Misleading Cairns

[weetbix456]

I was out on a short day walk the other day to a peak in the Western Tiers, and on reaching the plateau decided to wander off from the main track for a scout of the area. Ready for the return I went to pick up the main cairn trail which lead back down the mountain, only to find a spray of random off-shoots leading in all kinds of directions. One or two could have been alternative routes off the summit, but most it seemed simply petered out to a scrubby/discontinued demise.

I'm not the biggest fan of unnecessary cairns, and running into any on an apparent off-track section tends to distract me from my own navigational senses. Of particular concern would be false leads in popular areas. Anyone run into any serious trouble from "head down syndrome" in the past?? And any general consensus on what to do about visibly stray track markers??

[north-north-west]

Pelion West has more than one stray cairn line. Potentially dangerous if the weather goes off while you're up there.

Plenty of other places with them too. I've removed a few that were blatantly misleading, but it's not always easy.

[Hallu]

Cairns can be such a mess. They can indicate a climbing spot for rock climbers, in Europe they could indicate a way to a cave, or to the start of a glacier walk, maybe loggers and hunters put some for themselves too, it's a mess. In the US I've even seen people just putting one up for fun, like "we've been there"... It was right on the edge of a raging torrent and could indicate for some people a safe way in, which it definitely wasn't...

[Mark F]

Geez, I thought this thread was about politicians in the division of Leichardt or perhaps Junie Morosi.

[north-north-west]

I thought it was from someone who didn't realise "perfect one day, better the next" doesn't apply during the rainy season.

[perfectlydark]

Id be wary using cairns for navigation anyway, that said they can be a welcome sight when you bumbling about hoping your going the right way

[Strider]

I did my first walk in Lerderderg state park earlier this week. There are large cairns built at major track intersections? I thought this was very strange, but I guess when there are no significant peaks these locations are the logical terminuses deserving of a mark.

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[weetbix456]

I have a sense some folk just start laying them about when them themselves have lost their own way and have decided to "help" out any later comers with these confusing little nifty artworks. So often I've just stumbled upon a random cairn out whoop whoop, and spent wasted time scoping in the near vicinity for another - assuming in my dumb luck I must have bypassed some clearly obvious "route". They just become a distraction when you don't plan for such

[north-north-west]

Yes. There have been times whilst walking that I have toyed with the idea of a thread on the various types of cairns one encounters out bush, complete with photographs.
The 'Hey, you, over here!' cairn - clearly positioned as a good guide.
The 'Yeah, you're going the right way' cairn - mouldering old things you stumble across quite by accident when trying to pick the easiest line through boulder fields or scrubby patches.
The 'Yes, this IS the summit' cairn.
The 'This is boooring' forest of cairns.
The minimalist cairn - one rock perched on the rim of a gigantic boulder.
The (often falling to pieces) lichen-encrusted, moss-covered 'if that's the highest point I'm climbing it' old cairn (usually Sprent type behemoths).

And, of course, the one that started this thread - the 'snigger, snigger, ha ha gotcha' cairn.

[DaveNoble]

And then you can get places like this -

IMG_0161.jpg (74.99 KiB) Viewed 8921 times

[north-north-west]

That's worse than Projection Bluff.

[weetbix456]

And, of course, the one that started this thread - the 'snigger, snigger, ha ha gotcha' cairn.

haha, that pretty much sums up my characterisation of it

[neilmny]

Geez, I thought this thread was about politicians in the division of Leichardt or perhaps Junie Morosi.

Showing your age there Mark F...........Were the pcitures still black and white back then........for some reason I have a mental picture that they were.............Jim Cairns face in black and white

[vicrev]

I can still see poor old Jim, selling his Memoirs at Camberwell Market, off a folding picnic table........sad...

[Hallu]

Lake Falluel in the Alps

[peregrinator]

Yes. There have been times whilst walking that I have toyed with the idea of a thread on the various types of cairns one encounters out bush, complete with photographs.
The 'Hey, you, over here!' cairn - clearly positioned as a good guide.
The 'Yeah, you're going the right way' cairn - mouldering old things you stumble across quite by accident when trying to pick the easiest line through boulder fields or scrubby patches.
The 'Yes, this IS the summit' cairn.
The 'This is boooring' forest of cairns.
The minimalist cairn - one rock perched on the rim of a gigantic boulder.
The (often falling to pieces) lichen-encrusted, moss-covered 'if that's the highest point I'm climbing it' old cairn (usually Sprent type behemoths).

And, of course, the one that started this thread - the 'snigger, snigger, ha ha gotcha' cairn.

The decorative or "You go on ahead, I'll wait here until you come back" cairn(s).
(Heysen Trail, not far south of Parachilna Gorge.)

[GPSGuided]

Cairn field at Fantail Fall, Sth Island, NZ. I don't think this one will put anyone at risk of going on the wrong track.

[peregrinator]

That's an alternative version of the "You go on ahead" cairn; being the "I'll wait here and have a wash while you're battling the scrub" variant.

[Lophophaps]

Many years ago I was walking off-track in a part of Tasmania about three days from a road. Literally in the middle of nowhere there was a massive cairn, approaching two metres tall and 1.5 metres in diameter. Later I found that this cairn was on a straight line boundary, national park and state park or the like. It may be that the cairn was to make the boundary clear.

On another Tassie trip I was skirting the base of a cliff to find a point to ascend. This relied on being on a certain bearing. Compass in hand I walked back and forth for a few minutes and decided that I was in the right place. No track visible at ground level, nothing. I looked up and there was a small cairn just above my head. It was the route

[peregrinator]

. . .
On another Tassie trip I was skirting the base of a cliff to find a point to ascend. This relied on being on a certain bearing. Compass in hand I walked back and forth for a few minutes and decided that I was in the right place. No track visible at ground level, nothing. I looked up and there was a small cairn just above my head. It was the route

I had the same experience in the Vulkathunha-Gammon Ranges, on Italowie Creek just upstream from Wildflower Creek, looking for the bottom of a gully to get access to the ridge leading to Mt John Roberts. (Mentioning the details in case anyone else is planning this route in the future and was wondering how they'd fare.)

So I think NNW's cairn classification list would put these cairns in the "Yeah, you're going the right way" category. But file under the subset: "Think yourself damn lucky you spotted this easily missable one".