horse packing | The Filson Journal

Amy David: Backcountry Skier

Lianna Spooner: preserving traditions & the environment

There’s been a revival in the art of “packing” in recent years. Homesteaders Lianna Spooner and her partner Chris Eyer spend part of their year working with the U.S. Forest Service and nonprofits specializing in wilderness maintenance. This non-mechanized mode of transport helps preserve the land when carrying resources or personnel. We reached out to writer & photographer Sara Forrest to document a first-hand experience from the field.

5 Min

Profiles

James Reeves: The Mule Packer

“When I walk into any pack station or ranch, I know from the get-go that I’m probably not going to look like anyone else who works there. But anyone who wants to work all day with mules is a little different anyway, and at the end of the day, all anyone cares about is if you can do the job. If you can, then no one cares how you look.”

3 Min

How-To's

How to Pack a Mule with a Diamond Hitch & What to Bring

“May your loads ride straight” is the universal blessing packers give one another when leaving the pack station or meeting on a high mountain trail. Taking time when assembling the gear to be packed in panniers, slings, or boxes is the critical first step to ensuring the loads ride straight and to prevent possible shifting that could cause a wreck.

5 Min

woman leading a line of pack mules up the side of a mountain toward distant mountain peaks

Profiles

McGee Creek Pack Station: Sierra Nevada, California

Jen spent her teenage years doing everything she could to be at the pack station as long as possible during the season. She would figure out what schoolwork needed to get done, complete it early, and get to the pack station by late May and stay well into November until the first snow finally drove both her and the pack stock out of the wilderness. Susie not only shaped Jen’s life, but the lives of the other young women who would not have been hired as packers by other outfits. These traditional outfits would only hire women to cook or do day rides. Male owners of the eastern Sierra outfits dubbed the McGee Creek packers ‘Packerettes.’ A title worn with pride by the McGee Creek crew.

5 Min