Calling all llama owners

[squirrel]

I just trailered 6 of my packers from California to Colorado 17.5 hrs
Spent 1 day at the trailhead to acclimate than hiked 14 miles in and camped for 9 days at 10,000'
the llamas did great and didn't notice any problems
they did enjoy the green mountain grass (cali is brown now)
I was nervous about the altitude for them but they handled it better than me
14 miles out in 7 hours ,I was wiped out and they where happy to be done
spent that night at the trailhead then 17.5 hours home
they couldn't wait to get out of the trailer
i do 6 mile training hikes with them a couple times a week so i think that helped
Paul

I was an onlooker on this venture and Pauls did great, especially for a young string. But like he points out he works his regularly at home in the heat. A soft llama is a soft llama no matter where they are trailered from. In my experience very few people will give serious work-outs to their animals in triple digit heat. But if you are the exception to this rule and give them serious training with weight, it can work. No doubt that it helped that base camp was at moderate elevation of < 10,000'. The real puffing starts at over 12K (humans and animals!)

 

[Paul M]

Like Squirrel has said you have to train any packer or person that goes into the backcountry
Not sure 10,000 was moderate elevation for me Coming from 200' elevation
He hunted up around 13.500' so 10,000 was a walk in the park
I went up to 12,200 and wasn't ready for it

 

[Paul M]

You should call corral creek llamas and rent for summer scouting/ fishingtrip or for your hunting trip
Dragging them a long way is work

 

[Parker173]

You should call corral creek llamas and rent for summer scouting/ fishingtrip or for your hunting trip
Dragging them a long way is work

yeah you guys are probably right, renting would definitely be the way to go! It's just corral creek is like up north colorado around steamboat springs, and i'm hunting south near Ouray in unit 65. So it would add like extra 10hrs of driving to get them and get back to our unit on top of the 28hr drive from alabama. Not to mention having to quit hunting a day earlier to take drive them back.

I love corral creek's website and it looks like they have some very nice well trained llamas, i just wish it wasn't so far. Know of any other llama outfits you guys might recommend in southern colorado?

 

[squirrel]

pretty sure antero sold out and was moved to over by gunnison somewhere and redwood is out of silverton/ouray area. Once you leave the front range there are huge blocks of area with no rental outfits. All the llamas are crowded over with all the people in shithole Denver. Trailering up through that mess sucks.

 

[Tobe_B]

I just trailered 6 of my packers from California to Colorado 17.5 hrs
Spent 1 day at the trailhead to acclimate than hiked 14 miles in and camped for 9 days at 10,000'
the llamas did great and didn't notice any problems
they did enjoy the green mountain grass (cali is brown now)
I was nervous about the altitude for them but they handled it better than me
14 miles out in 7 hours ,I was wiped out and they where happy to be done
spent that night at the trailhead then 17.5 hours home
they couldn't wait to get out of the trailer
i do 6 mile training hikes with them a couple times a week so i think that helped
Paul

That’s some familiar looking country, and a familiar set of llamas. How’d you like the trail going in? Hopefully the rocks didn’t tear their feet up too much. How was the hunting for you up there?


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[Paul M]

The first 4 miles of that trail is tough and very technical when leading a string of 6 llamas with all the boulders and cliffs that you have to climb and pass , the whole time thinking my string is over 60' long and I know what the first one is doing but what if one in the back steps off there would be no way to stop the chain reaction . I came to the conclusion just let go of the lead and than try to climb down and salvage whats left
But they did great you would be really surprised how sure footed they are, we hike/ train in the sierra Nevada mountains (alot of granite and bolders ) and they are like goats and hop from rock to rock, they have soft pads and that seem to stick the landing.
No foot damage
Hunting was not great
did you see me where you back there.

 

[Tobe_B]

I met you at the trailhead when I brought some gear and an elk out. It’s been rough hunting up there the entire season. Went back up during the snow storm we had a few weeks ago and there were elk in the bottom, but they disappeared rather quickly. Hope to see you back this way next year.

I’m pretty impressed with how llamas handle the terrain around here. Only reason I asked about their feet is because of another group of guys I ran in to on the other side of the mountain in a different drainage. They said the rocks tore their llamas feet up pretty good and so they had to come out and go find somewhere else to hunt.

When you string your llamas together to you use breakaways attached to the lead ropes or pack saddles? All of our pack strings are tied with something that breaks in the hopes that if something falls off one of those cliffs it can break free and fall alone and not take the whole train with it.


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[Paul M]

Tobe-B
Are you the outfitter with the pack horses
What do you use as a breakaway for the horses
I use a loop of 550 cord on the back of each saddle in case of a wreck i can quickly cut the paracord and not have to cut the lead ropes .

 

[Tobe_B]

I was at the trailhead with the mules. The owner was the guy with the horses up on the mountain.

We use hay string tied to saddle D rings to create a popper. That way if it get to much tension it just breaks free on the hay string and they aren’t tied hard and fast. There isn’t time when SHTF to go running around cutting animals loose.


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[bisblue]

Tobe-B
Are you the outfitter with the pack horses
What do you use as a breakaway for the horses
I use a loop of 550 cord on the back of each saddle in case of a wreck i can quickly cut the paracord and not have to cut the lead ropes .

I really like these, great for sorting out of they ever get Tangled or just wanting to swap them around.

Sopris Bungee Pack String Loop with Panic Snap — Sopris Unlimited

Used when leading animals in a string, the Sopris Bungee Pack String Loop is a shock cord loop with a panic snap that attaches to the Sopris Classic or Roughy saddle (the loop is run through the arch and over the top of the rear saddle horn). The pack string loop absorbs the shock if the trailing an

www.soprisunlimited.com

 

[Kleos]

Llamas or goats. This has always been a dream of mine. Go out hunting / backpacking / snowshoeing with the dog some llamas or goats and maybe the wife if she isn't mad at me that week.