Timpanogos 1 July 2014

[Charlie Horse]

With the temps going to be near 100 for the entire forecast, I had to make a run for the summit on Monday or Tuesday. So after procrastinating it Monday, this morning I got up early and loaded goats.

I'm a little disappointed-- Amelia Goat-hart would not be caught. She acted like she just noticed the mobile meat processing truck parked out front and ran from me, even after the rest were loaded. Fine. She stayed home and cried all day while the rest of us had a great time.


Several hours into the hike you get this view. Usually it has a lot of wild flowers but this year we got up there early, and as you can see it is just starting to green-up.



I need a name for this switchback area. It kinda looks like a castle and frankly, as you approach it you'd swear it was impossible to conquer without ropes. Tucked inside this castle of rock, though, are some switch backs that I think they've blasted out of the rock.



By now the oxygen is getting pretty thin. As we approached the summit, Woodstock got off trail into the scree and it was all he could do to make it the last few yards. Reminds me of last year when he was only months old and acted the same. All the goats were pretty laggy at this point and I have to admit, I was huffing and puffing and diddle-dallying too.



This guy stood there and watched us with the usual curiosity.



Finally Shelby GT gets a decent glamour shot!



After some apples and water on the summit, I laid back and relaxed a bit. Bacchus and Woodstock went into the metal lightning shelter shed thing and rested in the shade along with Sasha. Victoria relaxed next to me and Shelby hovered over us, stone still.



I got one of the teenagers that finally made it to the top to take a picture of me and the critters. His photography skills are weak. You'd think with all these fancy phone cameras and stuff...... Speaking of that. I have to say that I'm aware of at least 20 people that took pictures of the goats on this trip. Somewhere, out there, there could be some good shots and I'll never know.



Bacchus has yet another amazing glamour shot.



I think in 3 weeks the place will be crazy with flowers. I may tackle it again, and go to Emerald Lake instead of the summit.

I met a lady that said something like "We did an article a couple months ago about pack goats for backpacking magazine..." and we talked a bit about goats. Half the people that I interacted with seemed to have heard about pack goats. I think the word is getting out there, finally!