This little piece of enigmatic metalwork is somewhere on the PCT just South of Casa de Luna, nobody (by which I mean me) knows why its there. At first glance it appears to be an arrow, maybe pointing in the direction of trail, however it is not at a junction and points 30 degrees off trail into a bush. In addition, the fletching is off, leading me to believe that it was meant as a conjunction of the Venus (♀) and Mars (♂) symbols. (it could also be Mars and the modern Earth symbol {♁} but that seems unlikely to me) These symbols in a modern context are often used to refer to gender, and their orientation in this sculpture is rotated, so I think the Artist intends for us to flip gender on its side…?

This may not count as sculpture if your conceptualization of sculpture requires a human artisan, but mine does not and this is the spitting image of an eagle anyway. Eagle Rock is a fixture of the PCT, such that I knew it was coming up, and I had only seen about 3 people on trail (not counting 100 yards from roads, and even including them its not many) in the last 1200 miles of the PCT.

These ended up being on a dead end spur, (I briefly headed towards Los Vegas for a doomed attempt to meet up with Mammoth for a third time.) but a pair of 獅 (shī) randomly off route 66? What in the world? They’re just in the desert; they even have registers despite not being on a trail, but no explanation.

Second to last stop before catching the PCT. Camped out in an abandoned miner’s cabin, thatvhas since been refurbished for recreational use. The Map said it was a Tungsten Mine, and being on the side of Wolframite Mountain seems appropriate. There was quite a spread of old heavy machinery strewn about, I spent a couple hours photographing, and didn’t even check it all out! Deserves another trip honestly.

Eby’s Stamp Mill, across the river from Belden, CA and just along the roadside. Used to Process Gold from ore, now its mostly a nice place to have a roadside picnic. Complete with privy.

A saw measured for cutting square-set timbers, for the Comstock Lode in Virginia City, NV. I got to take a short side trip out there from South Lake Tahoe with one of the women who was also staying at the hostel there.

Saline Valley Salt Tram Crossover Station. This used to be the top of a system of Gondolas that could transport people and salt from Saline Valley (just west of Death Valley proper, and inside the National Park) to the Owens Valley, and thus the rest of California. In the brief research I did for this I feel like I should’ve poked around a bit more, I was in quite a hurry to badwater though. Will return here aswell.

Had a lot of inconsequentially broken bridges in WA, but this one’s got TK on it which counts for a lot. I rarely get a subject to photo, and I’m not well versed taking selfies. His pack is super long with how he stashes his sleeping pad there. Maybe I should play around with camera timers more…

You can barely make out that bit of boardwalk sunken under the flooding from a mid-winter thaw. Not sure if it normally crosses a smaller stream, but even before submersion it would’ve been woefully inadequate for this span.

This is less a bridge and more an extended boardwalk along the bank of a river. The sections of which are undeveloped seem very prone to flood. I routed thru the woods several times within a few miles of here to avoid the calf deep plus wading while temperatures hold near freezing.

At first glance this bridge in the North Cascades doesn’t really look broken, it might’ve had some ambitious architect, intent on making a statement about trail fixtures. As you close on it though:

You find it is actually collapsed into the water. Awaiting a nice spring flood to wash it downvalley where it may find new life as driftwood, surely inspired by the legions of hiker trash who cross it each season. Atleast someone placed a rock in the middle to help keep your feet dry.

It may not be a public trail, but that must go somewhere. I also like the fine print. Definitely not a toilet…

They don’t look closed?

This one is just a shame, an earthen dam would make an awesome sledding hill.
 

Trail-side wreckage in the hundred mile wilderness, of the most common sort. An old flipped pickup, the must’ve been a road nearer here in the past. Did some minor detective work around this one; there were faded letters on the door, spelling out “Allen General Contractor” and “Hampton ME, 51AL210” I could be wrong on those numbers though. There were seven characters, so it could’ve maybe been a phone number?

Another car, this one in the UP of MI, mostly notable for its nice coloration and lack of wheels. It was nearby Au Sable lighthouse in Pictured Rocks National Lakeshore (NLS)

Here’s a more interesting one, on the Northville-Placid Trail. It’s a shorter trail, (clocking in around 130 miles) and I only spent about 30 on it before turning westward and mostly road-walking out of the ADK. Someone probably hid this canoe on the banks for later use, only for the river to flood and bash it around some trees. At least that’s what I hope happened, it’d be pretty rough if people were paddling about in it when it got busted up.

This one’s really cool, in case you can’t immediately tell, but this is an airplane, crashed in the Mountains of VT, on Mt. Abraham. Happened in the 70s, all three passengers made it out alive. Its really blown to bits back there though the wings are a short distance away, and by now the forest has really grown up around, and inside of it.

I’ve passed thru a couple sculpture gardens on the North Country Trail, the first one caught me off guard as I was walking through the woods and found this:

A horrifying effigy of a horse with human hands bursting from its neck to deliver unto you a human (?) heart. Once you realize you are in a sculpture garden and not transgressing unto a grove which cultists use for their activities… then its okay.

This first garden had some delightfully unsettling pieces. like the horse above, but also these masks sitting on stakes, serving as a warning to all those who hike the NCT thru NY. Without context and coming thru at night could’ve been real weird.

While this boat may not have been in a formal sculpture garden, or be as unsettling without context, it still counts as sculpture. Located on a little bit of roadwalk soon after the NCT merges with the Buckeye Trail (BT) in OH. It even has portholes! If it was after dark and I came upon this I’d be half tempted to sleep inside, but I guess then I’d be the creepy one.

Pushing the dial even further from fear into whimsy, here’s a couple from Lākenenland in MI’s upper peninsula! Not 100% on the story of this place, and it’ll probably feature pretty prominently in a future trip log. This place is really cool though, the guy even maintains a pretty nice shelter there too. (with a door, and cots!)

P.S. a year ago today I finished the AT, I may have to abbreviate a little more in the logs if I wanna catch up before I’m done.

These stairs in the Hawking Hills area of OH look like they were torn from a Dungeons and Dragons campaign or something, with their strong lines, needless curvature, and decorative obelisks. Mix that with the occasional missing tile to lend it a well preserved yet ancient feel, like it was left behind by some well meaning conspiracy theory.

This UFO moonlights as a ski lift in VT. Hey, aliens got mouths to feed too, and in this economy…

Seriously though, which of these alien landscapes does this most belong to? The obvious answer, is all of them. 60s modernism was made for the moon, and still looks like its itching to leave Earth.

One of the larger pieces of machinery I’ve seen laying about the eastern woods, I think this contraption is meant to drive the belts that power other machines, maybe from the first oil rush, maybe from logging. looking back, I could’ve spared a couple more moments to gawk at it, maybe see if there was any information stamped upon it. (I think this was sorta near Sheffield, PA, on or near the NCT. If anyone knows more or wants to go investigate.)

This is totally explainable by modern science, but when I came upon it there was a distinct otherworldly sense about an abandoned telephone pole in the woods. It having been reclaimed by nature and made into some raptor’s home amid a desolate field is just poetry.