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Bootpathguy
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Bootpathguy
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PostSun Jun 27, 2021 6:09 pm 
what they were intended for. If you depend on cairns for navigation, you're a fool. Everyone trying to add their little artsy sculpture signature to the landscape and has nothing to do with route marking. They'll lure you off route, or get you lost, just as often as they keep you on the path. All they tell us now is, "someone was here" I could care less if someone wants to build one. Doesn't really visually bother me. But, I do kick them over when I pass by

Experience is what'cha get, when you get what'cha don't want

slabbyd, Noheaperture, Chief Joseph, Brian Curtis, thuja
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Waterman
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 9:59 am 
I make them when traveling off trail at key points, then kick em over on way out. Sometimes I break branches in heavy vegetation. Your right about the misuse of them, Wing lakes route is a prime example of how useless that technique is.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost

Joe Biden
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zimmertr
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zimmertr
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 10:17 am 
Cairns are useful on high routes. Pretty pointless when not at elevation though. At least in the GPS days. I don't knock them over when I see them. I simply forget about them 10 seconds after I pass them.

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Cyclopath, jaysway
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Joe Biden
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Joe Biden
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 10:52 am 
I go all John Kreese on them and show no mercy.

Bedivere
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Waterman
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Waterman
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 11:02 am 
Zim is right, on high routes they are useful, especially in low visibility.

Two roads diverged in a wood, and I,I took the one less traveled by. And that has made all the difference. Robert Frost
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neek
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neek
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 11:08 am 
Gunn Peak is one trail I can think of where they are useful at lower elevations.

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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 11:12 am 
I build them so people know rocks exist. You guys are kicking education in the nuts.

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rbuzby
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 12:43 pm 
I don't get the fascination some people have with them. Not for navigation, they just seem to think cairns are really neato! There's even a brewery named after cairns. People are strange.

Log Lady
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zimmertr
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zimmertr
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 12:44 pm 
rbuzby wrote:
I don't get the fascination some people have with them.
Sometimes they're pretty. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Franklin%27s_lost_expedition#The_Victory_Point_note https://www.historymuseum.ca/blog/a-very-special-piece-of-paper/ Or historically relevant.

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RumiDude
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RumiDude
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 1:20 pm 
Did someone say something about karens in the wild?
Rumi

"This is my Indian summer ... I'm far more dangerous now, because I don't care at all."
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fourteen410
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fourteen410
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 4:37 pm 
rbuzby wrote:
There's even a brewery named after cairns.
It's a really great brewery! Solid beer and good food trucks.

El Puma
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Stefan
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Stefan
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 4:49 pm 
I feel sorry for those who kick down cairns in off trail routes. You never know when a lost soul who makes a mistake finds their way into a high route or some place off the beaten path. Or a place like in Utah backcountry areas. The cairn could be an indicator for this lost person to make it back to civilization without having to contact the authorities from their concerned family/friends...or run into further trouble by being "off route." Sad.

Art is an adventure.

Now I Fly, Matt, Navy salad, Mountainpines, jaysway, zimmertr, GaliWalker, fourteen410, mosey, Chief Joseph, raising3hikers, ozzy
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Brian R
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Brian R
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 6:25 pm 
Stefan wrote:
I feel sorry for those who kick down cairns in off trail routes.
Me too. I suspect kicking over a cairn is along the spectrum toward kicking puppies and burning down trail shelters. Who the heck does this? For decades there was a 8' high cairn at Panorama Point guiding lost or unsure climbers, hikers, and skiers off the Muir Snowfield. The NPS folks removed it maybe 20 years ago. Doctrinaire ideologues and eco-puritanism sucks. If the choice is between e-gadgets and cairns, well, I'll keep the cairns.

Navy salad
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Cyclopath
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Cyclopath
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 7:25 pm 
I need help building a 200 foot cairn on Tiffany Mountain, NE of Winthrop, to make it a Bulger. Who's in with me?

Now I Fly, ForbinsAscent  Walkin' Fool, zimmertr
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Brian R
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Brian R
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PostMon Jun 28, 2021 7:49 pm 
Ahhh yes, The Bulger Collection. Rarely has OCD been more arbitrary.

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