Piles of rock left by previous hikers to guide future hikers. These things represent to me what is good about people.
To be on a trail and recognize that you have had difficulty finding the way to go, and to stop and take the time to make a marker to tell those that will come after you the right way to go. To act in a way that will help others that you will never meet, in a way that you will never witness, to perform a kindness for which you will never be thanked. 
That people do that for each other makes my heart glad.
2 comments:
I was surprised by how many cairns there were and how unnecessary they seemed to be. In most places the trail was very clear, yet there were these works of art and care guiding an obvious path. But, I learned by talking to someone who had been there a bit later in the season, that the place becomes much more overgrown and those contributions become much more needed and appreciated (despite their LNT implications).
BTW, your last photo doesn't expand when you click on the thumbnail...
Actually, cairns ARE a LNT concept - it is better to have a small pile of rocks to guide the way to the next section of trail than to have inexperienced hikers set down a gap in the vegetation that looks like trail but is not, then crash around looking for the trail when that gap dead ends.
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