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

[Charles Williams]

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