The Great Acadian Chipmunk

Here's Issie on our walk. On the way were frequent piles of rock, each one a carefully balanced set of four rocks in a bridge like shape. "What are these, Daddy?" ask the children.

"Ah, well, those are the territory markers of the Greater Arcadian Chipmunk, they are nocturnal creatures who come out and mark their bit of the mountain with piles of rock"

Obviously, they took some convincing, but Gesa and I built a pretty robust tale of the large creatures who pile up rocks to show their strength and protect their part of the mountain. You can tell the age of the chipmunk by the size of the stones, and sometimes, as you get higher up the mountain, you might find six rock piles, made by the bigger, dominant males to really show off. Although they are nocturnal, they are known to watch their rock piles during the day, so it can be dangerous to mess with the rocks.

Later, we're reading a park newspaper and discover that these are really special piles of rock, known as 'Bates Cairns' after a chap in the 1920's who made many of the trails in Acadia and developed this unique style of cairn as a trail marker. The rocks are carefully selected so they balance properly without needing as many rocks as the usual big pile of rocks cairns.