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I'm not sure if this issue has been raised, but I was wondering if the time honored practice of piling up trail markers should be reviewed and discontinued?

As more time and people visit the trails, there becomes more chances for the cairns to misdirect a hiker as to provide any useful aid. Further, it would be nice, especially off trail, to maintain some illusion of exploratory hiking with fresh discovery, in addition, leaving the aspect of original plotting, planning and route finding. Now, with the advent of GPS there are alternative means to secure routes, if desired. It would be nice to not be subject to prior presence, and prior error....

In the Wilderness areas, there are not supposed to be any man made objects... which in it's way suggests the issue is already decided. I think it might be a benefit to hiking overall for this practice of recording the moment to be drawn to a close... and perhaps, the existing markers scattered to their original natural placements?

...thoughts?

In retrospect, I agree with the last couple of post. I thought about this for a second while writing my previous post on this issue. I guess my original point was that cairns have their place on the trail, in areas where it may not be that evident where the trail leads. But now that I've had more time to think about it, I've decided that although they may save lives, the important think to remember here is there is a great degree of responsibility involved in goin into a wilderness area. Although most people would like to just go into these areas whenever they want, they also have to realize that you must know what you're doing. If you don't know the basics of wilderness survival, orienteering, first-aid etc... then you really shouldn't be venturing into these areas anyway. We should not have to cater to those who choose not to put forth adequate effort and learn what's necessary to stay safe when in remote areas. Besides, like some of you said, it is fun to get out there and have to find your way on your own. Having a cairn every 20 feet doesn't really allow you to do that. At the same time though... you can still practice your orienterring skill with a cairn right next to you. Most orienteering is really being able look around you and find major landmarks that you can identify on a topo map and triagulate your position which really isn't affected by having cairns around you. You can do that with or without cairns. So, I suppose my major points here are that people should take responsibility to know what is required to safely explore these wilderness areas, ( I agree that )Geocaches are descructive to the areas around them and turn trashy very quickly, and cairns are a valuable tool when used correctly and in moderation.

This Sunday on a non-described hike, except via the book by Ted Tenny, the cairns for our Goldfields High Country/Elephants Arch hike made for a very pleasant journey; especially as we made our way up the narrow canyon. I am not a religious person, but "God Bless the cairns" and occasional flourescent ribbons. The cairns were placed perfectly so that we could quickly make our way up and down the canyon. Without the cairns, it would have been a much longer haul. So I don't know if cairns save lives, per the poll above, but they can sure make your hiking adventure a whole lot easier.

I am sure there are a lot of us out there that have breathed many sighs of relief when you've spotted cairns ...

This trip really brot my appreciation for cairns to the forefront. I would like to thank whoever placed them as they did a great job. I got a particular kick out of the arrow drawn in the dirt at a fork of the trail... There was a cairn too but as you know, many of us are looking down at the ground where we are hiking and might have missed the cairn that was also placed there. John took the north fork but I spotted the arrow (as the rain was forcing me to look down) and so we headed west.

I think I might start booby-trapping geocaches with those spring-loaded gag snakes...

Jeff MacE wrote:I think I might start booby-trapping geocaches with those spring-loaded gag snakes..

Some AZ geocaches probably have real ones.

Which would serve to make the gag all that much more effective! ...Oh wait, that's uncouth...