Horses and Packers

[Bad Man From Bodie]

Just to keep this ramble going until the next “Horse vs Man” topic is started next summer, I will add this little bit of educational information in hope to give a few folks a bit of a history lesson (resources provided upon request).

The first documented immigrant traverse of Sonora Pass appears to have been in the late summer of 1852 by a wagon train known as the Clark-Skidmore Company working their way from east to west. Originating from Ohio and Indiana, this party of 75 people and 13 four-mule wagons was the first wagon train to cross the Sierra Nevada via the Walker River-Sonora route and it took the party 35 days to blaze a trail of 60 miles over the rugged pass. The route they chose was a little to the south of the current pass crossing and went as follows: Leavitt Meadow to Fremont Lake to Emigrant Meadow Lake to Brown Bear Pass down to Summit Creek to Relief Valley to Whitesides Meadow to Burst Rock to Bell Meadow to MiWuk Ridge to Twain Harte to Phoenix Lake to Sonora and finally, to Columbia. This long trek was not without its mishaps and twice, half starved men were sent to Sonora and Columbia for food and supplies. Due to the difficult passage, many ended up deserting, and only 15 members of the original party reached Columbia.

The following summer, the trail, now known as the “Old Emigrant Trail”, challenged hundreds of travelers, and in 1853 - 600 wagons, 2,400 emigrants and 19,000 head of cattle were said to have used this route. Some of the notable parties were the Duckwall, Trahern, Kerrick, Browder and Crow and Stubblefield. The route was soon strewn with wreckage of prairie schooners, oxen yoke, bleached animal bones…and gravesites – which can still be seen in the Emigrant Wilderness.

I assume no one knows but a handful of us where you can find any sign of the actual trail. I assure you cant tell where nearly 20,000 head of livestock went up the trail. Shown in the photo is the actual trail used by the Emigrants-retraced by Greenhalgh party in 2008. Point being is there is nowhere near the number to stock in the high country today vs years past yet folks still complain.

This pre-contact attitude is ridiculous, what happened to common sense and coexisting?

by justm on Wed Sep 15, 2010 8:57 pm
On my last solo trip into the Emigrant wilderness, I got really sick of seeing horse and cow **** everywhere!!! Not to mention the garbage at the giant horse packer camps , and I'll throw in the cattle , trampling everything, especially creek beds !!!

[justm]

I hear ya, yes we can coexist, I know the history. The settlers and gold rush era brought lots of people and animals through the sierras, and now we are all hear; these are different times now. Population explosion and urban sprawl have made our wilderness areas more important than ever. There is a place for both backpacker and horsepacker. Large groups of yahoo campers with no regard to wilderness ethics and who have alot of money and fishout small lakes just to catch and keep there limit are another story, wink wink,

[mokelumnekid]

This was discussed at length last Dec. and BMFB knows (he pitched in then) that many of us on this list in fact do endorse co-existence and are not fanatical about this issue (nor most issues in my experience).

[Bad Man From Bodie]

Brilliant everyone.....agree! As always I am impressed with HST members. It appears most folks understand there are bad apples in every user group. No matter what, it’s all about having respect for one-another including mother nature. If you can respect that, you earn the privilege to experience the wilderness for what it is! If you are an a-hole and happen to ride in on a horse or walk in on two feet, your still probably an a-hole…….and that’s your bad (Karma works both ways ehh).

[mokelumnekid]

Amen to that! Would love to share a brewski with you some day...This historical material is fascinating and it is really cool that people are *riding* over that route again. BTW have you followed the work of that guy who has found Fremont's winter camp below (east of) Carson Pass and the site of the first crossing there? He's also the guy who has written most convincingly on Fremont's lost cannon (name escapees me now...). He has a pretty extensive website on all that.

[ERIC]

Love the history lesson, thanks! Wish there were more posts like that on here. Packers always seem to be a wealthy source of historical knowledge...

On a related note, one of my favorite history-related Sierra Nevada books is Place Names of the Sierra Nevada by Peter Browning. Good stuff!

[justm]

Well said, especially the last part about an a-hole is an a-hole whether they come in on a horse or backpack in,

[rightstar76]

Wish they weren't so expensive though. I guess if you share the cost with several people it's not so bad.

[Wandering Daisy]

There have been times in my backpacking that I have used horse packers. It is a bit elitist to be totally against horse packers. When my children were tiny I have had horsepackers take us in, and then we VERY slowly walked out. When elderly parents who loved the outdoors were no longer able to do a backpack, we used horsepackers. When working on a tight vacation schedule, I had a pack outfit take me in to save 3 days. On the other hand, there are places that are too easily damaged by horses and should be off-limits. And, for anyone who uses a trail, there probably would not even be a trail there if horses had not used the route. Trail maintenance also could not be done today if trail crews could not be serviced by horse packers. If you really do not want to see traces of horse use, just get off the trails entirely. Go to a lake behind a fortress of miles of talus and you will not see signs of horses. I agree that one horse can damage the trails more than one person, but I think there is room for both areas allowing horse use and those not allowing horse use. A good packer does not want to ruin a trail anymore than we do. And, it seems to me a little like the pot calling the kettle black when you do not like horses because your dog rolls in horse poop!

[paul]

Here's a book with a little more history:
http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/ ... lleypac-20" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Packers and pack stations are almost a dying breed. There used to be many more pack outfits than exist today - the business is shrinking. Personally, though I don't like the state of some trails that are heavily used by packers, I would be sorry to see them go. They bring many folks into the high country who would not otherwise get there to appreciate the beauty, and those people are more likely to want to preserve that beauty if they've seen it themselves. My opinion, anyway. Plus I feel the packers are part of a long tradition that I'd like to see maintained. Their practices have improved greatly over the years - some by choice and some not - and their impact is much less than it once was. I think there is room for them.