[pct-l] Dogs in National Parks/horses/mules/llamas

[Hillary Schwirtlich]

I think "offensive" is a relative term. I don't really care what's in it,
whether it's horse poo or dog poo or people poo. It's offensive to me to
have to wade through poo on the trail - or worse, kick it aside in the only
good campsite around. (The only exception to this is wild animal scat).

Basically, I just think it would be fair to expect all users to pick up
after their animals on the trail, regardless of size.

Horses that pull carriages in towns have a bag behind them to catch the
waste. Can't trail riders do that too? Then, even if they don't bury it,
which would be time-consuming and probably cause more damage than good,
they can at least deposit it off-trail or something.

Seahorse

On Thu, Dec 15, 2011 at 1:29 PM, Charles Williams <charlesnolie at yahoo.com>wrote:

> Horse and mule poop looses it's offensiveness in a day or two.  It is just
> grasses, grains, or legumes and the remnants after it has dried are not
> very offensive.  Dog and human poo on the other hand...very bad!  They
> never become "inert" and will allways disgust.
>
> For the record... a horse is suppossed to crap every two hours on
> average.  That assumes a regular ration of appropriate feeds or grazing.
> And all the nutrients are taken from the feed without breaking down the
> structure of it beyond what the teeth do to it.  All of the breaking down
> of the fibers happens in the mouth, complements of the teeth.  Again,
> oppossed to human or dog poop which is a more thouroughly process food.
> And this too, I'd just asoon that horses did less damage to the trail
> too.  Some people think that horsemen, by virtue of the fact that they ride
> and lead horses and mules, care less about our wildlands than hikers do.
> Nothing could be further than the truth.  When I dream of a brighter
> future, it includes owning a string of mules that I do nothing with other
> than support PCTA volunteers on wilderness trail crew projects.  For now,
> though, that's financialy impossible so I do my own volunteer projects with
> a cross-cut saw for the PCTA with a horse and borrowed mules.
> --- On *Thu, 12/15/11, Hillary Schwirtlich <hillary.schwirtlich at gmail.com>
> * wrote:
>
>
> From: Hillary Schwirtlich <hillary.schwirtlich at gmail.com>
> Subject: Re: [pct-l] Dogs in National Parks/horses/mules/llamas
> To: "Charles Doersch" <charles.doersch at gmail.com>
> Cc: "Mark Utzman" <blackbelthiker at gmail.com>, "pct-l at backcountry.net" <
> pct-l at backcountry.net>
> Date: Thursday, December 15, 2011, 12:06 PM
>
>
> I don't know for sure which does the most damage, but I do know that I hate
> hiking on trails used heavily by horses more than on trails used by
> anything else (although I love horses and think they're beautiful!). Maybe
> that's because I have spent a bit of time hiking in the NW and they do
> cause a bit of damage there, especially when it's raining (which is often).
> They churn up mud, and yeah, although it's holes and not ditches they
> leave, they still loosen the soil enough to move it downstream when it does
> rain, causing erosion. They also kick out check steps and water bars
> (mostly ones that are old and breaking down or not fortified properly).
>
> But mostly it's because THEY POOP EVERYWHERE. And nobody ever picks it
>
>