Fischer Creek Rocks

Day 3 (9/22/13)

My one Cairn of the Day

Fischer Creek has become one of our favorite go to places for rock picking. It is a fun place to spend an afternoon and has a vast selection of small flat stones that are perfect for Eileen’s jewelry. The weather was beautiful and although down by the water it had the chill of early fall it was a perfect day for walking and picking up stones. We had the beach mostly to ourselves as we walked south along the shore. Fischer Creek is not ideal for building cairns because most of the stones are small but I managed to build one. We walked down the beach further than we ever had before until we ran into private property signs and decided to turn around. We spent a little time walking some of the trails around the park and started to see more people but not many. When all was said and done we came home with several bags of rocks.

Lake Michigan

South Shore

North Shore

Pig weed

Beach art by others

Fischer Creek

Eileen

Build Baby Build

Cairns in Iceland

Our very first glimpse of Cairns during our
 2007 visit to Iceland

Day 2 (8/21/13)

It was really hard for me to decide which of my blogs to put my Icelandic trip on. On one hand I usually put my vacation stuff on my Onion River Site, but on the other hand if there was ever a cairn heaven it would be Iceland. In reality we saw our first ever cairns while spending a day in Iceland on our way to Norway in 2007. I did not get pictures of them this time because I was on the wrong side of the bus. They are still there though and look like they will be for quite some time, although the area around them has really grown up with buildings. I decided to compromise and post my daily blogs at: onionriver.blogspot.com and make one posting about cairns on this site. We saw many areas around Iceland where people had built hundreds of Cairns. Unfortunately on a bus we didn't always get a chance to photograph them. I told Eileen that if we drove around the island it would take us months with everything there is to see and build. Because of the fragility of the environment there are some areas which they do not allow cairn building. If at all possible we tried to build cairns at spots that we visited. Often somebody had built there before us. In Iceland there are many places where they utilize cairns as marking stones and in one instance we followed cairns for miles and miles that marked an old border or road. In my reading, I have found of more than one life saved in the winter because they were able to follow the cairns. I don’t think a day went past that we didn't see a cairn of some type. At first people on the bus were a little curious when we would start building at our stops but soon they expected it and even joined in and built one o f their own. Of course we also had to pick up some choice little stones for Eileen to make cairn necklaces when we got home. It was wonderful being in a place where rocks are such an important part of life and people still appreciate the simple things in life.

Not Cairns but Cool

Eileen working on her first Cairn
 in Iceland

My first Cairn in Iceland

Cairn's Denied

Mother Nature's Cairns

Miles and Miles of Cairns

Eileen starting another

Cairns in the Wasteland

Waterfall with Cairn

Cairn at Black Sand Beach

Cairn at Glacial Lagoon

A Start

Closer

Just on More

Finished

Stephan and I building at the Glacier

Michael and Stephan

Two More

So many Rocks So little Time

Crunchy Snow

Day 1 (2/17/12)

First Build of the Year

I was just looking through last year’s blog for what would have been this weekend, the 18^th and 19^th of February, and there was no snow on the ground and it looked very spring like. Well that is life in Wisconsin. This year is somewhat different and although it was sunny and beautiful it was relatively cold and snow still covered the trail in all but a few areas. It has been a strange winter even for Wisconsin. Whenever we get good snowshoeing snow it rains and freezes before we have an opportunity to use it. Otherwise it just hasn't been very conducive to winter sports. It was time to get out and although the snow was too icy for skiing or snowshoeing it was good for hiking. It was not one of the more productive excursions since everything was still covered with snow but we enjoyed the weather and built one small cairn. Most of the larger builds were down so I am looking forward to getting out when the snow is gone. This time of year is funny, next week could bring more snow or it could reach fifty degrees and everything could be clear. I guess we will just have to see what happens. 

Eileen on the trail

The Moon

First Build

Turkey Trot