[Backcountry Blake]

This is kind of a touchy subject with me and I should probably just leave it alone...but I'm not going to. I can't stand seeing stock animals out on the trails. They smell bad, they make a mess, they attract flies, and they destroy the trails. Aside from maintainence purposes, they have no place on trails. Experiencing the gorgeous backcountry here in the northwest is a privelage, and if you are too lazy to get there under your own power you don't deserve to be there. I think busting your ass to get to a lake or peak gives you a lot more respect and appreciation for it anyway. Besides, how much crap could you possibly own that would require a horse to carry it all????

[jenjen]

So, why are you on posted stock trails if the critters bother you so much? The majority of wilderness trails are not open for stock and all national park trails (except for the PCT) are completely closed to stock.

[Backcountry Blake]

That wasn't supposed to be a personal attack against you. I'm sure that if more people packed with goats it wouldn't be such a big deal. Its mainly the horses that bother me. I think it is kind of ridiculous that totally capable people are so lazy that they have to ride a horse. I know that you have a knee problem and you only use the goats to carry some of your gear, but you still put in the effort to hike so that is totally cool with me.

[Dogpatch]

I'd like to put in a small plea for tolerance. Sure hearing a lot of the opposite around here lately. Maybe there's room out there for all of us? Obviously, those of us with peculiar habits (goats, dogs, four-wheelers, guns, you name it) need to practice a high degree of responsibility. Hope to meet you and the goats on the trail sometime, Jen.

[Snowshoe Hare]

Man some people do need to learn tolerance. Riding a horse is for lazy people, oh man you gotta be joking. Jenjen is right, don't complain when hiking on one of the few public trails that allow stock use. Booooooo!

[Tazz]

All of those people ride horses because they love to ride not cause they are lazy. We love to hike they love to ride. Pack trips on horses has been around for 100s of years. A good majority of the trails we hike today where made for horses and mules for exploration, hunting, and mining. That is why there are switchbacks. Go to the east coast no horses or switchbacks. I don't like poo on the trail either but I just step over it and move on.

[Malachai Constant]

All of those people drove slaves did it because it was the best way to grow rice then cotton not because they were lazy. We love to hike they love to ride. Slavery was around for 100s of years. A good majority of the trails roads we now drive on and goods we use we hike today where made by slaves or horses and mules for exploration, hunting, and mining. Just because something is historic does not mean it is good or desireable.

[Tazz]

[jenjen]

I know that wasn't a personal attack against me, Blake. For one thing, I don't have a horse. Your post did rub me the wrong way, though. One thing to think about (and I realize this ties in with another thread)... the more you restrict the access to wilderness areas, the more advocacy for wilderness designation will evaporate. Narrow down the access to the point that only people willing to walk three days can get in and experience it and slowly you loose the people for whom wilderness really means something.

[Backcountry Blake]

Looks like my post really stirred up some emotions. I hope I didn't make any enemies. I think I'll revert back to being a nice guy from now on.

[Tazz]

no worry BB just pointing out the other side

[Dogpatch]

[WTCrocker]

Pack stock on trails isn't the problem, it's pack stock in camp that can (I repeat 'can') rile me. When the best or the the only suitable campsite is littered with feces and flies and exposed tree roots, I just wanna shoot somebody. I feel the same in the front country when encounering massive fire rings filled with blobs of melted glass and alluminum.

[jenjen]

[Quark]

Backcountry Horsemen and other horse groups are a successful lobby group for public lands. If you barr them, hikers would suffer as well, because many of their concerns are the same a those of hikers, whose lobby efforts and attendance at public hearings has traditionally been dismal.