If you ever hike around White Pass in the North Cascades, you know the horses are bad there. It takes all of my powers to ignore them, but that’s not good enough for the horse people. They shout out orders for me to talk to their horses and get out of the way. They take away the sweet smells of lupine and conifers and make the world smell like horse shit and piss. I hate them.
One year, another hiker and I were walking down a narrow section of trail with a cliff on one side and a hillside on the other, when we came to two women riding horses.
The women were all dressed up in English riding clothes—the little hat, goofy pants, whip–the whole package.
We step off of the trail to let them pass, but one of the equestrians shouts out, “Trail regulations require you to move to the low side of the trail.”
I said, “I don’t go to low side of the trail because it’s a cliff and if your horse spooks it will knock me off the cliff.”
She kept repeating, “Trail regulations require you to move to the low side of the trail.”
The other hiker said, “So what are you going to do, arrest us? Look, we will climb up the side of the hill and sit down. Then you can pass.”
The equestrian said, “No, because if they even see a leaf rattle they will spook.â€?
Irritated, I said, “If your horses are that easily spooked, you have no business bringing them out on the trail.”
The other hiker and I, climbed up the side of the hill, sat down, and started talking to each other. The equestrians stood their ground and blocked the trail.
After about 10 minutes, the women dismount their horses and walk them past us. While they walked them past us one of the woman pleaded, “Please, say something!” The other hiker said something but I wouldn’t say anything to them.
Whoever came up with those “trail rules” was a moron. Common sense dictates going to the uphill side of the trail so when the stupid beast has its fit, it rolls down the hill and only injures the rider. Heck, I was taught that bit of hiker trail wisdom in boy scouts.
Every time I see horses coming up the trail, I automatically climb the uphill side of the trail a few yards. Most of the time, the horse riders thank me for courteously getting out of the way. Last thing I want is to be crushed by one of those things.
good call. while the majority of equestrians are cool, the ones on the trail i ride that feel it’s my duty to behave in a manner that will make up for their poor control over their animals bother me. it’s your responsibility. you don’t hear bikers telling them or hikers, “hey, you’d better get off the trail because who knows if i’m going to lose control and run right into you.”
Don’t go hiking in Europe, especially the Pyrenees, if you hate horses, because they are everywhere. They raise them for the meat mostly, which is a delicacy in France. I’ve never seen anyone actually riding a horse in the mountains there. The thing that bothers me about horses in France is that they tend to chew on tents/tarps, ruining them. I guess they are looking for salt, even though the ranchers put salt blocks out for them. And they are not at all timid like the other livestock (cows, sheep, goats). All I have to do is yell at a cow (or even a bull) getting too close and the thing runs off bellowing in terror. But the horses there don’t spook very easily, even though they are being raised for slaughter, so I don’t know what is wrong with these American horses. I once had to pack up my tent in a hurry because a whole crowd of horses had smelled my bread (I think) and were surrounding me and moving in. I suppose the ranchers would have just smacked them on the head with a stick or rock but I don’t know for sure and I didn’t want some rancher coming after me for abusing his animals. The donkeys are even less shy and they’ll even chew up your clothes if you don’t watch.
And yes, the pyrenees and alps both stink of cow/horse shit and piss. If you spend much time there, you’ll have to get used to sleeping with your head a few inches from a big pile of cow manure or else you’ll severely reduce your choice of level campsites.
P.S. This web site and especially the comments section are really slow. Also, the comments is really finicky about that security code. Either that or I am getting blind and can’t read it properly. Just thought I’d let you know since this may not be obvious to you.
jb: Yeah, we’re in the process of upgrading the server that this website is served from. Things will be getting better in about a month.
Thanks for the feedback on the security code. I’ve been thinking about changing it to a different one, and this cements it.
Also, to be on topic, I too dislike the equestrians on the trail. When I was hiking with Crow last August, we were getting our water from a pristine mountain creek, and some people on horseback led their horses into the water upstream. We were _drinking_ from that. So gross.
Here’s my take:
http://www.simblissity.net/liberty.htm