2016 kick over cairns thread
Posted: Tue Oct 04, 2016 8:48 pm
On outdoor enthusiast boards for hikers and backpackers over long years, the building and placement of cairns and ducks are overwhelming condemned. And on all web boards one can be sure the subject has occasionally been roundly discussed as has been the case here on HST. Since we are now at sunset with the 2016 hiking season with not a few of us about to go into our winter hibernation, I thought it would be a bit of fun to "kick it around" some again.
Most of us will concede that a few on trails serve purpose as where a trail crosses otherwise difficult to follow areas like bedrock. In fact many trails in the Sierra Nevada high country in such granite areas have trails lined by small stones delineating sides of such tracks. But the real annoyance in this era is that there seems to be an increasing epidemic of cairn builders now traveling on our trails and just about everywhere else. There was a time when the concern was more about ducks than cairns and how on off trail routes they often were rather unnecessary, useless, and often misleading because those that placed ducks were more often the least experienced travelers with poor off trail judgment. This issue with cairns today is different because most are built not as an aid for travel but rather as a rock stacking activity participants learn to enjoy. They not only enjoy the activity of finding, selecting, and balancing rocks in stacks but also in this era reveling in their work then taking cellphone pictures of their creations they then share with others.
As more of the easily manipulated see these things especially children, the more of them join in becoming addicted which is why it has become epidemic. And the activity goes beyond trail side cairns as some enthusiasts are now engaging their work with the same enthusiasm as peak baggers climbing summits. Thus in not a few parks we wilderness people have been coming upon areas well away from trails where there are many small loose rocks strewn across bedrock landscapes where the cairn addicts have apparently spent hours obviously near where they have set up camps doing so across landscapes.
I've often roared, "WHO, WHO are these duck and cairn builders?" Obviously none of we board folks haha. This Facebook link provides some clues including inputs of not a few obvious perpetrators.
https://www.facebook.com/zionnps/photos ... =3&theater
Thus it serves purpose to occasionally remind young enthusiasts and newbies just how much the rest of us including park authorities rather universally dislike the practice. And how much their peers meaning us, are going to swear and then kick the D!@# things over.
Most of us will concede that a few on trails serve purpose as where a trail crosses otherwise difficult to follow areas like bedrock. In fact many trails in the Sierra Nevada high country in such granite areas have trails lined by small stones delineating sides of such tracks. But the real annoyance in this era is that there seems to be an increasing epidemic of cairn builders now traveling on our trails and just about everywhere else. There was a time when the concern was more about ducks than cairns and how on off trail routes they often were rather unnecessary, useless, and often misleading because those that placed ducks were more often the least experienced travelers with poor off trail judgment. This issue with cairns today is different because most are built not as an aid for travel but rather as a rock stacking activity participants learn to enjoy. They not only enjoy the activity of finding, selecting, and balancing rocks in stacks but also in this era reveling in their work then taking cellphone pictures of their creations they then share with others.
As more of the easily manipulated see these things especially children, the more of them join in becoming addicted which is why it has become epidemic. And the activity goes beyond trail side cairns as some enthusiasts are now engaging their work with the same enthusiasm as peak baggers climbing summits. Thus in not a few parks we wilderness people have been coming upon areas well away from trails where there are many small loose rocks strewn across bedrock landscapes where the cairn addicts have apparently spent hours obviously near where they have set up camps doing so across landscapes.
I've often roared, "WHO, WHO are these duck and cairn builders?" Obviously none of we board folks haha. This Facebook link provides some clues including inputs of not a few obvious perpetrators.
https://www.facebook.com/zionnps/photos ... =3&theater
Thus it serves purpose to occasionally remind young enthusiasts and newbies just how much the rest of us including park authorities rather universally dislike the practice. And how much their peers meaning us, are going to swear and then kick the D!@# things over.