Forum Index > Trail Talk > Mules take a hike
 Reply to topic
Previous :: Next Topic
Author Message
RodF
Member
Member


Joined: 01 Sep 2007
Posts: 2593 | TRs | Pics
Location: Sequim WA
RodF
Member
PostSat Dec 23, 2017 7:13 pm 
Olympic National Park's pack mules escaped from their winter pasture near Sequim yesterday. 28 mules took an 8-mile hike on county roads and city streets for an hour before being rounded up. Link to local newspaper story. They must've had cabin fever! Olympic National Park has 4 packers leading mule pack trains in support of maintenance of its 600 miles of wilderness trails. Trail crews typically work 10 day shifts at sites 10 to 20 miles from the trailheads. Pack mules carry the tools, materials, food and camp gear to support their work in all weather. Each mule can pack about 125 pounds of gear about 10 miles and return in a day. (That's the equivalent of what 4 workers could pack if taken off trail work to act as sherpas. So mules double the amount of trail work they can accomplish.) At the peak of the work season, over a hundred seasonal and volunteer trail workers are at work on a dozen trails across the park. Except for a brief failed attempt to replace pack mules with human sherpas and helicopters in the 1970s, mules have been used in Olympic for trail construction and maintenance since the first O'Neil expedition of 1875 and throughout Olympic National Forest's and Park's history. The Park's mule packing operations are based at the Elwha mule barn, located at the junction of Olympic Hot Springs and Whiskey Bend Roads. The road is currently closed by recent flooding as discussed here. If the road can't be made usable for stock trailers next spring, trail maintenance throughout the Park will be affected. Mules are moved to winter pasture near Sequim from October through April.

"of all the paths you take in life, make sure a few of them are dirt" - John Muir "the wild is not the opposite of cultivated. It is the opposite of the captivated” - Vandana Shiva
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks



Joined: 13 Feb 2007
Posts: 7216 | TRs | Pics
Location: Stuck in the middle
puzzlr
Mid Fork Rocks
PostSat Dec 23, 2017 11:02 pm 
Interesting story and background

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kat
Turtle Hiker



Joined: 05 Oct 2003
Posts: 2560 | TRs | Pics
Kat
Turtle Hiker
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 5:11 am 
That's a lot of mules to escape at one time! Must have been quite the sight.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Gregory
Member
Member


Joined: 08 Mar 2014
Posts: 386 | TRs | Pics
Gregory
Member
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 7:37 am 
They do not know how the mules got out as there were no fences pushed over?

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Seventy2002
Member
Member


Joined: 19 Jul 2008
Posts: 512 | TRs | Pics
Seventy2002
Member
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 11:48 am 
Gregory wrote:
They do not know how the mules got out as there were no fences pushed over?

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Chico
Member
Member


Joined: 30 Nov 2012
Posts: 2500 | TRs | Pics
Location: Lacey
Chico
Member
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 12:52 pm 
You got it Seventy2002! That or someone let them out and put the rails back up or closed the gate!

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
AlpineRose
Member
Member


Joined: 08 May 2012
Posts: 1953 | TRs | Pics
AlpineRose
Member
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 4:47 pm 
Horses have the natural ability to jump. I'm guessing mules do too.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Chico
Member
Member


Joined: 30 Nov 2012
Posts: 2500 | TRs | Pics
Location: Lacey
Chico
Member
PostSun Dec 24, 2017 9:05 pm 
Mules have the ability to do a standing jump hence the image. Horses need a running start.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!



Joined: 25 Dec 2006
Posts: 11272 | TRs | Pics
Location: Don't move here
treeswarper
Alleged Sockpuppet!
PostMon Dec 25, 2017 6:24 am 
Chico wrote:
Mules have the ability to do a standing jump hence the image. Horses need a running start.
I was looking that up. It looks to be a competition at various mule days celebration and is called coon jumping. There also are mules entered in show jumping and one is apparently competing to be on the national dressage team. If you want to read about mules, this book about following the Oregon Trail is a good one. It is called The Oregon Trail and the author is Rinker Buck. There's a lot of mulology in the book.

What's especially fun about sock puppets is that you can make each one unique and individual, so that they each have special characters. And they don't have to be human––animals and aliens are great possibilities
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
DigitalJanitor
Dirt hippie



Joined: 20 May 2012
Posts: 792 | TRs | Pics
DigitalJanitor
Dirt hippie
PostTue Dec 26, 2017 10:58 am 
Mules jump like deer! I worked with a lot of horses growing up, then got a chance to break out an Arab mule for a friend near Easton years ago. It was a very interesting and educational project as it was sorta like training a #1,000 dog in terms of brain power. Waaaaay more going on upstairs than your average horse, and sometimes they're a little more opaque about their opinions until the last minute. They're also very clever about how they move their body around through obstacles. The power of these animals seems like more than what you'd get out of a similar sized horse, and I say that having rode a couple horses that came off the track. A mistreated horse is a potential hazard, but a mistreated mule... I don't even wanna think about it. They seem like they develop very strong bonds to individual people with time, but they don't just immediately trust whoever shows up and acts like they're in charge.

~Mom jeans on wheels
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Chico
Member
Member


Joined: 30 Nov 2012
Posts: 2500 | TRs | Pics
Location: Lacey
Chico
Member
PostTue Dec 26, 2017 12:24 pm 
DigitalJanitor wrote:
Mules jump like deer!
I've seen deer hop over an 8 foot game fence but they run along side it, bounding and poof, over they go.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Snowdog
Member
Member


Joined: 21 Jul 2006
Posts: 1027 | TRs | Pics
Location: on (& off) the beaten path
Snowdog
Member
PostWed Dec 27, 2017 11:43 am 
This is so funny! 28 mules out hikin' around. Wish I'd seen it. love this observation too:
DigitalJanitor wrote:
It was a very interesting and educational project as it was sorta like training a #1,000 dog in terms of brain power. Waaaaay more going on upstairs than your average horse, and sometimes they're a little more opaque about their opinions until the last minute.

'we don't have time for a shortcut'
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
ale_capone
Member
Member


Joined: 22 Sep 2009
Posts: 717 | TRs | Pics
ale_capone
Member
PostWed Dec 27, 2017 1:40 pm 
Had to you tube it. I had no idea mules could jump like that! Cool. Now I want one. You think a mule would wear snow shoes? A few winters ago I had a dream I heard horses. Went outside and found hoove prints all over some exposed areas of lawn. Power outage/ electric gate failure. Local herd escaped from sky valley ranch. Wish I had woke up.

Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
Kascadia
Member
Member


Joined: 03 Feb 2014
Posts: 648 | TRs | Pics
Kascadia
Member
PostWed Dec 27, 2017 6:23 pm 
treeswarper wrote:
one is apparently competing to be on the national dressage team
Competing at the USDF finals is not competing to be on the Olympic team. Dressage training consists of defined "levels" and the top competititors from each region at each level compete at the USDF finals. But only horses at the very highest levels (Int II and particularly, Grand Prix) are competing to be on the Olympic team. It is a very, very long way from training level to Grand Prix. It is very cool, though, that people are doing this type of work with mules.

It is as though I had read a divine text, written into the world itself, not with letters but rather with essential objects, saying: Man, stretch thy reason hither, so thou mayest comprehend these things. Johannes Kepler
Back to top Reply to topic Reply with quote Send private message
   All times are GMT - 8 Hours
 Reply to topic
Forum Index > Trail Talk > Mules take a hike
  Happy Birthday speyguy, Bandanabraids!
Jump to:   
Search this topic:

You cannot post new topics in this forum
You cannot reply to topics in this forum
You cannot edit your posts in this forum
You cannot delete your posts in this forum
You cannot vote in polls in this forum