After the Muir Hut was built there was a tradition that everyone crossing Muir Pass bring a piece of firewood. The purpose of the hut was to provide shelter for those caught by bad weather on the pass, but as this photo shows (Actually taken below Wanda Lake a couple miles west), there are no trees, hence no wood, for miles.AAdamsPDX wrote:Thus when I see prayer stacks in the wild I have a completely different reaction. I see them as an expression of wonder, and a non-harmful way of expressing that wonder.
This was a stack on Muir Pass this summer.
For those hiking the JMT, carrying firewood to the hut was a "rite de passage", a badge of honor, a time honored tradition. But after many years the hut became filled with firewood. In 2002 there was not one piece of firewood, but there was a sign on the mantle saying "No Fires".
Muir Hut.
Opposite side of Hut showing chimney.
For me hiking the JMT was something I yearned to do once I heard of it as a teenager. Then college, career, and family intervened and I gave up that dream I thought forever. I was surprised how emotional I became when I made it to the hut that day in 2002. For me getting to the Muir Hut was the spiritual center of the hike--not Forester Pass, not the summit of Mt Whitney--the Muir Hut.
Many religions have traditions of a long passage marked by ritual. Throwing stones at the devil while on the hadj. Carrying a scallop shell while on the Camino de Santiago in Spain.
So there seems to be a need for us to add our pebble or piece of wood to the cumulative pile of human experience that a cairn represents. So, generally, I don't knock cairns down, for I see them as someone's effort to stay on their path.