I went on a 3 day hiking trip in the Weminuche Wilderness, part of the San Juan National Forest. Specifically, we did a lollipop loop in the Three Forks Trail System with a short stint along the Continental Divide Trail.

It was an amazing trip and the scenery was gorgeous, EXCEPT FOR ALL THE COWS!!

There were cow patties EVERYWHERE. The cattle's hooves messed up the trails really bad. Fortunately my brother's water filter came with a drop bottle of chlorine otherwise I would be worried about cow poo in the water sources too. Man... it kinda sucked.

And I did not expect that at all. I had no idea livestock were allowed to range on our national forests.

Our first day, we drove all day to the trail head and then set up camp real close to the trail head. When we found a good site, I saw all the cow patties and I was really puzzled. I didn't know what to think, like, where did they come from? There's no cows allowed here right?? My brother insisted we stay put. We caught some trout and fried them up and right after I ate the last bite, I looked up the hill and there's this friggin cow just staring at me! Then I saw a few more. We started a fire to get them to go away but they didn't mind the smoke I guess. There was 2 juveniles, 3 adults and one bull with big horns.

This may sound silly to some, but we were actually really freaked out by the cows. I have no experience with cattle, except for watching youtube videos of dumb kids getting chased by cows, probably as a result of "cow tipping" attempts. But there was this one cow that would not stop staring at us. And it kept getting closer and closer. We were freaking out big time lol, but we decided we had to get out of there. We frantically packed up all our gear and got out of there as soon a possible and found a new site to camp right after the sun set. Rather stressful way to start a backpacking trip.

As soon as we got to Blue Lake the cows were well behind us, no cows along the CDT trail either, but once got on the Middle Fork trail the cows were back and we had to contend with them all the way back to the trail head. I think on the way back I remember chatting with another hiker and he said the rancher had around 300 head of cattle. Quite a lot.

Anyone else have a similar experience?

COWS ARE EVIL!! Do not eat beef. You cannot call yourself an environmentalist and eat meat. From this day on (ok, maybe tomorrow), I'm going vegetarian. Ok I'm not giving up fish or cheese but I will be happy to never eat a hamberger for the rest of my days. It's a COWSPIRACY! lol, but seriously... http://www.cowspiracy.com/facts/ ... cows are evil.