[pct-l] horses

[shon mcganty]

I'm so happy with the holiday season and my wonderful memories of the PCT, but thinking about the encounters I've had with horsemen and their effect on my wilderness exeriences will always get me down.
 
Perhaps the horsemen on this list can correct any mis-information I have, and comments are welcome, but my general experience with horse riders has been largely negative.
 
First, in my home state of Washington I'd guess the majority of horsemen are out there to hunt, or set up camps for the upcoming hunting season.  Only a few are out there in the same manner as a hiker, that is the enjoy the wilderness as it is.  Horsemen, in my admittedly limited view, get out in the wood and try to change it to suit their needs and/or make it more like home.
 
This includes building large small house-sized tarp camps, cutting down live trees to make structures and firewood, hauling up iron grills to place over fires and leave them there, bring beer and carelessly discard them in the woods.
 
I've had several times were I was treated bad by horsemen.  Almost broke out in a fight once.  I've gotten bad attitudes from them, and yes it feel like I'm looked down upon.  Once I over heard one talk about backpackers as the enemy, we are what's wrong with the west, I recall him saying.  I'm making a guess that it's due to the lack of freedom they have in congress-designated wildernesses, where there are rules limiting group size, use of mechanized machines, ect.  They seem to look at backbackers has "liberals," with our desire for protection of the land and life being following by rules (from using life bait like frogs, limiting the number of fish/game caught, or type of fish, or amound of land where trees can be harvested).
 
Then there are times where a trail skirts the edge or goes through a meadow, and there are two or three sets of trail ruts.  If anyone knows the answer as to if hikers play or role I'd love to know, but it's always worse in areas frequented, not by hikers, but by horses.  The worst I've seen is six or seven parralel ruts, creating a 15 foot wide cut in the earth like a three-lane jeep road, which looks horrible.  The two worse examples were in Yosemite's valleys (crowed with both hikers and pack trains) and the central Pasayten Wilderness (remote area not heavily used by hikers but used lots by horsemen).  I'm just guessing it's not the hikers making those (please correct me if I'm wrong here), but horses.  I know most hikers (I'll admit I do it sometimes) with skirt a wet trail to keep those feet dry, but why do horses do it?  I'm assuming there's a risk of a turned ankle because horses can't see under the water.  If that's the case, would the
 horse be less likely to hurt an ankle if the horse lost 150+ lbs (ie. the rider got off)?
 
I try to limit my frustration by saying the horsemen played a large role in creating these trails, and maintaining them, but I wonder about the accuracy of this sometimes.
 
Cheers,
 
Shon