[jaysway]

Yes, I kick down carins wherever I see them. If people get lost as a result of that, well those people did not deserve to be in that place and they deserve what happens to them if they get lost. That's just how it works. I also remove flagging tape for the same season, people should be able to navigate themselves and if they can't, they need to get out of the woods because they don't belong. What it comes down to is that I should be the one deciding how much skill and preparedness people should have in order to deserve to hike in my wilderness. To take it one step further, when people ask me for directions on trails, I always point them in the wrong direction. If they can't figure out that I gave them bad directions, then "see you later" because you shouldn't have been there in the first place. I also get very uncomfortable in the wilderness when I see people that don't look like they belong (code for don't look like me if you know what I mean ). /s

[Anne Elk]

[treeswarper]

Beware. Some "cairns" are archeological sites. Just going around kicking what happens to offend you over is stupid. Also, once again, don't tear down flagging where ever you want in the woods. Flagging is used to mark plots, ways in to fires, road r/w, contractor work, trail work, timber sale boundaries, etc. In fact, there's probably more flagging used for those activities than the marking of a random path by a hiker. Think a bit about why such things are there before destroying them.

[Cyclopath]

The original purpose of cairns was religious by the way.

[zimmertr]

[Anne Elk]

^^^ There used to be a cedar along the loop trail (south section) in Discovery Park (Seattle) that looked exactly like the tree in the Wikipedia entry, but smaller scale. Then I walked the trail after some years' absence, and it was gone. I'm sure Seattle Parks & Recreation had no idea. They seem to have been on a tree-cutting binge these years, anything that seems even remotely hazardous comes down. Covering their behinds, I suppose, after that fatality a few years ago in, I think, Seward Park, after a windstorm. Then there's this mystery.

[neek]

For anyone truly interested in the history of cairns, there's a book on the subject, although the writing quality is so bad I couldn't get through it.

[Jake Dogfish]

I never knew cairns served a purpose until reading this site. I thought people just got bored and piled up some rocks. Now I know when people get bored they make posts about cairns.

[Kim Brown]

[HitTheTrail]

Cairns have value when leaving a brush clogged valley to cross or traverse a boulder field or slabby area at the historical safest / best place. Or vice versa, leaving a boulder field and hitting the brushy valley route approximately right. In those cases a GPS or topo lines are not much use unless someone has given you a track ahead of time.

[Stefan]

cairns also "start" a trail instead of creating "multiple" trails. True. I have been in several areas of Utah, where I do believe if there were cairns, there wouldn't be so many "side" trails into areas. People are going to go where they are going to go. Its kinda weird seeing multiple side trails in these areas of Utah where none need to be. I figure the same would be true in the Alpine areas of the Cascades. One off trail is fine. Multiple...maybe not so. The trips into McMillan Spire was started with cairns.....now there is one trail. I wonder what would have happened if there were no cairns in that alpine environment. And now since there is a trail there in that vegetative area, maybe a cairn is not useful. I think we be all splitting hairs here.

[Randito]

The dumbest case of "environmental flagging removal" I've heard of was someone ripping out flagging placed by an active SAR operation in Commonwealth Basin to guide the rest of the crew into the patient. The problem with cairns for navigational purposes is that you don't know whether the cairn builder was lost or whether they as headed to the same objective. IME areas where "art" cairns are being built also have a pretty good boot path beaten into the earth or worn into the lichens on talus, so cairns marking the way are somewhat redundant.

[FiveNines]

[Chief Joseph]

I agree with the OP that “if you depend upon cairns for navigation, you are a fool”. I also feel that in certain places they can be helpful, but not necessary. I just don’t see a stack of rocks being a big issue in any case and I never waste the energy to either build one or topple one.

[Malachai Constant]

In slick rock country the rangers use cairns to mark the preferred route over rock. If novices try to find their own route the often tread on cryptogamic soil which takes century’s to form and is destroyed by a single footprint or bike tread. In Washington they are seldom needed unless there is a hidden key ledge or the like. Some areas such as the summit of the Brothers are filled with “lost hiker” cairns that are impossible to differentiate from legitimate ones. As others mentioned search parties sometimes leave them to show where they have already looked.