I was out hiking. Just got back from a 15 mile day so I’m tired.
Will post some pictures later. Here’s a teaser:
Saw a cool waterfall, some great ocean vistas, a couple of nice peaceful lakes, and lots of nice flowers. Unfortunately going early in the season like this means you see not only lots of nice flowers, but the brush has grown up over the trails and you get to crash through lots of weeds (remember, in California there is a rainy season — “winter” — and a dry season, and the native brush grows in the rainy season). Of course I knew this, which is why I was wearing long pants and a long-sleeve shirt. Still: Stinging nettles. A non-native, but they came here with the cattle, they were spread by cattle and are all over the place. One got me on the leg thru my pants, one got me on my little finger. These buggers *sting*.
Oh yeah, my gripe. Human beings evolved in a damp place. We have large feet, compared to our weight, to be able to walk across soft ground without sinking into it. Horses, on the other hand, evolved on dry high plains. Their feet are fairly small compared to their weight to be able to dig into the hard turf and get traction on it. So what happens when you put horses onto soft trails? The horse hits the soft spot and churns it into mud, that’s what. And furthermore, because horses don’t like mud (they’re plains critters, duh), when horses see a churned mudhole they’ll bypass it to the left or right… and churn *that* into mud. Remember, this was just soft ground until the horses came through, soft ground that us humans could walk across with no problem. So I’m pushing through brush on a single-track trail, and suddenly there’s this *bog* that’s five feet wide churned to the viscosity of motor oil by horse hooves!
So here’s the deal, horse people: Pick a line through the soft spot, and stick to it, so us humans can bypass the churned mud to its left or right. If you can’t do that, turn around and go home. I’m not kidding. Doing the shit you’re doing is going to get *all* horses banned from this park because this is a democracy and in a democracy the majority rules and the majority doesn’t have horses and if horses turn into a nuisance in the parks, the majority will simply ban them from the parks. Is that what you want? If so, yer doin’ it right (wrong)!
– Badtux the Hiking Penguin
Where you live, horse people are also wealthy. They are too lazy to actually walk themselves ! Or give a shit about inconveniencing a lowly hiker don’t you know.
Alas, Tux, Spud is right. Our local parks are probably held together by money from supporters that ride their horses through them.
p.s. watch out for poison oak.
Geocat, this was a Federal park, not a local park. And frankly, I’ve had much less of an issue with horses down at Coe State Park (the local park that’s popular with the horsey set). Perhaps the fact that they *are* paying money to keep up the park themselves (otherwise it’d be closed) has something to do with it. When you’re paying the upkeep, perhaps you’re less likely to trash it?
Spud, yep, describes Marin County to a tee. The county’s unofficial motto is, “I got mine, and fuck you.” Just ask George Lucas.
- Badtux the Not-quite-as-tired-now Penguin
Oh, yeah, Geocat, the poison oak was another reason I was wearing the long pants and long sleeve shirt.
Is there some reason you won’t say WHICH federal park you were in?
BTW, you might try Big Basin State Park. You can walk all the way to the ocean.
D, mostly because it’s not relevant.
And yes, I’ve done Big Basin, perhaps you thought I was mentioning Berry Creek Falls when I mentioned falls. That’s a nice little day hike, hike out Sunset Trail, hike down to the observation platform at the base of the falls (*very* scrambly trail where you’re holding on to cables in many places), eat lunch, hike out Skyline to Sea. But that’s only a 10 mile trip from HQ. Though I once did the hike from the sea up to Berry Creek Falls, I think that one is more like 12 miles round trip, mostly easy along the old creek road until the last little bit. Maybe 15 miles if I’d hiked to the top of the falls, but that’s something I don’t recommend doing unless you’re *really* good at scrambling, because it’s steep uphill all the way and very wet and slick, I remember falling on my behind a couple times going downhill (still hanging onto the cable so I didn’t tumble to the bottom, of course), going uphill I would have fallen on my face, much less well padded.