[at-l] Goats on the AT....

[Jim Bullard]

I'm not Leslie but here are my thoughts about goats and hiking:

As I hike various trails I find scat perched on rocks in the trail on a
regular basis. Pine martin scat, deer scat, rabbit scat, even bear scat,
scat that I don't recognize. I'm not sure why they "do it in the road". A
comment on what they think of hikers perhaps?

My older sister used to keep goats. I'm not into farm animals myself but her
goats were very personable and, relative to other animals, their pen was
rather neat. They didn't seem to tear it up any worse than other animals. It
was far better than the barnyard where the cows gathered or for that matter
the chickens who were fond of diggin at the ground. I also see tracks of
animals on the trail, hoofed animals like deer included. The major damage to
the trail surface seems to be from hikers not animals. Although the animals
clearly use the trails, when they depart the trail it is very difficult to
follow their track off trail. It is only easy to find where we hikers have
already killed the vegetation with our hiking boots and made mud holes. The
deer tracks show up well there, not because their hooves tore up the trail
but because the trail was already torn up.

Do I want goats on the trail (any trail)? I never gave it much thought
before. In the ADKs, where I do most of my hiking, llamas are sometimes used
(legally). I meet dogs regularly in the woods with and without packs. I
don't object to meeting animals. I do object to poor behavior not only by
animals but hikers as well and frankly I've had far more unpleasant hiker
encounters than animal encounters. As for poop, I can step over it whether
it is from a wild animal or a domestic one. I have been annoyed by finding
human poop exposed on the ground in camping areas where a privy was
available.

If the ATC or the Park Service feels they need to ban goats, they make the
rules so it is their call but I think it really should have been on the
website. Apparently (since he knew goats weren't listed) this guy had
checked the website before setting out so I would not call him a complainer
over having his trip unexpectedly interuppted by a rule he wasn't aware of.
I don't like having curves thrown at me either. If his misadventure has led
to the site being moe specific that is a good thing. We don't know if he
'gives back' to trails by being a maintainer or some other way nor do we
know if he votes or how so I won't be calling him names based on what I do
that I assume he doesn't. There is a saying about the word assume. I wonder
though, if someone took their pet goat hiking with them (yes, some people do
have pet goats, sheep, pigs, you name it) and the goat *wasn't* carrying a
pack, would it still be a "pack animal"?

-- 
Jim Bullard
http://jims-ramblings.blogspot.com/
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