PHOTOS: The U.S. Forest Service, Klamath National Forest (USFS) utilized mules to bring supplies to fire crews at the Shelly Fire on Monday. John Sprik, an animal packer of the NFS says this isn't his first rodeo, shared that he worked on the Deep Fire, utilizing the mules to remove equipment where helicopters couldn't touch down.
Sprik says that a string is considered 5 animals, which includes a rider, the packer, and the helper. He says any more mules per rider can make things difficult to handle, so it is a general rule for animal packers to have 5 mules per string. This is due to safety for the mules and the packer, they say they try to keep the weight limit on the mules between 150 and 180 pounds, allowing for around 1,000 pounds of gear per string.