Phil and I loaded up the goat trailer and spent a few days last weekend in Idaho at the North American Packgoat Rendezvous. What a great trip! We took Cuzco, Finn, Snickers, and Sputnik with us. The weather was incredible and the location was perfect for camping with goats.
However, the trip was not without some adventure. The first thing that happened was that we discovered the running lights on our trailer were not working. We had to stop off at a trailer repair shop to get them looked at and the goats had to be unloaded and tied out of the way.
Friday was a fun day. We had about three miles of trail to look over and remove obstacles. We got to a beautiful overlook where we stopped for a short break. Cuzco was a champ! He carried the chainsaw in one pannier which was balanced with gas, oil, and me and Phil’s lunch and water in the other pannier. He carried around 35 lbs. that day and he never missed a beat. He was proud as punch to have such an important job.
Cuzco’s Rambo shot o’ the day.
Phil found a golf ball on the mountaintop which he practiced twirling on this finger.
Phil tried to get Finn to pose and look noble for the camera, but this goat was on the move and didn’t want to be restrained for anything!
My younger crew was loud during certain parts of this hike–especially Sputnik. Then he would set the others off. My “Three Stooges” kept getting excited and running ahead to join other people and goats, but then they would lose where we were and start bawling their heads off. It didn’t help that Phil and I walked separately most of the time, so the boys were perplexed about who to follow. It’s NOT ok for the herd to get separated like that! Cuzco, on the other hand, was totally chill. He’s old and wise and he knows we’ll all find each other eventually.
It was a lovely trail, but there was a lot of up and down and very little shade for most of it. The views, however, were spectacular. The best part of this hike was taking time to talk with the other hikers and getting know them better as we went along.
