October 22.

Goat Rock, Sonoma County.

This stack, with 9 stones, fell less than five seconds after I added the tenth. I'm glad that I took this shot before adding "just one more."      32/04 on this stack as pictured.     108kb    35/00 on this cairn with the 10th stone added.

October 27.

Goat Rock, Sonoma County.

Reality is usually 90° to perception... in this case, an insanely narrow tower turns out to be a wide sail.    This one fell several times until I was able to position it aerodynamically into the wind.    The wind here is one factor that makes stacking interesting.  It bursts out to sea in the morning and rolls inland beginning a couple of hours before sunset.    25/20

The see-saw cantilever.  I couldn't believe that this one stayed very long.    Once the bottom stone was comfortable, I found a spot where the platform rock could rest on three points, but it required a hefty counterbalance (top right stone).  Gently maneuvering the third stone with my right hand, and steadying the platform with my left, I searched for the combined balance spot of the two.    After five minutes I settled for something close:   another excursion into the wonders of counter-counterbalancing.  The shapes wouldn't allow the platform to sit any higher (up and left), so I groped around for a small stone.   It took several breaths and several close calls, but she stayed standing long enough for one good picture.    18/03

	I crossed the parking lot to the south side where the stones are more abundant.    A bit closer to the surf than my earlier October stacks, I'd hoped that large waves would add some drama to the pics, but that never happened. The droplets you can see on the stacks are from my water bottle, used to pop the colors out of the stones.    The far left stack in this first picture continues to amaze me.   It isn't too clear in the picture, but if you look close you'll see an impossible lean in the large, upper-left stone.    88kb
	These cairns all fell at once, beginning with the far right and then tumbling like dominoes.    20/10, 15/40, 15/55, 10/70    98kb