Since the summer of 2004, I have been doing volunteer work maintaining and building hiking and mountain bike trails with the Flagstaff Biking Organization and the U.S. Forest Service. Unicorn Trap takes its name from a July 29, 2017 Trail Day. That morning, while hiking down to work sections of a switchback on the Upper Oldham trail, we passed Brad, a seasoned trail builder for the Forest Service. He was working a big boulder with two other volunteers, drilling holes into its side in order to place sticks of dynamite. Curious about their job, I asked them what they were up to. "Making a unicorn trap," Brad said.

After our day of work, hiking back to the top of the trail, I noticed a downed hollowed out, old ponderosa pine log laying in sawn sections at the edge of the meadow. Sculpture material I thought. I committed that I would return later that evening and with the help of my son Adrian, retrieve the log.