By: Alex Day, WNPF Marketing/Communications & Database Director
Olympic National Park covers more than 922,000 acres, 95% of which are Congressionally designated wilderness. The park is also home to over 600 miles of trails and 64 trailheads – and those trails don’t just take care of themselves!
You might be wondering: how does the park carry in all of the heavy equipment needed to maintain backcountry trails so they’re safe for hikers if machines and vehicles aren’t an option in wilderness areas? Well hold your horses – you’re about to find out.
Mules are hybrid equines – a cross between a male donkey and a female horse – with remarkable strength, agility, and endurance, making them ideal for navigating challenging paths and transporting gear, supplies, and maintaining the park’s extensive trail system.
These powerful animals have a rich history in supporting national park trail maintenance, dating back to the early 20th century. Initially employed by the Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression, mules proved instrumental in building and maintaining trails across rugged terrains, carrying construction materials, and facilitating the development of park infrastructure.
In Olympic National Park, the sight of these amiable creatures laden with equipment adds to the ambiance of the wilderness, harkening back to a time when mules played a vital role in frontier exploration. They’re also uniquely adept at handling the narrow, steep trails in the Olympics.
“They’ve got a mind that keeps them safe in the mountains,” explains Heidi Brill, lead packer for Olympic National Park’s stock team. “It’s more of a self-preservationist attitude. If they see something that looks dangerous or unstable, they’ll respond to protect themselves in those areas.” This sense of independence makes the role of a packer that much more vital. Says Heidi, “I think it requires a lot more trust between the human and the mule then the trust that’s required between a horse and a human.”
Heidi is responsible for leading the park’s wilderness stock operations and overseeing the park’s team of 29 mules, along with fellow packers Hans, Kirah, Robert, and Bianca. A big part of Heidi’s job is getting to know each animal’s unique personality and strengths. “About 75% of our job is just knowing the characters in the team, and who gets along with who and can go where in the string,” she laughs.
The park’s mules range in age from five to 25 years old and weigh about 1,000 pounds on average. Generally, mules can carry about 20% of their body weight, so many of these mules can comfortably carry up to 200 pounds of gear in pack boxes secured to their backs. When a new mule joins the team, “we stick them next to good mentor mules,” says Heidi. “Temperament is important because they are diplomats for the park.”
The mules are housed at their corral in the Elwha River valley during their working season, which runs from April through October, and then they head out to their winter pasture in sunny Sequim for a five-month break in the winter. But really, the mules’ favorite times are those spent out on the job.
I think they really like going out on trips. They eat huckleberries. See new things. Meet new people. For most of these guys, you walk out there with a halter and they’re fighting for whose nose goes in it first. They’re that eager!”
And it’s not just trail work that these hard workers are contributing to – they support virtually all backcountry projects in the park, from carrying out steel I-beams and concrete to rebuild bridges to equipment for the parks’ scientists and biologists and search and rescue teams. At Olympic, the mule team has even carried out injured hikers and supported a NASA research project, hauling millions of dollars’ worth of equipment to a weather station in Enchanted Valley.
For the stock team, these mules are family members and they put a lot of thought into naming new members as they join the team. In recent years, Heidi and her team have named new mules after significant historical people and places in and around the Olympic peninsula.
Donk, a smaller white mule, is named after John Huelsdonk, the “Iron Man of the Hoh.” Huelsdonk and his wife Dora were the first settlers on the Hoh River in the late 1890s and the Olympic Peninsula’s most famous pioneers. Donk the mule is “just about as sweet as they come,” says packer Hans Flockoi.
Donk and three other mules – Herbie (named after Herbert Crisler, a wildlife photographer in the 1930s who famously filmed the footage released as the 1952 Disney nature film “The Olympic Elk”), Charlie (named for Boston Charlie, the last medicine man of the Klallam People), and Minnie (named for famous packer Minnie Peterson) – are the newest additions to the team, thanks to generous WNPF donors Mike and Sue Raney who provided the park with funding to purchase new mules needed for trail projects.
Each month, the park chooses one of their mules to highlight as the “Mule of the Month.” This nearly decade-long Instagram series allows the public to get to know the mules and learn about each individual mule’s distinct personality and talents, while educating visitors on how trail maintenance in the backcountry is made possible.
“It’s fun for people to be able to see them and recognize them by name, too,” says Hans. “We’ve had people come out and say, ‘oh, where’s the mule of the month?’”
You can learn more about Minnie in the August spotlight:
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Often when they’re on a trip, the mule team will have wide loads on while traveling down narrow trails, so safety is a key consideration for the team – both for the mules and for the visitors they encounter. If you’re lucky enough to encounter the mules while on a trail in the park, says Heidi, the best thing you can do is “step back off the trail and make space – and always follow the instructions that their humans are giving.”
With nearly 2.5 million visitors every year, the trail system at Olympic National Park endures a lot of wear and tear. Fortunately, the mighty mules are up to the task, whether it’s hauling in shingles for backcountry ranger station roof repair or, on occasion, carrying out an injured hiker. So if you love to hike in the park, thank a mule – they probably made the trail work possible that keeps your favorite trail pristine.
Washington’s National Park Fund is the official philanthropic partner to Mount Rainier, North Cascades, and Olympic National Parks. We are proud to support trail maintenance in Olympic National Park, including providing funding to add new mules to the team – special thanks to generous WNPF donors Mike and Sue Raney for making this impactful grant possible! You can support park projects like trail work at wnpf.org/donate.
All photos by Alex Day.