Hello all, I’ve been lurking for a while and posted a few times. I thought it was about time that I did and introduction.
I live in Mount Vernon, WA. I grew up in western Washington, Tacoma area. I’ve been hiking and backpacking in the Cascades and Olympics since I was a teenager (I'm now 72). I’ve had problems with back pain since my thirties and could not carry a back pack for a good part of my adult life.
In 2000 we were hiking on the Middle Fork of the Snoqualmie river trail when we met a couple of people walking down the trail with a couple of goats following, carrying their stuff. That piqued our interest, so we stopped and chatted with them.
Pack goats sounded like an intriguing way to be able to go on multiday trips again. So, I started researching pack goats. I found that Donna Semasko, Edelweiss Acres , in Olympia was putting on a pack goat seminar that spring. We went to the seminar, got a bunch of information, and came home with two goat kids. That was the start of it all. I’ve been packing with goats since.
The 2000 kids in 2002:
Franz Klaus
Hans & Snowball Hans & Klaus
Klaus The 2000 kids
I did not want to wait until the kids were grown, so I started looking for a couple of adults, and found Jefferson and Blazer.
Hello Perry! Love the photos! I especially love the photo of Klaus leaping from the rock. I guess all these goats are either gone or very much retired by now. It's always fun to walk down memory lane. I assume you still have packgoats, and we'd love to hear about your adventures with them.
12-10-2017, 10:04 PM (This post was last modified: 12-10-2017, 10:11 PM by Perry.)
Continuing my story: We were taking our grandkids on pack trips with us and got concerned that someone might accidently get hit by a goat horn. So, in 2004 we started to make a transition to pack goats without horns.
We got Gobi and Prince in 2004 as yearlings. Prince died in February, Gobi is still with us but has retired from packing (he’s 14 now).
We got Zermatt and Zinal as kids in 2004. Zinal died in 2007; Zermatt died this June.
We got Hershey, Chinook and Chelan in 2006 as kids. We still have Hershey, he still hikes with us and could do shorter trips, but I wound not take him on a longer trip any more. Chelan started to lay down on trips in 2016, essentially telling me he did not want to pack anymore. He’s now a pet for some other people. Chinook died in 2015 due to an injury. We have had several other pack goats since we got started, some died, some were sold to other people.
Gobi, Prince, Hershey, and Zermatt are the goats who stand out in my mind the most because I’ve done a lot of pack trips with them over the years.
I like to go on 5 to 10 day trips, particularly in the Pasayten wilderness, the Chelan-Sawtooth and the Glacier peak area. I particularly like going when the Larch are golden – the end of September or early October.
As an example, here are some pictures from a 5 day trip that I did with Gobi, Prince, Hershey, and Zermatt at the end of September 2015 to Buckskin Ridge in the Pasayten wilderness.
Wow thats awesome that you've had goats so long that they gone through entire careers. Most of us are still too new for that. You sure have had some nice looking goats. I prefer not to have horns, but they sure do look cool in photos.
It looks like you try to buy one gear-set in each available color, LOL.
We don't have that kind of tree in Utah. We do get the aspens turning very bright yellow, but its a short window and it changes based on altitude.
I don't drink beer, but if I did, I'd prefer Dos Equis. Stay thirsty my friends!
12-18-2017, 09:15 PM (This post was last modified: 12-18-2017, 09:18 PM by Perry.)
Continuing: In 2014 I realized that my boys were starting to approach retirement age. I decided I needed to do something. Get some pack goat kids/prospects to raise, or? I’ve long been interested in and curious about llamas as pack animals. I started research llamas and learning as much as I could.
In the spring of 2015 I decided to get two pack llamas, and started the search for them. I found two llamas that I liked that summer, one was younger, a little over 1 ½ years old, the other older and more experienced.
Over the last couple of years, I’ve had several good pack trips with the llamas. For example, here are some pictures from a family trip this July with the llamas and my two remaining (senior) pack goats. This was along the Pacific Crest trail, north of Harts pass WA.
The learning curve with the llamas was a lot steeper than I’d anticipated. I think, in part because my memory is not as good as it used to be. Anyway, this summer I realized that I really do prefer packing with goats. So, I started to look for some pack goat kids/prospects.
In July I got 4 polled alpine bucklings. They were all born in May. They all have the same father. Two, Blackie and Charlie, are twins. The other two, are named Benson and George.
Blackie, Charlie, Benson and George
Blackie and Charlie
George
Benson
Then in September I got a ¾ Nubian, ¼ Alpine cross wether from a local 4-H kid. He’s named Kahlua. He was born in July. He’s the youngest, and noticeably smaller than the others.
Spots, Bryce, Patches and Kahlua
The first of November, I got 3 alpine (mostly, one is 1/8th Ober) wethers from Zoe Barr. They were all born in February. Bryce is the 1/8th Ober. The two black and white ones are siblings: Spots and Patches.
Spots and Bryce
Patches
Bryce
They are all nice friendly kids.
Today I took them all for walks around the yard, two at a time, off lead. I used treats trying to encourage them to each come to their own name…making some progress.
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