Llamas Help Wilderness Trekkers to New Heights

After seven years of steady growth, llama trekkers are flocking to Colorado, where backpacking has become a big hit.

Although llamas can’t carry full-grown adults, the animals can easily shoulder camping essentials as well as frills.

This includes the heavy or bulky items hikers wouldn’t carry, such as real food (not freeze-dried) and bottles of wine, instead of packets of Kool-Aid.

A llama is a strong, undemanding porter. For the wilderness traveler they offer help in reaching out-of-the-way places, as well as chic companionship.

Sign of Status

“Llama trekking is a status symbol,” says Pegg Osowski, a nurse from Grand Rapids, Mich., who was brushing the thick fur of Dudley, an 8-year-old male llama.

The pair walked 10 miles over a steep trail to an open-air tea party at glacial Sanchez Lake, then one-quarter of a mile more to a 10,000-foot ridge above a color-splotched wildflower meadow.

From there, on the Continental Divide, they could see a ring of snowcapped peaks below them. “You can go backpacking or hike in the woods in Michigan or almost anywhere,” Osowski said. “But to get to go with llamas . . . that’s status.”

“Being out in the woods and not having to work is what attracted me,” said Barry Fisher, a 28-year-old psychiatrist from Pittsburgh. Fisher is reclining in a camp chair, under a pitched canopy, warming his toes by a campfire.

Fisher and Osowski are guests on an Elk River Valley Llama Co. trip, camped in a pine grove at Trail Creek in Colorado’s Zirkel Wilderness.

Llamas have been used as pack animals for centuries in the Peruvian Andes, where their good-natured demeanor, stamina, sure-footedness and relatively small size make them preferred over less-agile burros, mules or horses.

The average weight of a llama is 350 pounds, and it can carry a load of about a third of that. They require little water, their padded feet are easy on fragile mountain ecology and they thrive at high altitudes, making them well suited for the Colorado Rockies.

“They’re not real friendly or affectionate, like a dog,” Fisher says, “but they are very tolerant and easy to work with.”

Llamas will follow whoever pulls on their lead. Tug on a thick, 10-foot rope and they step merrily along on split hoofs, happy to keep up a steady pace.

The Trail Creek trip starts with a 1,000-foot gain in elevation over a five-mile route. The path coils through forests of aspen and fragrant pines, crossing glimmering creeks good for fishing or picnics.

Well-Equipped Camp

The first day across the Continental Divide leads to a camp complete with tall tents, cots equipped with foam mattresses, sleeping bags and flannel liners.

On day-hikes from this camp, hikers set the pace. Gameness and good spirits are more important than fitness.

“We get all kinds of people,” said Bonnie Lyttle, a 29-year-old guide. “One woman told us she started preparing six months before her trip--running, walking, doing aerobics and lifting weights. She finally admitted that she expected a lot rougher trip.”

Another trekker confessed that he had done nothing special to get in shape. “I’m not in great shape, and that cot sure feels good after a day of hiking, but I’ve been ready to go again every morning.”

Hikers in their 70s have successfully completed these wilderness trips with raves about the hospitality, plus the rewards of dining on llama-carted menu items such as steak and lobster brochette, barbecued Cornish game hens, grilled halibut steaks, lemon-marinated chicken, fire-baked sourdough bread and fresh cherry cheesecake.

There’s wonderful untouched scenery to enjoy. Climbs can include the 12,180-foot top of Mt. Zirkel. And there are special fishing holes. It’s an ideal experience for first-time campers, and as challenging as hikers want to make it.

Other llama packers offer somewhat different trips, from day-hikes to weeklong excursions.

In between the extremes of do-it-yourself and do-nothing-yourself are the “moving” llama trips offered by Robert Getz of Lost Trail Ranch.

Guests spend five days hiking and moving from camp to camp in the San Juan Mountains and the Weminuche Wilderness between historic Silverton and Creede.

After a first-night’s stay at Lost Trail Ranch, originally a stagecoach stop, participants hike among rugged 10,000- and 11,000-foot peaks.

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The cost of most llama trips averages between $75 to $125 per person a day, including all gear and supplies other than personal items.

For information on the Elk River Valley Llama Co., contact Peter Nichols, P.O. Box 674, Clark, Colo. 80428, or call toll-free (800) 562-LAMA.

Robert Getz operates llama trips from Lost Trail Ranch, Creede, Colo. 81130; (303) 852-2036.

An organization called the Colorado Llama Packers Assn. represents licensed and insured llama outfitters. It’s headquartered at P.O. Box 839, Clark, Colo. 80428. The organization’s president is Wes Mauz of Timberline Llamas, 30361 Rainbow Hills Road, Golden, Colo. 80401, (303) 526-0092.

A variety of llama trips, as well as other Colorado adventures, may be compared and booked at no extra cost through American Wilderness Experience, P.O. Box 1486, Boulder, Colo. 80306, (800) 444-0099.

For more information on travel in Colorado, contact the Colorado Tourism Board, 1625 Broadway, Suite 1700, Denver, Colo. 80238; (800) 255-5550.