Oldest Trails, Older Trails, and Old Trails (Part Four)

  (Continuing from previous post:)

     I couldn’t follow the stone rows I wanted to because of the tree work – well, I suppose I could have really, I just didn’t want to. So, I scooted across the eastern parcel until I came to another gate in another stone wall, the parallel boundary of the parcel:

Above: the upper (south) side of the gate, the most noticeable feature, a large rectangular boulder, a featured I’ve observed in other gates locally – and compared to similar “head stones” of serpentine petroforms in Manitoba. Below: the lower (north) side of the gateway with a large round boulder…

 And here again, there was the slight angle of a suspected serpent head looking out at the person entering the space, that Uktena or Strong Looker as a sort of protector of that space, knowing the thoughts of the person about to enter, a suggestion of eyes in the blocky stone seen above. I followed southward, looking to see (observe) if that same undulation in height would be present here too…

 Above: running eastward, down into a sea of ferns: below: extending south toward modern paths, still in use as possibly wood roads or maintenance access trails or something like that, I’m not sure…

Above: looking north at the south-side/outside of the corner, dipping down to the messy gateway. Below: the same corner, looking west, from the “inside.”

I’d call the undulations here “sharper,” for lack of a better word. Perhaps it wasn't exactly like this – maybe someone wanted those flat capstone-like slabs for something else, one reason to explain this away – or why they went away – if they were indeed once there:

     I cruised down along the “inside” to observe “the other side” of this row of stones that might be a petroform (or geoglyph) that since my first walk along it I have seen described on another blog as an example of a “Single Wall – stones piled on top of each other. These were used to surround pastures” – a theory that these may have been built when wood became scarce, possibly made this way to impress sheep or cows, or maybe fool them into thinking they were much more formidable barriers by these castellations. On the other hand, I can’t image what sort of rail fence was above it, if this were instead a plowed field and these stones just happened to be tossed randomly into piles like these, the other widely accepted theory as to the origin of stone walls such as these. The same walls in this section were shown on that other blog as an example of a “Tossed Wall – With stones stacked like firewood, this is the most common of stone walls. It required a bit more attention that the dumped wall.” That’s some kind of tossing!

    One or two close ups and details, a fifth section to come in a future post:

(Photo from 2014:)

(Below: a little more than just a little zoomorphic:)