The worst time of the year

This is the worst time of the year for me

The weather has stormed in and the forecast for the next couple of weeks seem to confirm what I dreaded. It is a wet fall and I am unlikely to be able to get out again this year.

It is time to put away the panniers and equipment.

It is time to check all the equipment and relive past trips instead of making more memories.

I need to remember to check all the saddles and panniers for possible needed cleaning and repairs.

I need to put all the food up so it gets used instead of getting stale and being thrown away.

I need to arrange my packing companions in various fields for the winter.

My one big consolation is we have a wood lot that needs firewood to be retrieved from some of our canyon trails. That is as near to packing in the late fall and winter as we can get.

For those in the Four Corners area you probably have several weeks of packing yet. Lucky guys. If I could just figure out how to get some time off and head for Grand Gulch. . . .

conditioning llamas and handlers

Conditioning handlers is pretty obvious a need.

We are well aware that we need to get into condition before we go out into our chosen wilderness. We are well aware that the winter and, for some of us, the softness of our life-style has left us unprepared for the more rigorous life on the trail. A few of us keep in great condition all winter. A few of us. Some of us have a half-hearted workout schedule. Fortuantely for me and my wife, we have had a timber lot behind our house that we purchased a couple of years ago. It was never thinned by the previous owner (a timber company!). Now we "work out" every chance we get as we thin out the trees, cut them up and haul them to our property for sale as firewood. As we get older (some of us are much older), we are more aware that we MUST get or keep in physical condition so we can both hike and enjoy it more.

Just as we will enjoy a trip better when we are better prepared and condtioned, so it is with our packing companions.

Our llamas also benefit some from our timber lot. We have now trained 6 of them to help. Georgia has made three carriers that we can add to our packsaddles and slip in chunks of wood that are in areas that cannot be reached by my quad and trailer. In the process the llamas get handled a lot, they get saddled regularly, they feel the wood being loaded, hear strange sounds, and carry moderate weight. A day of that really helps them. However, that is not all they need.

Besides being handled, saddled, and getting some weight training, they need to toughen their legs and feet. Now that summer is here we periodically load them with two plastic buckets loaded with about 25-30 pounds of sand in each and take them on longer 2-3 mile hikes and up steeper hills. We have also sheared four of them or combed two of them so they are better prepared for the summer heat.

This is our conditioning schedule. What do some of you do for your llamas?

PTLA

This is a controversial topic, I admit.
What is the value and role of PTLA events? How important and in what ways is it important to you, your ranch and your packing experience?

I think it had a lot of potential, but it has fallen far short of what it could have been.

Some good results

Ever since the idea was promoted by Wes Holmquist and later adapted and refined by others from WILA, it has been good for the pack llama community. It got everything thinking about some standards and expectation.

It has give some an outlet for packing-like experiences that they just did not get involved with otherwise.
It gave some a drive to get themselves and their llamas into shape.
It drew attention on the need for llamas to be handled.
It gave a chance for llama packers to get together. For many of us it was a fun social event. Pack llama people are great to be around.
It was great for those who raise the "other kind" of llamas, who do not have a background or experience in pack llamas, and who want to gain some credibility in the area.

Some less than expected results

It took a lot of dedication, time, and effort on the part of those running the operation and setting up different events. A lot of time. It burned people out as do most voluteer efforts that take a lot of involvement.

It was never able to come up with enough events and a wide variety of locations to make it really practical. It benefited the gas companies a lot because there was so much travel for many people. People who were really into PTLA lamented loudly about the parsity of events. Some traveled 10 hours each way to such events when they could find them. There should be a number of them every year and in every area where pack llamas are widely used. Without that the value is really limited.

With the time, money, and lack of events it really was not practical to expect too much of a significant role for PTLA for most packers. Most packers conditioned their animals and themselves well, handled their animals a lot, and knew that their animals were good at the task at hand. PTLA was not needed to prove anything to them.

There were some reservations about rules, such as animals that were obviously very poor functionally and should never be thought of as a "pack llama". There were instances where llamas were really improperly saddled, etc. The process was a good training for people who were unaware of some of those things, but still letting them go through and make qualification as a pack llama? The pack llama and the handler are a team and when one or both are ill-equiped for the process, maybe something should have been done to tell them so.

Well, that should stir up some thoughts, counter-arguments, and good discussion. Have at it.

Wanted: new leaders and participants

I have become a little discouraged over the past few years. So many of our leaders dropped out and lead organizations have have diminished their activities. When ILA was around, Stanlynn gave me a list of 800 people who said they were interested in packing. My list is less than a quarter of that now.

I know of many who pack but do not care to be involved with others, read what others are doing, or go to any events.

Still there used to be lots of llama people excited about their interest and involved with local organizations.

A few years ago we felt a real loss of subscribers to the Backcountry Llama newsletter. Many were saying their were too busy to write or even read the articles of others. Several times we commented on the packers that were dropping by the wayside.

We have talked with organizations that used to be very active that are now doing little or nothing.

We were really sorry to hear that even WILA has basically ceased. That is sad. I always held WILA as the epitome of an active and alive group. I always had a great time with them. Leaders burn out and people refuse to step up and keep the organization going.

We need new leaders -- people with enthusiasm and that will be willing to put in the time and effort to get people together. We need younger packers to keep local organizations going. It is for our benefit. We will all lose if we do not.

Want to see some good leaders stepping u? Look at the people stepping up to set up local BCL Rendezvous events at bcllama.com/ren06.html.

What do readers think we can do to get more people involved and willing to become leaders? It won't work to badger us old re-treads to keep doing it. We are often burned out, over-involved and wanting some new blood.

packing goodies and camping style

There are several distinct styles of llama packing. One extreme is gourmet; the other is frugal.

One takes everything, the other does not build a fire, eats cold "stuff" and sleeps on the hard ground with skimpy pads and sleeping bags.

We are maybe on the high side. Being old folks, we love our collapsible cots (meaning a little bigger tent). We usually take a two-burner propane stove, an old coffee pot to stick into our evening fire, stools, and table, and even take a collapsible stool and seat to use as a toilet. (Decadent, yep, but after a few days out it is a wonderful luxuary.)

We love out outback oven.

Depending on the trip, we will include a cooler for frozen items. Late in the fall or when we are going into weather that will be really cold, we have an outfitter tent with a small wood stove that we have taken with us. Having to huddle under a tarp in a drizzle for a couple of days is not nearly as nice as sitting on stools around a hot wood stove. We have done both, the latter being much more pleasant.

My wife sleeps cold, so for a number of years she has taken a hot water bottle. I toss and turn too much to combine sleeping bags. She prefers the hot watter bottle.

The downside of our decisions about equipment is -- the more "stuff" the more llamas. The more llamas, the more planning, the more impact, and the more possibilities of other problems.

We are not purists about impact. We are concerned. WE realize everytime we enter the wilderness we have an impact. We take a fire blanket, we camp in carefully chosen locations away from others whenever possible, we clean up after ourselves (and others), scatter llama droppings, and try to camaflouge our campsite to minimize any visual or real impact while camping and after we leave. We are most happy when others cannot find where we had a fire or beleive we have camped in that location.

Choosing a pack llama

There are almost as many ideas about the "right" pack llama as there are owners.

Some insist on size, others focus in on conformation, and some throw in function and movement.

When my wife and I were looking for breeding llama stock - stud and female, we decided to breed the average "normal" height. We looked for a good balance in their structures, we prefered shorter fiber, we wanted good guard hair, but most of all we want animals that were put together well and moved smoothly as they walked. We particularly looked at the hips. We video-taped all the animals -- coming and going for our own review later and also asked Gwen Ingram to look at their movement.

We wanted our animal's size to be such that the average packer and especially women would not be intimidated. We found that the average sized llama that was well-put together and moved smoothly carried all that we would be asking for. We were not into hunting or into extra heavy demands.

Because we were in the northwest we insisted on good guard hair. We were surprised in our looking around how many in the drier areas seemed to discount this feature.

Some of the animals we looked at moved as though each part of their body functioned on its own. Some of the high priced studs seemed anything but smooth.

We were aware of the discussions about what makes the "right" pack llama and respected others for their opinions. Those were just some of the choices we made in our search. A couple of our best packers were under-sized 43 inch fellows who just happened to be wonderful atheletes. They carried their share of the loads just fine.

We have seen some truly large and well-put-together "monster" llamas. We have been impressed by some of the breeding stock that some have developed. We have also seen some huge well-known animals that moved very poorly.

We still are happy with our decision to produce "average" height animals. If we were packing great loads, going into incrediblly difficult terrain, and having to cross over lots of blowdown with an elk carcass we might be persuaded differently.

In the end, it comes back to what use and need one has. When someone asks me what car or computer I would recommend, I always ask, "What are you going to use it for?" The lesser the demands, the easier and cheaper it is to pick up what you want. For picnic hikes it is a pretty simple job, for hunting and constant commercial type packing, one wants to get more informaiton, look closer and become a much pickier.

It is hard for a new to llama person to pick a llama. They all seem so "pretty" with their curious look and big eyes. They often seem to ready to buy the first ones they see -- or the cheapest.

We have tried to convince people to look at a number of llamas and make sure to visit ranches of people who actually pack. Even better, take a trip with a commercial packer or with the person you are considering buying from. Learn as much as possible, clarify what you are going to expect and want, gain an "eye" for llamas.

Too many people buy too quickly and then are stuck with less than what they wanted.

Decide what you want a pack llama for, visit several llama ranches, go on a llama pack trip, take a class, and consult with llama packers and attend pack llama events.