"On the Trail" with pack mules and the U.S. Forest Service

We may think of mules as homely and rather ornery critters, but as participants in the latest Black Hills National (BHNF) Forest Moon Walk found out last weekend, they’re valuable assets for workers on high mountain trails and other remote locations.  And that includes the U.S. Forest Service.

About 60 folks showed up at the BHNF Tepee Work Center about 26 miles west of Custer for the August Moon Walk Saturday night (8/13/11), and a bit of enlightenment provided by Forest Service packer Glenn Ryan, who travels the western national forests using his mules to accomplish back country work.

Ryan’s been doing the work for some 21 years and shows no signs of cutting back on his wilderness adventures.  And, of course, mules have been reliable pack animals for a long time.  We've posted a couple of videos (right panel) illustrating their use during the Spanish-American War in Cuba.

Moon Walk coordinator Amy Ballard welcomed walkers to the well-groomed Tepee Work Center grounds by announcing that there would be no hike this month, since some of the archaeologists scheduled to be a part of the program had to rush off on another more important task:  working the Coal Canyon fire some 15-20 miles to the south.  That blaze, in the rugged range and canyon area northwest of Edgemont, claimed the life of one firefighter while consuming nearly 5,000 acres of grass and timber in the southern Black Hills.  The fire is now (8/17/11) nearly fully contained.

Ranger Dave Pickford

Ranger Dave Pickford, who works out of the Hell Canyon ranger office at Custer set the stage for this Moon Walk, providing a bit of Black Hills National Forest history, reaching back to 1892 when the forest “reserve” was created.  Eight years later, the first sale of timber from a U.S. national forest took place near Nemo, South Dakota, when Homestake Mining Company was expanding its operation.  In a sign of the times, Homestake paid a modest rate of 75 cents per thousand board feet. Today, according to Pickford, the market will fetch about $10.00 per thousand board feet!

In 1901, Deadwood resident Seth Bullock was tapped by President Theodore Roosevelt to serve as the first “supervisor” of U.S. forest lands.  In those early years, two national forests were created in this area:  the Black Hills National Forest was in the northern Black Hills and was headquartered in Deadwood; Harney National Forest encompassed the southern Black Hills with its headquarters in Custer.  By 1954, the two forests were merged into a single Black Hills National Forest.

Just as modern transportation has transformed the landscape of education with the consolidation and closure of rural schools, it also led to the reduction of ranger district offices in the Black Hills from 20 to just four.  They're located in Custer (Hell Canyon District), Rapid City (Mystic District), Northern Hills (Spearfish), and Bear Lodge District (Sundance, Wyoming).

The site of this Moon Walk, the Tepee Work Center, was constructed in 1936-37 by the Civilian Conservation Corps, which created a lot of the infrastructure on public lands across the country – and certainly within the Black Hills.  The four structures built on this site are still in use.  Pickford said that, as with all CCC projects, three principles were followed:  (1) use non-intrusive designs that blend with the environment; (2) use pioneer/frontier construction techniques; and (3) use native/traditional styles and materials. 

City kid Glenn Ryan has found a career "on the
trail" with mules and the U.S. Forest Service.

Our “keynote” speaker for this Moon Walk seemed an unlikely person to end up as a packer.  Glenn Ryan grew up not far from the teeming masses of Manhattan in New York.  The day after earning his Associates degree in Natural Resources from Columbia College in California, he went to work for the U.S. Forest Service.   According to his wife, Ryan had a few “sabbaticals” along the way, working as a cowboy, a stint with Hewlett Packard, and even some truck driving.

But his work with the Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the National Park Service, has been the most gratifying – allowing him to be a packer.

Ryan shared a brief bit of historical insight into working for the Forest Service.

“In 1905, the Forest Service “let” folks provide their own tables, chairs, their own houses, wood stoves, and even their own riding stock and pack stock.  The salary for a ranger was $75 a month.  If you paid more than $75 to feed your stock, you could submit a claim for repayment.”

He recounted that he had never read anywhere that those early foresters actually got paid for what they submitted.

While “packing” with the Forest Service still involves long hours – and “some use of our own tack and stock,” Ryan clearly enjoys what he’s doing.  In fact, earlier this year, during the Big Wyoming Horse Expo in Douglas, he taught a session on how you go about training a mule to be a pack animal -- sort of a Pack Mules 101 course.

“And we do get a bit more than $75 a month these days!”

“The mule is a cross between a donkey and a horse,” said Ryan, noting that the mule results from a jack donkey and a female horse.

“They’re stronger.  Their muscles are more dense, and they can consume poorer quality vegetation than horses – and their digestive system is slower.”

Ryan was quick to observe that while people say the mule is stubborn, “they’re not stubborn, they’re more intelligent!”

The Rocky Mountain Regional Specialty Packstring led by Ryan does work mostly in South Dakota, Wyoming, Colorado, Kansas and Nebraska.  And while they conduct training and frequently represent the Forest Service at events like Cheyenne Frontier Days, parades and other events, most of their time is dedicated to work projects across the region.

“Tomorrow, we’ll be off to the Big Horn mountains to remove a bunch of old bridges.”  It’s an on-going task over the past few years.  They’ve hauled out 150 mule loads of garbage, and about 215 tons of soil.  It’s the kind of work for which you’d expect a packer to use a strong and sure-footed mule.

“Mules usually carry about 60 to 80 pound loads per side, but they can carry up to 240 pounds,” said Ryan.  “They carry a lot of fence posts.”

Ryan demonstrated how to tie the mules together in a train using a series of half-hitches, stressing that it’s important not to tie pack mules together hard and fast, because “you can kill them that way.”  If they go over an edge, they’ll take another one with them.

And the most dangerous thing on the trail?

Bees.

Moon Walkers took a respite this month and
enjoyed a program all about pack mules.

Bee swarms can cause real havoc and – according to Ryan – are the most dangerous thing you can encounter.  This observation from a packer who’s encountered lots of critters on the trail, including mountain lions.

Ryan acknowledged that mules can be a bit testy if they don’t know what’s going on.  The absence of ligaments in their hind legs gives them flexibility to unleash lethal kicks sideways as well as to the rear.

“When mules have packs on, they can’t see what’s behind them.  So when linking them together in a string, I always approach them cautiously and call their names and talk to them.”

He has admittedly grown fond of his mules over the years, and he has special monikers for them, usually choosing the name of someone with whom he has worked.  There’s Rory, and Becky, and… well, several others.

When one of the Moon Walkers asked Ryan if he had a favorite among his mules, his wife Alice quickly retorted, “Yup, he has nine of them!” 

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Note:  You'll find additional photos and information in our Moon Walk Gallery.