High Sierra Topix

Wandering Daisy wrote:they caught a fellow hauling cement. He was constructing a shelter in Keweah Basin to ride out the "end of the world"!

Holy $#!+, I'm not happy about what he did, but I'm still cracked up laughing. This world is full of some real nut cases.

To me the ego cairns are like trash or graffiti. They don't harm the environment, just my experience of it. They are also a metaphor for how many of us interact with the wilderness.

The thread title is laughable.

Graffiti doesn't harm the environment?

Not usually. Graffiti only affects human perception of the environment.

I'm guessing the enamel paint doesn't do the environment any favors.....

It's not a problem while it's being graffiti, on a rock or a tree trunk or a trail sign. When it washes into a stream or percolates into the soil and eventually the water table then I grant you that it is a pollutant. But in the larger scheme of things, in our increasingly urban world, it just noise. Not a measurable signal at all. The primary insult, the overwhelming effect, is to human perception. Just look at the air.

Back on topic:

The ultimate cairn, and I defy anyone to post a pic of a bigger one (lol):

dunno if it's bigger, but. impressive.. Now it's up to Markskor if he wants to fly around the globe and kick them down

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cairn

This is a cair near Baxter Lake. After we came back someone told me there was a warm spring near Baxter. I wonder if this cairs shows the way to the spring.

What is this cairn?