Overall, the goats did well on this hike.

May 6, 2021 10:36 AM

Thursday, August 20, I got back from a 9 day pack trip with my packgoats. I took Grant, Albert, Bryce and Benson. A charming, vaguely anthropomorphic trail review of a person hiking alone with four goats.

However, not enough goat photos.

posted by Corduroy (20 comments total)

Yeah definitely not enough goat photos. I was wondering what the goats ate until I saw the photos at the end.

Anyway, you think hiking with goats is cool, well, it gets even cooler.
posted by GuyZero at 10:50 AM on May 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

Livestream the next one, please.
posted by Going To Maine at 10:53 AM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Part way across the Miners Ridge Trail we came to a fairly wide stream crossing which was occupied by 5-6, almost naked men, in the stream…they were only wearing the briefest of G-string swimsuits. Leading the goats across that stream crossing was an interesting experience!

That's practically a Greek vase scenario, right there. (The Ancient Goat Art tumblr has all the ancient goats you need)
posted by Pallas Athena at 11:11 AM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I stumbled upon this because I had been planning to do a similar hike (sans goats, sadly), but it had to be canceled due to all the fires and smoke last August/September. I think what I like about it is there is no context given at all about why they are hiking with four goats, as if that's just the most natural way to hike, and ol' Benson was walking a bit slow this time, and be sure to carefully cross this stream with your goats when you hike here!
posted by Corduroy at 11:27 AM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have never in my life read an account of an adventure that contains such granular details, none of which offers any of the information I am actually interested in learning.

"Today we flew our home-made mag-lev sixteen miles down the central shaft of the gypsum mines. It was easy going. We took a left turn at the Tuston formation and camped on the ceiling between the stalactites. The following morning we made coffee and continued north until we encountered another group of hikers. The mag-lev did great all the way over the salt river and we went another sixteen miles east before stopping to take a short nap."
posted by Baby_Balrog at 11:29 AM on May 6, 2021 [19 favorites]

Impressed that he managed to cross the stream with 4 goats without a wolf eating a goat or a goat eating a cabbage
posted by oulipian at 12:28 PM on May 6, 2021 [7 favorites]

Perry hikes with llamas too! Consternated that photos seem to max out at 4 per trip. Maybe I can find Perry on Instagram.
posted by rdnnyc at 2:02 PM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

Oh good point, rdnnyc. I'll see if I can add Perry's profile link on the website for plenty of goat and llama hike material.
posted by Corduroy at 2:06 PM on May 6, 2021

...a person hiking alone with four goats...

One is not "alone" with four goats! One has four goats for company!
posted by turbid dahlia at 2:30 PM on May 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

I agree that the goats were very much short-shrifted, photo-wise. I think we would all benefit from a goatier day-to-day existence.
posted by scratch at 2:31 PM on May 6, 2021 [6 favorites]

More goat photos available on the hiker's main page. I particularly like the shot at the bottom of this page where one of the goats is seen looking toward the beautiful view but is likely looking at the lake and all the grass around it.
posted by Rashomon at 2:55 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Perry hikes with llamas too! Consternated that photos seem to max out at 4 per trip. Maybe I can find Perry on Instagram.

I'm really interested in how common this is. A couple of years ago I went on a hike up in the Gifford Pinchot area and passed three people with three pack llamas. Wonder if Perry was in that group.
posted by curious nu at 3:02 PM on May 6, 2021 [1 favorite]

I have a friend that I do volunteer trailwork with up in Los Padres National Forest, and she often brings her two goats, Jack and Jeff, along for play and company. Definitely sending this to her ASAP.
posted by mykescipark at 3:19 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

Goats are nice 😌
posted by gucci mane at 6:31 PM on May 6, 2021 [2 favorites]

I love goats, have been fortunate to have some tolerate me for a while. So, so intelligent .... but also their idgaf attitude, and total disregard for personal safety.
posted by unearthed at 11:33 PM on May 6, 2021

About 20 years ago, a friend got a bunch of us into reading Jim Corbett's book Goatwalking, It's by one of the founders of the Sanctuary movement, but it's also partly about wandering nomadically about with goats and using them to promote survival during extended time spent in deserts. It's an interesting read and I've thought of it often as goats have started to become a thing in the last few years.

I am in the process of renting some goats to clear out my overgrown backyard. We are very excited about the prospect of having some goats eating their way through the weeds, invasive plants, and underbrush.
posted by Orlop at 6:40 AM on May 7, 2021 [2 favorites]

Anyway, you think hiking with goats is cool, well, it gets even cooler.

I must disagree with some of the assertions made in this website about llamas, specifically the one that says llamas primarily spit at other llamas and only spit on humans with extreme provocation. When I was a young boy, our local zoo encouraged visitors to bring produce from the local grocery store to feed the animals. We were able to convince the produce manager to give us large bags of expired produce to feed the animals with and one discovery we made as a result was that llamas really love grapes. Apparently, they have a sweet tooth and consider grapes possibly the greatest food known to man or llama. My brother and I were clearly not the best people as children, because our absolute favorite thing to do at the zoo was to feed a few handfuls of grapes to the llamas and then sit back and wait for someone to come along who was less llama savvy than we were. These poor souls would inevitably attempt to feed the llamas a hunk of stale bread or lettuce or whatever. Having sampled grapes, the llamas were indignant at this paltry new offering and would return the food at high velocity along with an astonishing quantity of llama spit, directly in the face of the person who offered it to them. We would laugh until our sides ached or the other children made a credible threat of violence. A handful of grapes every 30 minutes or so would keep the llamas fully charged.
posted by Lame_username at 11:11 AM on May 7, 2021 [6 favorites]

Impressed with the WA Trails Association site as well -- is there anything like that in CA? Not that I know of.
posted by softjeans at 7:11 PM on May 7, 2021

It is a FABULOUS site, and incredibly useful for even small day-hikes. The trail ratings are extremely accurate as well, as I learned that day I though I would be fine, just fine on what clearly some rando thought was a hard trail. (Reader, it was a really difficult trail.)

Bragging done with, this was delightful but also it takes an extraordinary person to write such an in-depth...anything and not mention more than a few words about THE GOATS. I mean, I liked it, but I wanted...more. Quite a lot more. Also I hope I run into him and his packgoats someday.
posted by kalimac at 7:21 PM on May 7, 2021

Impressed with the WA Trails Association site as well -- is there anything like that in CA? Not that I know of.

Depends on where you live. I work with Los Padres Forest Association and there are probably other more regional groups as well. I think they tend to cluster around the administrative groups relevant to the specific wilderness area. (There's also Los Padres ForestWatch, who are more activist-oriented/legislation-focused, but they also do trail work on occasion.)
posted by mykescipark at 10:05 AM on May 10, 2021