When my children were much younger, we routinely motivated them to hike by employing special incentives with the aid of trail fairies. Trail fairies would magically place Skittles or M & Ms on the trail ahead of the young hikers who anxiously searched for them on rock cracks, downed logs, or mossy beds along the side of the trail. It was like a progressive Easter egg hunt, and it worked to get them through the hot, steep, or mundane sections of trail.
Over time, the magic wore off as they figured out mom or dad had run up ahead to secretly stash the small bribes along the way. Even without the magic, they still wanted the treats, and so the game became more about how difficult the hiding place would be and who would find the candy first. The lore of the fairy lives on and searching for small wonders along the trail never dies.
A gnome greets visitors to the Twisp River Beaver Ponds.
Nowadays they are old enough to keep up or stay home if they don’t want to hike and the trail fairies don’t visit us much when we’re on the trail. That is, until recently their gifts have been showing up in all kinds of surprisingly delightful places on trails and trailheads near Twisp.
The magic of trail fairies, or so I call them, is alive and well. More and more, when I venture out, I find a message, a token, or some signal that a friendly being has passed before me and left a signal of welcome friendship. Often these markings are composed of natural elements arranged in an Andy Goldsworthy style, evoking the ephemeral and fleeting nature of Nature.
Such gifts come in natural form and material that leave the onlooker feeling inspired and loved by the creative energy intrinsic in the universe and harnessed for good. For example, strolling through the Twisp River Beaver Bonds just west of town, you will be greeted by a heart of stones embedded in the pathway after stepping off one of the bridges that passes over a channel. At Halterman’s Hole, a popular river access point just south of town, a headdress of skull and feathers greets visitors at the parking lot, a reminder that nature still resides here.
This simple act, finding natural elements and creating something intentionally beautiful or whimsical, breathes fresh hope into my lungs. Perhaps humanity isn’t a completely forsaken idea. Or at least these small interventions in nature offer a distraction from the all-too-common unsightly pile of dumped beer cans left by the less evolved creatures of the wild.
Some fairy gifts are less transient, an ornament or figurine left to give pause and offer protection. The garden gnome falls into this category. While most gnomes are found in the private realm of cultivated gardens, a careful eye will find them in the wilds. They welcome the woodland traveler to take care of their steps and offer good luck and safe passage into places where the pavement ends. We are blessed to be surrounded by these loving creatures and abundant wild places where they roam.
