“Hippy stacks”

This past week, I spent a day rafting the Mckenzie River with my cousin, his wife and their 8-year-old son. As we’re floating down the river, the boy noticed some interesting stacks of rocks along the banks of the river. (Here’s a GoogleImages link to give you an idea of what I’m talking about.) He pointed them out and asked our guide what they were. The guide chuckled and explained that, “Some people, mostly local college kids, like to come to the river, enjoy a little… herbal enhancement… and will do things like balance rocks into a stack like that.” My cousin laughed about the “hippies”. For whatever reason, my cousin’s son smooshed the buzz words together and dubbed the rock piles “hippy stacks”.

About an hour later, we pulled the raft into shore and made sandwiches for lunch. The boy wolfed his food in a minute flat and went to river bank, where he promptly started trying to build a “hippy stack”. This hyperactive, has to be the center of attention, talking non-stop kid spent the next 20 minutes enthralled, quietly amusing himself trying to build a stack of five or six rocks. I told my cousin the kid had found his calling. Brick layer, stone mason… or maybe just stoner. 🙂