[pct-l] horses and LNT

[Brick Robbins <brick@fastpack.com>]

At 08:49 AM 1/7/99 +0100, Svein Eriksen wrote:
>I'm certainly not against LNT, but wouldn't it be more efficient use of
>time to try to get the horses away from the PCT?
>
>Seems to me that even if all thru-hikers behaved "bad" they still
>wouldn't do as much damage as a single group with horses (with people).

I'm not against horse use along the PCT, just horse OVERUSE. Commercial
pack outfits have the authority to write themselves unlimited wilderness
permits, while us hikers have to deal with quotas.

One day last summer, the trailhead at Hilton Lakes had 125 people, and 175
horses enter the wilderness on ONE trailhead using permits from the pack
outfit there. The quota for hikers is 20/day.

It is not the horses that are the problem, it is the NUMBER of horses. If
300 people went in on one day, I'd object too......

All IMHO of course.
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