Re: HOrses
Posted: Mon Dec 07, 2009 11:35 am
As a relative "newbie" I guess I missed the previous threads. I've been a backpacker since the late 50s and beginning in the early 70's became an occasional client of commercial packers. From 84 through 90 I was a stock ranger for the NPS. Like my fishing I'm not a purist in this issue. I agree fully with Pauls comments and want to add a few of my own.
1. Trail damage--There is no doubt that stock can wear out trails more rapidly than people traffic. A lot of the problem is poor trail location and sometimes construction. When I was a backcountry ranger I tried to get early season restrictions on stock travel in order to prevent stock from turning wet sections trail into a quagmire. Sometimes all it would take is preventing stock from using certain trails for a few weeks and the problem wouldn't occur.
2. Trash--yep the potential for people with stock to leave a lot more trash than backpackers. But the shear number of backpackers means that, as a ranger I did more picking up after backpackers than horse people. You couldn't believe the amount of stuff I found miles from the closest a horse could get.
3. Stock management- It really is possible to reduce the impacts of stock near campsites if they are properly managed. I always tried to set a good example by unloading my stock, checking them out and turning them loose (a viable option in most of the Roaring River Country due to drift fences). If turning loose meant too many miles the next morning a high line would would be used over the least sensitive site I could find--out of camp. A pet peeve I had with a lot of private stock users is that they would have a fire going all day. On moving days I would get my stuff packed up, find the stock bring them next to camp then load them up and get out of dodge.
4. Commercial Packers--Most operations don't make a lot of money. And there is much less stock use than 50 years ago. Between Fish Camp on highway 41 and Clover Meadow s. of Yosemite there used to be 5 pack stations now there is 1. The number of operators on the E. Side has been reduced significantly by reduced demand. Now the FS has a quota on the number of trips the operators can make to specific areas so that if demand were to increase they may not be able to meet the demand. The ability of packers to influence their clients is extremely limited due to the economics of their operation. The wages of the employee who leads the stock generally is not minimum wage. Like restaurant servers they are dependent upon tips. You aren't going to tell the tipper to clean up or spend much time cleaning up when you have a long way to go before getting back to the packstation and your clients are in a hurry to get out.
5. Horse poop--If you complain about horse poop do you realize how urbanized and sanitized your life has become. A hundred years ago horse poop was a fact of urban life. We have become so separate from our rural roots that when away from the city we expect the same conditions. Lets go back 110 years ago to the sierra. Not only were there horses but thousands of head of sheep and cattle grazing, A single Sierra Club outing was supported by more horses than I have seen in the backcoutry in the last 10 years. I've compared photos taken in the Roaring River Country in 1940 with photos I took in the 80s. Conditions are much better.
6. Tradional skills--I admire packers who can pack and lead a string of 4 or 5 mules and keep an eye on another 4-6 dudes. Packing the stock and tacking a loose shoe on the trail are skills that should not be lost.
7. Still want to avoid or minimize signs of equine presence? Get off the trail! Go more than 10 miles from a trailhead. Figure out places with little stock use. In yosemite, for example there is little stock use on trails other than those that connect the High Sierra Camps.
Happy Hiking and Riding
Mike
1. Trail damage--There is no doubt that stock can wear out trails more rapidly than people traffic. A lot of the problem is poor trail location and sometimes construction. When I was a backcountry ranger I tried to get early season restrictions on stock travel in order to prevent stock from turning wet sections trail into a quagmire. Sometimes all it would take is preventing stock from using certain trails for a few weeks and the problem wouldn't occur.
2. Trash--yep the potential for people with stock to leave a lot more trash than backpackers. But the shear number of backpackers means that, as a ranger I did more picking up after backpackers than horse people. You couldn't believe the amount of stuff I found miles from the closest a horse could get.
3. Stock management- It really is possible to reduce the impacts of stock near campsites if they are properly managed. I always tried to set a good example by unloading my stock, checking them out and turning them loose (a viable option in most of the Roaring River Country due to drift fences). If turning loose meant too many miles the next morning a high line would would be used over the least sensitive site I could find--out of camp. A pet peeve I had with a lot of private stock users is that they would have a fire going all day. On moving days I would get my stuff packed up, find the stock bring them next to camp then load them up and get out of dodge.
4. Commercial Packers--Most operations don't make a lot of money. And there is much less stock use than 50 years ago. Between Fish Camp on highway 41 and Clover Meadow s. of Yosemite there used to be 5 pack stations now there is 1. The number of operators on the E. Side has been reduced significantly by reduced demand. Now the FS has a quota on the number of trips the operators can make to specific areas so that if demand were to increase they may not be able to meet the demand. The ability of packers to influence their clients is extremely limited due to the economics of their operation. The wages of the employee who leads the stock generally is not minimum wage. Like restaurant servers they are dependent upon tips. You aren't going to tell the tipper to clean up or spend much time cleaning up when you have a long way to go before getting back to the packstation and your clients are in a hurry to get out.
5. Horse poop--If you complain about horse poop do you realize how urbanized and sanitized your life has become. A hundred years ago horse poop was a fact of urban life. We have become so separate from our rural roots that when away from the city we expect the same conditions. Lets go back 110 years ago to the sierra. Not only were there horses but thousands of head of sheep and cattle grazing, A single Sierra Club outing was supported by more horses than I have seen in the backcoutry in the last 10 years. I've compared photos taken in the Roaring River Country in 1940 with photos I took in the 80s. Conditions are much better.
6. Tradional skills--I admire packers who can pack and lead a string of 4 or 5 mules and keep an eye on another 4-6 dudes. Packing the stock and tacking a loose shoe on the trail are skills that should not be lost.
7. Still want to avoid or minimize signs of equine presence? Get off the trail! Go more than 10 miles from a trailhead. Figure out places with little stock use. In yosemite, for example there is little stock use on trails other than those that connect the High Sierra Camps.
Happy Hiking and Riding
Mike