The cairn, as a cultural peculiarity, is as entertaining as it is clever. It’s purpose, since the beginning of time, is to designate the correct trail.
So, for instance, if you were hiking along a trail unfamiliar to you and the trail forked, all you would need to do is look for a cairn. The idea, of course, is that animals don’t stack rocks, so the game trails would be cairn-free, while the human trails would feature cairns at critical points along the way.
To boost the entertaining factor, there are people who go hiking with the singular goal of putting up cairns. There are those who will spend all day on one cairn, and those who prefer to stack as many as they can along a trail.
Other hikers love to create specific patterns. They have their signature style of creating a cairn. They will stack seven stones every time, or a stack of six next to a stack of three. It’s all determined by their personal creativity.
Because of this, some cairn stackers will look for their own creations when hiking. They also tell their friends what to look for. It becomes a challenge, an added bit of fun to a hike.
If you were going hiking, what sort of cairn would you make?
