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Back to the Moon!

Today is the 50th anniversary of mankind’s first landing on the Moon. We celebrate the men and women of the United States , and truly of all nations, who worked to make the event happen, and who celebrate it’s reality. We all look forward to “peace for all mankind”.

Did any other story of the future written by Robert Heinlein look to the future with such a clear gaze. The character, D.D. Harriman in the 1940 science fiction story, The Man Who Sold the Moon, faces the reality that comes to all visionaries. What’s on the moon and how do you get people to buy it. At the very start of the story Mr. Harriman’s partner says to him, “… and don’t give me any guff about tourist trade and fabulous lunar jewels. I’ve had it.”

Today and this week and this year the moon is being sold; and its being bought. Again this is by visionaries. But are they right.? Is there profit to made on the moon? Can whatever resources that lie on its surface or buried in the moon’s crust and its interior be found and recovered for use?

This is the question that some forward thinkers are trying to answer.

The Washington Post’s lead article in the Business section on 17 February, 2019, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, explores the current activities of nations and individuals/corporations who are sending landers to the Moon to start scratching the surface to determine if there are “lunar jewels” that can easily be picked up.

First what are these jewels? First of all there is the question of whether there is water on the moon. This is followed by questions related to the value and usability of minerals and compounds that may be found on the moon and put to use in industry. What are they? Where are they? Can they be mined (picked up even) and processed? Will they need to be brought back to earth for processing or can that be done on the moon, in situ? And is there a profit in it?

We don’t know the answer to these questions yet. That’s why nations and corporations are sinking hundreds and thousands of millions of dollars into making a soft landing on the moon and roving around and finding out the answers to our questions. And at this time we aren’t even talking about getting people, men and women, back onto the lunar surface.

Last year China succeeded in a soft landing of Chang’e 4 on the far side of the moon. Their rover is currently “asleep” as the sun is on the near-side of the moon and the far-side is in truth the dark-side. When the sun returns to the far-side of the moon, the rover, Yutu, will continue its mission of investigating the Moon’s magnetic filed, and analysis of the surface dust as well as a seismometer to study the interior of the moon.

Israel Space Industries (ISI) with their partners attempted to make a soft landing with their Beersheet mission, but their lander failed and crashed into the moon’s surface in April.. The lander mission was to study the Moon’s magnetic field. Initially they said they would try again. But ISI and its partners have said they will not make a second attempt – just yet. I can only imagine that they will make another attempt. There are not only riches at stake, but a good bit of national pride.

India is next up with their Chandrayaan-2 mission. The Indian Space Research Organization (ISRO) mission has an orbiter, and a lander with a rover. The launch is scheduled for Monday, 22 July. The elements of the mission include the orbiter which will survey the surface of the Moon and the rover which will study the surface material as well as the make-up of the moon to a depth of 10 meters and beyond.

The U.S. has long range plans for landing men and women back on the moon. Russia also has this as a goal. However, we are likely ten years away from either to make a serious attempt. Both nations intend to send unmanned missions to the lunar surface before then.

Mr. Davenport in his Washington Post article, “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot”, comments “… the moon is drawing investors and explorers the way the promise of the American West once did.” A great deal of the effort on the moon will focus on the Moon’s south polar region where it is thought that there may be the possibility of extracting weather from the minerals of the Moon.

That would truly be a “Lunar Jewel”!

Articles reviewed for this post include:

“The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019, print edition; by Christian Davenport

Israel Today, 19 February 2019, “Israeli spacecraft scheduled for liftoff on Friday”, February 19, 2019: https://www.israeltoday.co.il/read/israel-to-the-moon/

New York Times, India’s Shooting for the Moon, and the Country Is Pumped; https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/14/world/asia/india-moon-landing.html

Chemistry World 15 July 2019, What is the moon made of?, by Mike Sutton, https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/what-is-the-moon-made-of/3010686.article

Art work based on “The Moon is Suddenly White Hot” in the Washington Post ,February 17, 2019 and Robert Heinlein’s book, The Man Who sold the Moon, Signet Edition, 1951.

UPDate – Chang’e-4 slumbers

Its night time on the far side of the moon. On 11 July the China National Space Administration (CNSA) announced it had sent commands to its Chang’e-4 probe on the far side of the moon to go into its dormant state. The lander and the rover will both ‘sleep’ through the 14 day lunar night before they are sent commands to wake up and continue the mission. The lander and rover require sunlight to charge their electrical systems and so can only operate during the moon’s daytime. For the moon to completely rotate on its axis and the sunlight to return, takes approximately 29 days. The nighttime, when there is no sun, and the daytime, when the sun’s light reaches the surface of the far side of the moon, are both approximately 14.5 days. The progress of the lunar days across the surface of the moon can be easily seen from Earth in the changes phases of the moon.

However, as explained in the CNSA 11 July report, “As a result of the tidal locking effect [between the Earth and the Moon], the moon’s revolution cycle is the same as its rotation cycle, and the same side always faces Earth.”

This synchronicity has historically caused the far-side of the moon to remain unseen and a mystery (1). That is until the early days of humanity’s first tentative steps into space. In October 1959 a lunar probe, Luna 3, launched by the Soviet Union, sent back pictures of the far side of the moon. The first humans to see the far side of the moon were the American astronauts in Apollo 8 as they orbited the moon (10 times) in December 1968.

There is still a great deal to discover about the moon, both on the far side and on the side that faces the earth. The return of the sun, and the return of the Chang’e-4 probe to its mission, may enable further discoveries and help humanity to heighten the potential of humanity’s return to the moon – and to go beyond.

The pictures at the top include (upper) a picture from the current Chinese mission on the moon, and two pictures (lower) from Apollo 8.

The link to the Change-4 mission: http://www.cnsa.gov.cn/english/n6465719/c6806820/content.html

Apollo 8 mission: https://solarsystem.nasa.gov/missions/apollo-8/in-depth/

(1) Lil Wayne’s song “Dark Side of the Moon” – with Nicki Minaj – speaks to the mystery of the far side of the moon. – “On the dark side of the moon
I’ll be waiting, I’ll be waiting for you
On the dark side of the moon
And If you happen to get there before me
Leave a message in the dust just for me
If I don’t see it I’ll be waiting for you
On the dark side of the moon (yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah)” (Lyrics copied from https://www.azlyrics.com/lyrics/lilwayne/darksideofthemoon.html .)

UPDate – Mars Mole– Sol 213

The Mole is stuck, but there may not be anything touching it.

NASA and its partner Germany’s DLR are still trying to figure if they can get the inSight Mole unstuck. According to an article published by NASA on 5 July, the team now believes that the Mole has created a cavity so that there is no soil surrounding it. The Mole needs interaction (touching) the Martian soil in order to move forward/downwards. Without the surrounding soil the Mole cannot penetrate further.

The problematic void may be like a cavity formed under a “bridge” similar to a bridge/arch that can form in bulk carrier cargo vessels. Due to normal vibration during the voyage or in the unloading process, a bridge or an arch of the material being transported/unloaded can form across the material. The bridge/arch will not allow the material above it to fall into the cavity created by the unloading process. The bridge/arch may have been formed by the Mole in the Martian soil due to the vibration of the mole mechanism. These vibrations may have caused the material below the bridge/arch to collapse. The bridge/arch does not allow the Martian soil which the Mole has already penetrated to collapse into the cavity. If the material were able to collapse into the cavity perhaps the Mole could progress to is mission depth.

The pictures in this article show that NASA has moved the Mole mechanism from above the mole hole. The hole is indicated by the yellow arrow. The placement of the feet of the mechanism are shown by orange semi-circles. The tether that provides energy to the Mole and which allows data transmission up to the lander is shown by the curved green line. NASA will have to ensure that when it places the mechanism back over the hole that the tether is not crimped or broken.

In my original post on the inSight lander (4/4/2019 – Mars inSight H-P cubed) I asked whether it would be possible to remove the Mole and start at another location. The answer is no; the Mole cannot be extracted. There is no way to extract the Mole and then reload it into its mechanism so it could start again. And even if it did, would it only form another cavity and be in a similar situation?

Links to two articles on bridging are given below. The key to preventing bridging in earth-bound hoppers is control of material flow based on its cohesion and friction on the sides of the container. On Mars, well, it’s different. In the case were a bridge/arch forms, it is generally necessary to shock/vibrate the material so it will start to flow. In the case of the Mole, a shock might allow bridge arch to collapse filling the cavity with soil and the Mole may be able to move forward again.

Right now, according to current thinking, the Mole is probably dangling in this cavity. It needs material around it to move. Maybe if there was a nine-pound hammer on the lander it could give the area close to the hole a good whack. But that is not the case.

We all hope that the NASA/DLR team will be able to develop a means for the mole to move forward again.

The source information and the pictures for this article may be found at https://phys.org/news/2019-07-nasa-insight-mole.html .

Articles on bridging in hoppers on earth:

Long Range F.O.X.

Who is up for a nice long walk? How about a trek across 2,000 plus miles of frozen ice north of the Arctic Circle?

A young, female Artic Fox was ready for it, and so off she went. She walked (or picturing a fox, she trotted) from Norway’s Svalbard archipelago (well west of Norway in the Arctic Ocean.) to Ellesmere Island well to the east of mainland Canada. She had previously been fitted with a radio collar by the Norwegian Polar Institute and was tracked as she covered the 2,175 miles. The straight-line distance between the two points is 935 miles. So, it is evident that the fox wandered a bit on her path. Her path took her across the frozen Arctic Ocean and across, or if she stayed on the frozen sea ice (which I doubt) near to, the northern end of Greenland. According to The Guardian article in which I first read about the fox, she took 76 days to make the trek. That gives an average distance of 29 miles per day. The article also stated that she walked an astonishing 96 miles on one of those days. Why the burst of speed? Maybe she saw what she was following and wanted to get closer. Perhaps something was following her, and she wanted to get away.

What could have been the reason for such a walk? Its reason enough for me just to see what’s on the other side of the distant hills. But a walk of this distance is much, much further than I have ever walked. At one time I had entertained the idea of walking across the United States, but for numerous reasons that did not happen. However, I generally walk between 600 and 800 miles in a year. That may be no great distance compared to hikers and walkers of a higher order. But for me, each mile and each hour spent outside enjoying whatever weather the day grants me, is a delight. The enjoyment can be multiplied by the animals and other people I might meet on the trail.

Which reminds me of a verse from a great hiking song – The Happy Wanderer, or “I love to go a-wandering”.

“I wave my hat to all I meet
  And They wave back to me
     And blackbirds call so loud and sweet
        From ev’ry green wood tree”.

I wonder what the little fox met along her track. Were there other foxes? Perhaps she saw a polar bear, and perhaps the bear’s attention was why she put in the 96 mile day. Did she see a narwhale rising at its breathing hole, first its pike piercing the air and then its rounded form lifting high out of the water. Or perhaps she heard the singing of the Beluga whale.

When the fox started her trek in March 2018, her fur may have still been pure white. She blended in well with the ice and snow all around her. When she arrived in Ellesmere Island in July she was likely covered in her summer coat of brown. The Artic Fox changes color throughout the year in order to match the seasonal landscape of her environment. In Winter, she is white. In Summer, she is brown to dark brown to black. And in-between her fur is changing and has a grizzled appearance. This in-between “morph” is called Blue. So, often the Artic Fox is called the Blue Fox. Wikipedia has good article, titled Artic Fox. It describes her well, and has excellent pictures of the fox in its habitat and in its different colorations.

The little vixen’s trek across the Arctic Ocean was doubtlessly a grueling journey. I hope she found what she was looking for.

The Wikipedia article may be found at, https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arctic_fox .

The full lyrics for The Happy Wanderer may be found at, https://www.oldielyrics.com/lyrics/frank_weir/the_happy_wanderer.html .

The map in the art work is from Google Earth. The dotted line between the starting point and the arrival point on Ellesmere Island indicates a supposed path in order to show the distance the fox trotted. The picture of the fox is taken from The Guardian, https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/technology/fantastic-arctic-fox-animal-walks-3500km-from-norway-to-canada/ar-AADJfsy?li=BBnbfcL&ocid=spartandhp .

At’ta boy, Boaty

First of all – it’s good to be back. I apologize for the lengthy dry spell in my blogs, but it could not be helped (see blog post “Sorry-but there was an accident”, 6/29). I am glad to be back. And I am very glad that you are back reading my articles. I hope that my recovery will soon allow me to get back out to experience the joy of long hikes in the woods.

Recently, there have been numerous articles regrading Boaty McBoatface, and I want to salute the vessel, the drone, the scientists, and the findings.

First the vessel. You may remember in 2016 there was a public request by a British government bureau, the British Natural Environment Research Council (NERC), to submit names for a new scientific vessel. The vessel was a 425 foot (129 meter), $300 million ocean-going ice breaker and research vessel dedicated to the study of the oceans of the Antarctic regions.

I need to mention the importance of the protein provided by the oceans to the world’s population. According to the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), in 2014 “ten percent of the world’s population depends on fisheries for their livelihoods, and 4.3 billion people are reliant on fish for 15 percent of their animal protein intake.” [1] The oceans are an important resource and must be studied and protected.

The name for the vessel that the majority of people, those who visited the NERC website, recommended was Boaty McBoatface. I believe the world agreed it was a very funny, but a rather silly, name for a vessel of its size and importance.

The vessel, due to its expense and significance, was eventually named Royal Research Ship (RRS) David Attenborough after the famed broadcaster and natural historian. This name had also scored highly on the NERC website. But what then to do with that great and popular name of Boaty? The scientific community decided to use the name for a new and important drone vehicle. The new drone was planned for exploration of the oceans and specifically to collect data related to the temperature regions/levels of the ocean water surrounding Antarctica.

The new Boaty McBoatface submersible, is a research drone which can be launched and recovered from a larger research vessel. The submersible drone is a Autosub Long Range (ALR). Boaty McBoatface is the first of its class and is designated ALR-1. According to the NERC, the ALR submersibles can be at sea for weeks to months. This length of time and data gathering capability is far longer than research drones that are currently utilized by the NERC. Other autonomous vehicles of the Boaty class are planned for development, construction, and use for research of the Southern Ocean and perhaps others of the world’s seven seas.

ALR Boaty McBoatface, has been in the news recently for its data collection during its first scientific voyage. The data provides information regarding the effect of increasingly stronger winds on the rise of ocean surface water temperatures. This is one of the many feed-back loops related to global warming. According to an article published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Science (PNAS) [2], ALR-1 (Boaty), traveled 112 miles on its first voyage. Its path took it through high walled underwater valleys of the Orkney Passage in the depths of the Southern Ocean near Antarctica. The vessel measured temperature, salinity (saltiness), as well as the turbulence at different depths.

The findings of Boaty’s maiden voyage reveal how increasingly stronger winds on the surface of the Southern Ocean create turbulence deep under the surface. This turbulence results in a mixing of the warm water at the middle levels with the colder waters from the depths of the Southern Ocean. This mixing causes the temperature of the waters in the lower level to warm and move upward through the water column. This can be a significant factor in rising sea levels. As the warmer water raises the overall ocean temperature, the water tends to expand due to the warming and thus causes the sea level to rise. If the deep-water warming contributes to a warming of the ocean’s surface waters this may increase the rate of evaporation from the surface into the atmosphere which can contribute to more rain and snow inland and greater strength to ocean storms.

According to the PNAS article, the significance of the findings of this previously undocumented mixing mechanism of the overturning circulation in the Southern Ocean is a better understanding that the deep-ocean waters are rapidly laundered through intensified near-boundary turbulence and boundary–interior exchange. As the conditions triggering this mechanism are common to other branches of the overturning circulation, the findings highlight a requirement for representing the newly-understood circulation in computer models of the overturning in the Southern Ocean and its effect of rising ocean water temperatures.

Congratulations to Boaty and the entire research team.

The artwork for this blog post is based on Figure 2 of the PNAS article (graph (D) showing the potential vorticity in red and blue and the neutral density of the deep water shown by the black contour lines). The image of the ALR-1 is taken from the internet.

[1] http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/248479/icode/, Oceans crucial for our climate, food and nutrition

[2] Rapid mixing and exchange of deep-ocean waters in an abyssal boundary current, PNAS first published June 18, 2019 https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1904087116

Sorry – but there was an accident.

I have been away for a while, and I apologize for the lapse. However, I was in a car accident. As a result of my injuries, I have not been able to prepare articles for my blog. But now I’m back, and I am looking forward to writing and sharing posts on science and on being out of doors.

My recovery is progressing well, and I am often outside walking in the neighborhood or sitting in my yard enjoying the birds and the breezes.

Thank you for returning to Stonefig and checking for new articles. I intend to post a new article in the next day or so, and hopefully will be posting two or three articles a week as I had done before.

Enjoy being outside. And enjoy reading on the current trends in science.

Be careful on the road. I am fortunate and thankful that my town has excellent paramedics who were able to respond quickly and for the policeman who was first on the scene and performed life-saving CPR.

First Ever @ M87

There were people sitting on chairs on a stage. They were all introduced, including Dr. Shep Doeleman, the Director of the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) project. There was applause, and then there was silence as everyone in the room sat up to listen closely and to see the picture they all hoped to see. The presentation was succinct, but everyone whether in the room or watching remotely from their offices or homes was waiting for the anticipated announcement. These included scientists, post-docs, students, managers, politician, reporters, and other interested people watching and listening. These other interested people were called the “black-hole enthusiasts”. The work was described, including the development of a Very Long Baseline Interferometer the size of the earth with multiple sites at locations around the globe. Not all of the sites were able to view the target location at the same time, but this supported obtaining good data since as the world turned other sites/telescopes were able to view the target location in space. High levels of collaborative processes were required for the EHT team to be successful.

The target was in galaxy M87, also known as Virgo-Alpha. It is the largest galaxy in the Virgo cluster. At the heart of the galaxy is a super-massive black hole. The international team was seeking to “image”, to create a picture, of the event horizon of the black hole in M87.

The room was quiet. Dr. Doeleman turned toward the screen and pressed the button on his control. For a moment there was total silence followed by the soft clicks of cameras in the room. Then applause. It did not carry on for wave after wave, but it was solid and positive and excited. The applause stopped as everyone in the room leaned forward to see the image. Everyone quieted down as if there were a sound to be heard. Every ear strained; every eye refused to blink.

The image on the screen clearly showed the edge of the event horizon inside of which not even light can escape. Dr. Doeleman stressed that it was the work of numerous nations, their agencies, and their early-career and senior scientists that made possible the development of the pictures. The pictures were created from more than 5-petabytes of information. It was the hard work of all these people that enabled the image seen today to be extracted from the mass of data.

Enthusiasts at home leaned closer to their computer screen and rose on the edge of their chairs. The room was full of virtual attendees who wanted to be part of this announcement of what is truly scientific history.

The picture showed (“north” being up in the picture) a glowing mass of light, the swirl of particles around the heart of galaxy M87 before they cascade across the event horizon into the darkness. The colors in the maelstrom indicated the speed of photon emissions from the accretion flow toward the event horizon. There was a distinct rise in color as the relative speed of the light flowing towards the observing telescopes in 1-mm wavelength increased on the south edge of the ring. And there in the center, the darkness of no light escaping, the back hole. And between the two the crisp edge of the event horizon.

The first-of-its-kind image and the science and math behind it and the cooperation behind it all, leads us to a transformation of our understanding of black holes.

Congratulations to the entire team and all those who supported and continue to support them.

The image of the black hole is based on the image provided by the NSF-EHT. The map of Virgo is based on a map provided by IAU and Sky and Telescope.

The announcement and press briefing can be viewed at https://www.nsf.gov/news/special_reports/blackholes/ .

Mars InSight H-P cubed

Tap. Tap. Tap.

Then – no further.

One of the dedicated science instruments on the Mars InSight lander has had to pause during its deployment. The instrument is officially known as the Heat Flow and Physical Properties Probe, which according to the Launch Press Kit is abbreviated HP3 (pronounced “H-P cubed”). Its mission is to take the temperature of Mars. It will determine the amount of heat that is escaping from the interior of the planet. Knowing this heat flow will help us better understand the evolution of the Martian interior – and the rate at which Mar’s internal core energy is diminishing.

The instrument includes a probe that is being hammered into the Martian soil to a depth between ten and sixteen feet (3 – 5 meters). But the probe, which is called the “Mole” by NASA, has met significant resistance at a much shallower depth. NASA is trying to determine if the resistance is coming from a rock or a gravel layer. Then they will need to decide how best to get beyond the obstacle. Can it be penetrated, or will another method be necessary?

As a gardener, or I should say as the shovel-man for a gardener, I know what it is to hit a resistive object while digging a hole. For me the resistance is often a stone of small to moderate size or perhaps a root of a nearby tree. Sometimes I can remove the impediment, but sometimes I must shift the location of the hole. Removing the impediment is not an option on Mars. There is no gardener on Mars that can kneel and sweep out the rubble with their gloved hand. *

The Mole is about 16 inches long and approximately an inch in circumference. The exterior of the Mole is aluminum. It is attached to a flexible tether that carries information to the instrument package that is attached to the deck of the lander. The hammer that provides the driving force is built into the Mole. There is no outside hammer at the surface level to drive the Mole into the soil. This means that there is no device, like the claw on the back of a hammer, that can extract the Mole so it can be placed in a different location.

Going back to my gardening efforts, I have often driven spikes for mats or pegs for garden borders into the ground. I have also driven steel rods to a depth or 18 to 24 inches to support a structure or a wall. In these cases, if I hit a rock or a root that I cannot penetrate I may be able to slightly reorient the item and try to slide past the obstacle. But that may not to be an option for the Mole on Mars. For clarity, I will have to ask NASA.

The Mole’s internal hammer was designed to enable the tip of the Mole to penetrate objects up to a certain hardness. This can be understood from the description of the operation in the mission Launch Press Kit which describes the process. The information in these documents states that it is expected that the hammer will be dropped between 5,000 and 20,000 times to penetrate the soil to its planned depth. The number of hammer blows required depends on the density and hardness of the soil matrix.

Currently the Mole has met an object of significant hardness. The hammer not only has to overcome the hardness of the material it has to penetrate, but it also has to overcome the friction of the sides of the Mole as it is driven through the obstacle plus the added friction of the flexible tether as it is dragged down the Mole’s hole.

NASA will determine the best course of action to allow the Mole to penetrate beyond its current depth. On March 21, the NASA Mission page stated that many ideas are being considered to free the Mole from the obstacle, and that the ideas will require “at least several more weeks of careful analysis.”

Stay tuned. Perhaps we will be able to slide past the obstacle and reach the appropriate depth.

Information for this article is taken form the NASA Mars InSight Launch Press Kit. The documents may be found at https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/news/press_kits/insight/ .

Picture based on NASA map in Launch Press Kit.

*I always wear gloves because there can be glass from an old bottle or a rusted nail dropped during construction.

Three Haiku

Blushing red cardinal

In flight through the cherry tree.

Pink petals falling.

Pink swirl of blossoms.

Petals fallen in the dust,

Are now wind-lifted.

Life above the wind.

Three days of blossoming glory,

Snow melts on the ground.

Doggie, Doggie

Not everything outside is pleasant. Some of the unpleasant things are just nature’s way, like mosquitoes, angry wasps, and poison ivy. These can be often be avoided by an informed hiker who watches where they step and is careful in what they do.

But some unpleasantness on the trail is – well – caused by our fellow hikers.

It’s all about sharing the trail.

Today it often seems that sharing the trail is not just with fellow hikers but with their dogs as well.

Don’t get me wrong, I like dogs. I have lived with several at different times. They were a wonderful addition to my life, and I miss them. They were a delight. And I hope when they met other people at home, or on the trail, or at the beach, or in the neighborhood that they (and I ) were courteous to my neighbors and to their dogs and other pets.

Today however there seem to be more dogs than ever. You see them with their owners in stores (including food stores which I think in most areas is against local ordnances), you see them in restaurants, and in the neighborhoods. Thankfully, the days of letting dogs run loose is far behind us. Most often when I see a dog it is on a leash as most should be when out in public. The leash enables better control and can keep the dog safe.

In order to be courteous, the first of the two major things for a dog and owner is to know where they are allowed and where they are not allowed. If you are not sure, ask. Ask the store manager if you can bring your dog inside. Ask the restaurant owner if you can have your dog with you at the table. And read the signs in public parks.

The second major thing is to make sure your dog is trained in how to act around other people and their pets. This is huge! No one wants a dog to jump on them – even in a friendly manner. No one wants their dog to be attacked or otherwise intimidated by another dog. And dogs like to be trained. It gives them a sense of pride. And its not hard. It takes a certain level of commitment by the owner to ensure their dog knows not to pull on the lease, and knows how to sit and stay, and how to be quiet.

In my walks and hikes I have seen extremely bad examples of dogs with absolutely no training who are basically wild and often aggressive. And I have often seen dogs that are exceptionally well trained and basically are at peace with their surroundings. In these later cases the dog, and the owner, and I are all glad to share the trail.

One last thing, and this is totally to the owners. Sure, you dog has to “go”. We all get that. And thank you to the vast percentage of folks who clean up after their dogs. But after you have cleaned it up – PLEASE take it with you. Most National Parks no longer have trash receptacles. You are expected to take your waste with you when you go. And this includes those little plastic bags of dog waste. No one is going to come behind you and pick it up. Please put it in your car and take it home and dispose of it there. No one wants to have to start a nice walk in the woods with the sight of waste bags all around the trail head.

Pick it up. Pack it out. Share the trail.