I've visited several cropcircles but I've never made 1, so some of this is conjecture...
You'd think that walking through a field would leave an obvious trail, right? Actually, visiting circles, I've always been careful not to trample
any more than necessary because, despite the fact that flattened crop gets picked up by a combine harvester, farmers tend to view people walking on
their livelyhood as criminal damage. As Yummy said, cereal springs back up & it is possible to use the outside of foot & calf to push crop aside so as
not to crush more than is stepped on. These trails are found tho, Croppies call them "underlying paths" & they are no doubt why some say 'you can
tell the real from fake.'
If I wanted to make a mysterious circle, I'd hide my trail by carefully folding the crop I'd damaged, by walking on it, in the same direction as the
design. This wouldn't hide my paths from 1 part of a multi-part design to another, or into & out of the field tho. For that I'd use my 5' board to
push ahead thru the crop, comb it to 1 side & skip forwards, standing the other foot on top of my planted toe for balance & repeat. On the way back,
I'd use my surveyors rod to comb the crop upright, thus only leaving 1 toeprint/ approx. 2 strides distance. Think about it. Flattened crop is only
visible when it has space to lie down. 5 bent stalks surrounded by upright crop just lean against them: almost invisible. A rigourous survey would
find those toeprints, but as I'd have taken the shortest route from crop edge to design site, so would visitors. Their own footprints would destroy
any evidence.
If I wanted to get really mysterious, I'd leave some "residue": iron filings or some powdered mineral from a new age crystal shop, or wierder,
powdered granite that is mildly radioactive.
Why tho?
I can respect those who do:
www.circlemakers.org...
Hotair balloons? You can hear them 20 miles away & they glow @night. You might get away with it in N America: I hear you have really big fields. Have
a go...
