Tweet
What an experience I had with Billy on a scheduled “over-nighter” up at Deadfall Lakes this last week. The schedule was to leave here Monday evening, return Wednesday afternoon.
First, I adhere to the philosophy, “I backpack so I can better prepare for the next time I backpack”. Even with 30 years (plus) of backpacking, and a lot of that done by myself, I am still learning. Granted, most of my learning now involves trivial stuff or tweaking what I do now. This overnight trek was truly a big learning exception.
The plan was for me to take Billy up to Deadfall Lakes trail head Monday evening:
1. Spend Monday night sleeping in the van at the trail head.
2. Since he was out of shape, me too, he was carrying a hair under 20 pounds of gear/food total in his packs. Since this was an overnighter, I didn’t need lots of gear anyway.
3. Leave the next morning for a gentle, cool weather walk to the middle Deadfall Lakes.
4. I picked this trail/destination because it was only 2.5 miles long, and only had a 250’ elevation gain over the 2.5 miles.
5. Spend the afternoon relaxing, tossing sticks into the lake for Squeaky to chase, have a good night sleep, take some pictures the next morning, pack up and walk out.
A perfectly “mapped” out way to have a bit of exercise, see some beautiful high elevation country, and come home with my first of the year “backpack fix”.
Because of the above schedule (1 night out, 2.5 miles of gentle trail, him carrying under 20 pounds of weight, I knew he wouldn’t be stressed, so I didn’t bother to take any cob as an energy supplement for him. Typically, I take enough cob to feed him 2 cups a day for each day we are out.
Now……………. As Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story”:
We walked in to the lake and had a very relaxing afternoon and evening. Squeaky “found” the lake before I could show it to her, and demanded that we get down there before I had camp set up and start tossing a stick into the lake so she could go fetch it. Not that Squeaky is spoiled, but I adjusted my priorities, picked up a stick, and spent the next half hour tossing the stick into the lake for her to go get. When through, she was plum tuckered out and spend the rest of the day guarding her blanket, which I laid out under a shade tree.
When sunset came into the canyon, I checked Billy to make sure he was not stressed and his lead was not tangled. He was fine. Squeaky was still guarding her blanket, so I knew she was fine. My tent was up, sleeping bag all billowy. Everyone was tucked in for bed.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up hearing a large animal walking around my camp. I thought it odd that Squeaky wasn’t barking, so I looked out my tent to see what was prowling around my campsite. Dang! It was Billy.
I figured the screwed in ground thingy his lead was connected to came out. I figured it would be no problem to go out, pick up the rope lead (25’ long) connected to his halter, and secure him to a tree if needed for the rest of the night. When I got out of the tent, the first thing I noticed was the lead was not to be seen. I was walking around free. The night was a bit overcast, very little light; there was no way I was going to go out there and try to catch him in the dark. I would look for him in the morning.
When I woke up at dawn (5:30), I got up, dressed, ate a cracker, grabbed the lead, and headed out to find (and hopefully catch) him. I spotted him over a short uphill knoll, to the east of me, about 100 yards away, munching in a grassy area. I walked in his direction, walking in a counter clockwise sweep so that I could get uphill of him, and try to work him back to the lower elevation of the camp, and try to corner him in an area I knew he would be trapped in.
For almost 2 hours, we played this zigzag game of him wanting to go uphill (probably not wanting to go back to camp), and me walking with him laterally, trying to get him to go down hill – or even letting me get close enough to reach for his halter. The command I use when I am putting his saddle and packs on, “Stand” he was totally ignoring.
Over this two hour process, I am also going over alternative options of what to do. I figured that there were huge patches of beautiful, green grassy meadows in the immediate area, so he probably wouldn’t leave the area. Llamas also will go back to where they spent the last night, if lost. So, I figured he would stay in the area if I left camp set up.
My plan was to take all non-essential items in camp, load them in one of the saddle bags, walk the saddle bag, Squeaky, and me, out to the trail head. I figured it might take me two days to find/catch Billy, so I wanted to come back with cob (as bait to catch him) and enough food for me and Squeaky for two days. I had only brought enough food for me and squeaky through lunch that second day.
So, I put my sleeping bag and warmer clothes in my tent, left my stove, fuel, utensils, and other stuff I needed, filled up one of the panniers with stuff I didn’t need, loaded up my day pack with stuff to pack out, and started walking west, down the trail to the truck.
Do you understand that Billy was about 50 yards north and about 150 yards EAST of my campsite, and the trail out was 30-40 yards north, and going WEST of my campsite? I’m heading out in the opposite direction from where Billy was eating.
So, I start walking on the trail, headed west, to the van…………. 2.5 miles……
About 1/3 of a mile on the trail, I see fresh llama prints on the trail. I knew they were fresh because none of the prints had boot prints on them from hikers coming or going after the llama prints were made. Oddly, the prints are headed towards the trail head, NOT towards the lakes. I looked down the trail, and there is Billy, about 50 yards down the trail, headed towards the van.
First, I adhere to the philosophy, “I backpack so I can better prepare for the next time I backpack”. Even with 30 years (plus) of backpacking, and a lot of that done by myself, I am still learning. Granted, most of my learning now involves trivial stuff or tweaking what I do now. This overnight trek was truly a big learning exception.
The plan was for me to take Billy up to Deadfall Lakes trail head Monday evening:
1. Spend Monday night sleeping in the van at the trail head.
2. Since he was out of shape, me too, he was carrying a hair under 20 pounds of gear/food total in his packs. Since this was an overnighter, I didn’t need lots of gear anyway.
3. Leave the next morning for a gentle, cool weather walk to the middle Deadfall Lakes.
4. I picked this trail/destination because it was only 2.5 miles long, and only had a 250’ elevation gain over the 2.5 miles.
5. Spend the afternoon relaxing, tossing sticks into the lake for Squeaky to chase, have a good night sleep, take some pictures the next morning, pack up and walk out.
A perfectly “mapped” out way to have a bit of exercise, see some beautiful high elevation country, and come home with my first of the year “backpack fix”.
Because of the above schedule (1 night out, 2.5 miles of gentle trail, him carrying under 20 pounds of weight, I knew he wouldn’t be stressed, so I didn’t bother to take any cob as an energy supplement for him. Typically, I take enough cob to feed him 2 cups a day for each day we are out.
Now……………. As Paul Harvey would say, “The rest of the story”:
We walked in to the lake and had a very relaxing afternoon and evening. Squeaky “found” the lake before I could show it to her, and demanded that we get down there before I had camp set up and start tossing a stick into the lake so she could go fetch it. Not that Squeaky is spoiled, but I adjusted my priorities, picked up a stick, and spent the next half hour tossing the stick into the lake for her to go get. When through, she was plum tuckered out and spend the rest of the day guarding her blanket, which I laid out under a shade tree.
When sunset came into the canyon, I checked Billy to make sure he was not stressed and his lead was not tangled. He was fine. Squeaky was still guarding her blanket, so I knew she was fine. My tent was up, sleeping bag all billowy. Everyone was tucked in for bed.
Sometime in the middle of the night, I woke up hearing a large animal walking around my camp. I thought it odd that Squeaky wasn’t barking, so I looked out my tent to see what was prowling around my campsite. Dang! It was Billy.
I figured the screwed in ground thingy his lead was connected to came out. I figured it would be no problem to go out, pick up the rope lead (25’ long) connected to his halter, and secure him to a tree if needed for the rest of the night. When I got out of the tent, the first thing I noticed was the lead was not to be seen. I was walking around free. The night was a bit overcast, very little light; there was no way I was going to go out there and try to catch him in the dark. I would look for him in the morning.
When I woke up at dawn (5:30), I got up, dressed, ate a cracker, grabbed the lead, and headed out to find (and hopefully catch) him. I spotted him over a short uphill knoll, to the east of me, about 100 yards away, munching in a grassy area. I walked in his direction, walking in a counter clockwise sweep so that I could get uphill of him, and try to work him back to the lower elevation of the camp, and try to corner him in an area I knew he would be trapped in.
For almost 2 hours, we played this zigzag game of him wanting to go uphill (probably not wanting to go back to camp), and me walking with him laterally, trying to get him to go down hill – or even letting me get close enough to reach for his halter. The command I use when I am putting his saddle and packs on, “Stand” he was totally ignoring.
Over this two hour process, I am also going over alternative options of what to do. I figured that there were huge patches of beautiful, green grassy meadows in the immediate area, so he probably wouldn’t leave the area. Llamas also will go back to where they spent the last night, if lost. So, I figured he would stay in the area if I left camp set up.
My plan was to take all non-essential items in camp, load them in one of the saddle bags, walk the saddle bag, Squeaky, and me, out to the trail head. I figured it might take me two days to find/catch Billy, so I wanted to come back with cob (as bait to catch him) and enough food for me and Squeaky for two days. I had only brought enough food for me and squeaky through lunch that second day.
So, I put my sleeping bag and warmer clothes in my tent, left my stove, fuel, utensils, and other stuff I needed, filled up one of the panniers with stuff I didn’t need, loaded up my day pack with stuff to pack out, and started walking west, down the trail to the truck.
Do you understand that Billy was about 50 yards north and about 150 yards EAST of my campsite, and the trail out was 30-40 yards north, and going WEST of my campsite? I’m heading out in the opposite direction from where Billy was eating.
So, I start walking on the trail, headed west, to the van…………. 2.5 miles……
About 1/3 of a mile on the trail, I see fresh llama prints on the trail. I knew they were fresh because none of the prints had boot prints on them from hikers coming or going after the llama prints were made. Oddly, the prints are headed towards the trail head, NOT towards the lakes. I looked down the trail, and there is Billy, about 50 yards down the trail, headed towards the van.
Comment