Loving the outdoors may bring you to it by a neighborhood walk or a drive to a local park. More and more, you will discover trails are available for all of us to use at the same time. These multi-use trails allow hikers, runners, cyclists, snowshoers and horseback riders to be on a trail to enjoy the outdoors.
Need an app listing trails in your area or wondering what trails to visit while in a new area? Check out the All Trails app and you’ll discover there are many places to be outdoors. Go ahead and have some fun!
Of course there are also great drawback to multi-use trails. Hiking in the Sierras on a trail with horses is generally not very pleasant. I don’t mind that they have the right of way (why?), but I do mind vast amount of horse manure. Why don’t riders have to clean up after themselves? It is possible to have “clean” horses. A second major problem with horses is the rapid deterioration of the trail — horses are heavy, their hooves are hard and that chews up any trail.
As you can tell, I have a rather negative view of horses on the trail. Simply because they have been on trails in the 19th century doesn’t really justify having heavy horse traffic in the 21st.
I understand exactly what you said, and it brings to my mind 2 thoughts: I dislike dog waste worse than horse manure and there are times I actually hike an equestrian trail to get away from rude mountain bikers, runners and dog walkers. Often I find myself assessing each trail I plan to be on as either a hiker or cyclist before I go to it. Best are the trails with a gravel trail parallel to a paved trail as that splits some of the concern, especially the trail deterioration as you mentioned.