Another idiot on Skyline!!!

[DancesWithTheMountains]

Hi everyone,
Had another great day on skyline yesterday. Weather was perfect. All was going well, till I saw what some idiot did on the trail. A few years ago, Steve and Fernando,
I think it was them, did a great thing by stacking rocks on the little gulley on red hill which is the hill after my Enchanged Gardens, around 4800ft. This gulley was being
used to the point that the trail it intersected is collapsing. Its getting worse and worse. Some idiot decided to take all the rocks and throw then all over the place.
I tried to put back as many as I could, but I couldn't lift some of them. WHY or WHY does this moron have to do this??? Does anyone know who it is??? It's not anyone
I know that lives here in the desert, that's for sure. Those of you who know where I am talking about, also know that the trial goes to the right of those rocks. Please
take your groups on the trail and not up this gulley. Its ruined beyond repair. I think the same idiot also removed one of the stones up around 7,000ft that stopped
hikers from taking that dangerous little cut off instead of walking over the downed tree. That stone was also pushed off. Again, WHY??? I'm going to try and
repair that little wall with stones this Saturday. Hopefully any of you who see it, will add more stones and maybe we can all get everyone on board to do the right
thing on that section. Sorry to be on the soap box about this, but I know a lot of you do care about this trail and maintaining the integrity of it. Anyway, it was good
to see Diane and a few other familiar faces. Happy trails to all.
Doreen

[bluerail]

weird, when i went by yesterday i didnt see a change there...or maybe i was just too caught up in breathing. yea Fern and I put in aboult 8 hours on the section over a two day period but i have noticed its needing work again. sorry i missed you yesterday.

[Ed]

Thanks to everybody who has worked on them for the rocks. Several times I have marched up that damn gully when I was not paying attention. Then I cuss myself out for contributing to the erosion.

[OldnSlow]

Ran into a similar "idiot" when hiking Whale Peak in Borrego last year. He was heading up and knocking down all the cairns and ducks used to outline the trail for the last mile up. He claimed they were unnatural and graffiti. A really unpleasant guy. I guess he thought it was better to have people trample over all sorts of vegetation rather than follow a trail.

[DancesWithTheMountains]

Thank you Steve. I knew you and Fernando were the ones who took care of that little wall of rocks. I did put back a few of them , but nothing like what
you did. Its so nice that you guys did that a couple of years ago. I appreciate the other hikers (Ed) who do realize they have gone up that section and didn't
mean to. It shows integrity and that you meant to do the right thing. I'll spend sometime this Saturday and see if I can add to the little wall of rocks.
Sorry I missed you Steve. Its always a pleasure to see you on the trail. It was a great day on Saturday.
Happy Trails everyone!!!
Doreen

[halhiker]

Ran into a similar "idiot" when hiking Whale Peak in Borrego last year. He was heading up and knocking down all the cairns and ducks used to outline the trail for the last mile up. He claimed they were unnatural and graffiti. A really unpleasant guy. I guess he thought it was better to have people trample over all sorts of vegetation rather than follow a trail.

Here we part ways. I don't condone tearing down a wall that protects a trail or cutting switchback or removing water diversions but I wholeheartedly support removal of ducks on cross country routes. Off trail, ducks are the antithesis of Leave No Trace. I think RJ Secor makes this point very succinctly in his book The High Sierra.

"Ducks are also known as cairns; a duck is a small cairn, erected by well-meaning hikers to show the correct route for those who follow. The problem with ducks is that they seldom actually show the easiest route, turning the hunt for ducks into a wild goose chase. They also have a tendency to direct all cross-country hikers on the same path. This leads to the creation of a use trail, which usually scars the land above timberline….I believe that anyone who sets out cross-country should be capable of finding the correct route without the assistance of ducks. Don't build ducks, and destroy all ducks encountered. "

In my opinion, if you can't hike cross country without the help of ducks to find your way maybe it's best if you stick to maintained trails—where ducks are redundant and completely unnecessary.

[Ed]

I tend to agree with halhiker - and with RJ Secor, who I knew and climbed with in the 1970's - on ducks. I wouldn't have a problem with ducks placed by land managers or volunteer trail associations. But so many route markers - ducks, and worse yet tape and paint marks - are placed by who knows who they are. If you aren't familiar with the route, you can't have confidence in them. If you are familiar with the route, you don't need them. Route markers are far more common today than they once were, but paradoxically they are much less valuable, with GPS and well-trodden use paths.

On the other hand, I strongly support people who use rocks, brush, logs, etc. to mark the correct trail and discourage people from taking short-cuts. Even when I don't like the trail. Like the Vivian Creek trail above High Creek. Overly graded and switchbacked, in my opinion, but I still disapprove of people taking shortcuts when there is no snow cover.

[cynthia23]

I echo what Hal and Ed say. Rock ducks/cairns are not that visually offensive, but it seems that over time, they inevitably lead to more aggressive forms of trail-marking, like spray-painting and the like. I'm also annoyed by people making (what they think is) 'rock art', i.e. little artistic heaps of rock delicately balanced, etc. Again, I have noticed that what starts out as 'art' gives even more stupid people permission to create cruder forms of 'self-expression', , i.e. graffiti. When I first started hiking Skyline ten years ago, I NEVER saw any graffiti. Now, depressingly, it's a rather frequent sight, even fairly high up.

Doreen, I share your frustration. I'm irked by the person who keeps trying to redirect people up the shortcut just at the top of the shady slope (it goes to the right, and the real trail goes to the left) by blocking off the real trail. I don't understand why.

[OldnSlow]

I guess I should have been more clear. The ducks being knocked down on the way up Whale Peak were KEEPING us on the trail. They were pointing the way to the trail, similar to the red spots I ran into in Germany, so that we wouldn't end up bushwhacking it up. I've seen similar ducks at Pyramid Peak.

Apologies for my lack of clarity.

[backpackpack]

I should probably keep my mouth shut, but when I am enjoying nature and I see those little rock towers that people balance so carefully, it really gets under my skin. I am not talking about rocks laid out in a line or a wall or berm that is part of the trail, I just mean those little balance towers of rocks people make all over. So unnatural. The last thing I want to see when hiking in solitude are sore-thumb signs of other humans all over is it just me?