I suppose if you have a thick forest and something suddenly provides you with a clear path through it you start using it. You might then "ritualise" the path centuries later (especially if you had built important things alongside it), without the least intention of commemorating the thing that had caused the path in the first place.
Do any cursuses go up steep hills? I'm thinking, a tornado that cuts a swathe up a steep slope might not have been adopted as a path, yet such things must have happened. If all cursuses are easy walking then that suggests that any cursus connection was borne of convenience, not tornado worship.
