Gumjuwac Altar?

[christabrews]

I recently bought "A Guide to the Trails of Badger Creek" by Ken and Ruth Love, mainly for its historic value, to get a perspective about what the area was like in the 70s. I was reading the section on Gunsight Trail #685, when I read something rather amusing:

"At Mile 1.0 the trail passes near a mysterious rock structure hidden in a grove of encircling trees. The arrangement of rocks suggests deliberate work by alien intelligence. This is gumjuwac altar. Here once was a quaintly lettered stelae with ancient runes difficult to interpret, but which the Wise have translated thus: On this point Ms. L. Belle was sacrificed to the omnipotent spirit of Gumjuwac. The fair young virgin's dying words were 'I regret that I have but one life to come, chew, your ack.'"

Is there actually a big rock pile off of this trail, or was this just a joke meant to send hikers searching for a non-existent "alien" structure?

[Aimless]

That has all the marks of an "insider joke" on the part of the authors, aimed primarily at their hiking buddies.

[christabrews]

I figured as much. This is exactly why I got the book, for fun things like that!