In Utah, a 100-Mile Trek With a 4-Year-Old Boy

New York Times ^ | June 14, 2013 | Bruce Kirby

[nickcarraway]

We roared across the Wyoming-Utah border at sunset; windows down, stereo cranked, muffler cracked. Behind the wheel was a well-tattooed, pierced 24-year-old. Riding shotgun, a 44-year-old writer with three-day-old stubble (that would be me). And in the back, buried beneath coloring books and blankets, a cherubic boy. We were all three in search of goats.

“This truck is going to fall apart,” announced my 4-year-old son, Bodi, his mouth full of baby carrots. Abe, a longtime family friend, ignored the comment, pushing his rusty Toyota even faster. Sage and tumbleweed stretched across the flatlands; beyond, on the horizon, was our destination: the Uinta Mountains, a half-million acres of forgotten wilderness.

Ten miles past Sulphur Creek Reservoir, we turned down an unmarked dirt lane. Clay Zimmerman, a 56-year-old retired Air Force mechanic, waited for us outside a vinyl-sided house. Clay may be the only person on the entire planet who rents pack goats. (Pack goats are as beloved as household pets to their handlers, and if there were any other goat renters out there, I couldn’t find them.)

The argument for goat packing goes something like this: To begin, as relatively small animals, they are easy to handle. Requiring neither lead nor halter, trained goats will happily follow in a hiker’s footsteps all day. Better still, goats can go places horses can’t, eat things horses won’t (including woody and poisonous plants) and survive for days without water. According to John Mionczynski — whose book, “The Pack Goat,” I’d stumbled upon years earlier — properly trained goats make strong, hardworking and disciplined pack animals, with an intelligence and loyalty that rivals dogs’.

[Jack Hydrazine]

Thanks for posting!

[martin_fierro]

[skr]

Nifty post, thank you

[Red_Devil 232]

Nice Read!

[basil]

Enjoyed learning about these remarkable animals-—I had no idea.

[null and void]

Someone should ping goat granny...

[Paradox]

Taking a 4 year old on such a trip seems, well, dumb.

[goat granny]

Thank you for the ping, great story. I read about a farmer that rented his flock out to clear land. He used a snow drift fence to keep them contained and when one area was cleared he's move to the next area..Snow drift fence was fairly easy to set up and take down....I had one goat raised on a bottle that I could let out of the pasture and he'd follow me all around the farm...if I turned a corner and got out of sight, he'd bleet until he found me again..loved to go over to the pond where there were several weeping willows...when he was done eating the willow it looked like it had been clipped all around, just as far up as he could reach....

One day we were walking in front of the house and a car going by had to stop to see what kind of animal was following me..Angora's don't look like regular goats since you shear them their hair is long and white curls...TY again for the ping..

[Artie]

My first thought was that this is reading like a Hunter Thompson story. All that’s missing is a galaxy of various drugs, raw ether and the great red shark.

[Elsie]

Enjoyed learning about these remarkable animals-—I had no idea.

Me?

Carry YOUR stuff???

BWAHhhhhh! ahhh ahhhhhh

[Elsie]

WHAT!??

Get UP??

We're going WHERE???

[Elsie]

Granny wouldn’t make us do it!

[Elsie]

(Pack goats are as beloved as household pets to their handlers, and if there were any other goat renters out there, I couldn’t find them.)

There are some in Escalante, but it's probably a LOT hotter down in that part of the state. Not near as high altitude.

(Be sure to click on the LAST one in this list!)

• Escape Goats

  www.utahpackgoats.com/Cached - Similar

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  Escape Goats Tours and Shuttle Service, Escalante Utah. Fun packgoat tours, Escalante Grand Staircase.
  

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• Goat Rental NW - Yola

  goatrentalnw.yolasite.com/Cached - Similar

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  Goat Safety is our number one concern! Our goats are the best in the business and we count on them to get the job done. Each customer will be given a general ...
  

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• Rent-A-Ruminant LLC - Home

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  Here's a few organizations that have use rental goats for clearing land: Construction companies, Parks, Cities, Towns, Universities, Schools, Ports, DOD (Navy) ...
  

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• Goat Renter Guy - YouTube

  www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9jxa7T6WGQCached - Similar

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  Jan 31, 2009 – This commercial is part of PEMCO's campaign "We're A Lot Like You. A Little Different." PEMCO Insurance can float your boat, cover your car ...
  

[basil]

Oh dear! Now I want one—LOL!

[goat granny]

It would end up with you carrying those spoiled babies...LOL

[goat granny]

basil, you have to have at least 2 prefered 4 like elsie. They are a flock animal and don’t do well by themselves..I started out with 18 and in 5 years had about 80 the last kidding season...we had 20 with 2 sets of twins, but angora’s are a lot different to care for than most goats...they get sheared twice a year and you have to know a shearer. There are many breeds and they make great pets, just remember don’t get one....GG

[basil]

I was kidding! I live in the city on a small lot-—lol!

They are adorable, though.

[midnightcat]

I love to go to my county fair each summer and visit the Nubian goats they have. They’re so cute :)

[Elsie]

You say that now...

All my wife wanted was a DUCK.