Cairns, markers, and guides

Cairn on the Highline Trail in the High Uintas Wilderness Area. In some of the less traveled sections, you can find a cairn like this every quarter mile or so - amazingly beneficial in following the trail!

Backcountry hikers for hundreds, even thousands of years have had a way of communicating routes with each other in a relatively natural way. Simple piles of rocks, known as cairns (from a Scottish word meaning "heap of stones"), are used where trail direction is not otherwise obvious.
We now have modern tools that help us electronically find and follow a known trail, but there is something very reassuring to be navigating a route, looking up ahead to try to verify that you are heading the right direction, and seeing a cairn. In one of my most memorable experiences, I was backpacking on the Highline Trail in the High Uintas Wilderness in a section where the trail was not well defined, and the cairns were particularly amazing - 5 or 6 feet high, visible for a very long way (see photo).
Any hiker who has had this confirming experience in an area they were not familiar with will #GiveThanks for the efforts of those who have gone before, confirmed the correct path, and taken time to serve the unseen and unknown future hikers who would follow.
It's interesting to think about symbolic markers in our lives, the people who place them, and the trust we put in them. These can be physical, like rock piles on a trail or signposts on a road; but they can also be symbolic, moral, intellectual, and spiritual. For example, a person with great wisdom or integrity sets a standard that others can recognize and use to confirm or evaluate their own thinking. A spiritual leader can give reminders of things we will see or experience as we navigate the paths of life.
And of course, we can also appreciate those who turn the stacking of rocks into an art form and an engineering balancing feat!


Nice symmetrical stack of balanced rocks in the Ozarks


Artistic stacking at the base of Half Dome, Yosemite


A whole cairn village! Artistic double-tower example on the left. In the Arkansas Ozarks.

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