzaccom]

Yosemite strikes back!

https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=841925900982269

[dave54]

Nice list, but If you see a ribbon, shouldn't that be taken down as well? They are sometimes used by hunters to mark where they left the kill if they need help recovering game and went for help on recovery.

Ribbon and plastic flagging is used by private landowners and government agencies to mark locations and activities on the ground. They follow a color code. For example, red/white polka dot marks an equipment restricted area, like marshy soils or streamside zone where a dozer would cause unacceptable damage. Removing that flag may allow a dozer to do some real soil damage. A pair of red and white streamers often marks property boundaries. Solid blue marks the perimeter of a harvest unit. If you enter an area where there are lot of flags, do not distrub any of them.

The land agencies use a biodegradable plant-based plastic flagging that will not harm wildlife (deer love to nibble on flagging) and the color is designed to fade after a few years. Some private landowners may still use the regular plastic, it's cheaper, lasts forever, and not healthy for wildlife to munch.

[oldranger]

Markskor and I almost always knocked down ducks when travelling off trail. Seldom are they necessary and often absurd as when traveling up a slope and there are ducks everywhere marking several individuals choice of route. I have found 2 sets of ducks in my travel that really do save a lot of grief. One is a small portion of the route from Big Bird lake to the table lands and the other is from Secret Lake to the top of the headwall enroute to McCabe lakes. That one is especially helpful because if you follow it it is easy class 1.5 travel but if you don't it is a ****. Seen photos and videos of people taking off their packs and handing them up to people above them before rock climbing up to the next ledge--completely unnecessary if on the right route. but no map will help you find the route.

As for trails, I don't like them, don't need them but not worth the effort to knock them down.

[frozenintime]

this reminds me that we were surprised to come across quite a bit of flagging along the kibbie ridge trail earlier this month. it was red/pink in color. some of it seemed like it was meant to help keep hikers on track through overgrown sections, but the majority was along obvious and clear sections of trail where it was harder to discern its usefulness.

this was all on the stanislaus side of the trail, maybe miles 3-5ish (?) when measured from the shingle springs trailhead.

we were wondering if an overly enthusiastic hiker had added it. we couldn't recall seeing this kind of trail marking by an official body before.

[balzaccom]

Sounds more like USFS staff marking things ...maybe trail work to be done? We've used that on some trail crews I've done