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Post by dparrott on Mar 2, 2008 20:48:04 GMT -5
rode Bartram today and noticed a number of circular holes in the tread in a few places. At first I thought someone might have been digging some holes but I realized they were the diameter of a horse hoof. Anyone seen any horses on Bartram. BTW, they are expressly barred from this trail.
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Post by brianW on Mar 2, 2008 20:54:57 GMT -5
I have noticed these holes also. However I do not believe they are from horses since I have never seen hoove prints left by horses. I noticed them a few weeks back for the first time (about 4 of them) and have no clue on what caused these.
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Post by JIMMYC on Mar 3, 2008 8:49:53 GMT -5
I noticed them too, I'm not completely convenced those were hoof prints (I've been wrong before), there were not alot of them and they were spaced really far apart, plus i didn't see any horse "scat".
jimmy
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Post by dparrott on Mar 3, 2008 20:02:46 GMT -5
I don't know, either but I know for a fact that shortly after opening Bartram Trail going through Wildwood a few years ago that horses got on it and made very similar impressions. I only saw them at widely spaced intervals and where the tread was soft.
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Post by bgredjeep on Mar 3, 2008 21:39:29 GMT -5
Looked like a small animal dug them to me. Some of them seem a bit deep to be a hoof print IMO.
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Post by Angela on Mar 8, 2008 21:35:33 GMT -5
We saw them too and I at first though hooves as well simply because that is exactly the kind of hole that is created if a horse steps down and the ground sinks beneath their hoof. The wide spacing and lack of manure also made me think otherwise but it would be rare that an animal digging would dig a hole straight down like that since if done for habitat would quickly fill with water and it doesn't have the "edge" marks that a digging animal would normally make. A mystery!
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Post by ted on Mar 9, 2008 6:36:15 GMT -5
Has anyone ever seen what happens when a small tree is cut at it's base (let's say small pines or oaks cut out of the way for a trail) and the stump is left to rot (say for a few years)?
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Post by Angela on Mar 9, 2008 9:01:56 GMT -5
Absolutely my father bought a farm when he retired and it leaves a nice round hole, however you can see what is left of the residual wood down there and if the tree was cut off right at ground level you can still see the remainder of the tree until that happens.
But even if you cut all five trees off in different parts of the forest at exactly the same time it is highly unlikely that the final collapse of those stumps would occur at the same time (slightly different sizes, different soil and moisture content, etc).
When riding the trail and seeing those holes there is a sameness to them as if someone had a very small hoof-sized posthole digger and did the initial marking before starting the real hole (we used to drop the posthole digger down straight and then move around to the other side and do the same thing again and then move on to mark where those posts were going to be put in.
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Post by brianW on Mar 9, 2008 15:37:26 GMT -5
I thought originally of someone removing a softball, or slightly larger, rock from the trail but dismissed it. Mainly for the simple fact of the unlikely hood of only similiar size rocks and the holes being so uniformed. Maybe these are appearing on other trails across America like how weird designs show up over night in fields in England.
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Post by Angela on Mar 9, 2008 23:49:46 GMT -5
We did a night ride on that trail the night of the lunar eclipse - sure don't want to be thinking about odd mysteries when we are out there riding in the woods at night. Was scary enough the night the coon hunters where out entertaining their dogs on that trail with their flashlights and the dogs baying loudly chasing the raccoons!
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Post by babs4243 on Mar 10, 2008 20:11:16 GMT -5
IF the holes were made with any type of post hole diggers/shovels - there would be some excess dirt laying around and you could tell it was a 'fresh' dug hole. Those holes are natural made. A tree has probably rotted out and the rain has uncovered it. There could also be some type of underground flow of water that help caused the wash out. If there had been horses you would have seen other foot prints not to mention dung left by them. We ride Bartram a lot. Those holes are 100% nature.
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