Apollo and Fauci: Our two newest llamas were born in May-June 2022. This picture shows Apollo at 4 days old, and Delilah behind him at 17 days old. Check out the size of Apollo’s ears! They won’t be joining us on the trail this year – they need a few years of growing first. But they can already run surprisingly fast!
Daisy, Trillium and Tully: These three cuties born in 2020 have been learning to pack this spring, going on longer and longer hikes, learning how to stay behind the person or llama in front of them, and cope with obstacles on the trail. They’re not carrying panniers yet.
Romie turns 5 in August. She started packing in 2021 and was prone to startle a bit at new things and sometimes didn’t like to stand still when loading. She’s easy to approach and has a sweet, cooperative disposition on the trail. She enjoys carrots as a reward!
Stella is 5 years old. She’s remarkably energetic, strong, and agile. She’s also smart: she figured out the ropes in minutes, practically playing jump rope.
She’s quite tolerant when children approach her, though she’s a bit skittish about putting on her halter.
Lola, daughter of Ilia, turns 6 this spring. She has been a particular pleasure to take on trips and to train. She is strong, easy to handle, with efficient movement, beautiful conformation, and superb endurance. She is curious, and reaches out with her nose to smell new people. She’ll even tolerate a pat and a hug after a while (unlike most of the llamas here).
Physically she has the most ideal structure for packing that the author has worked with, which is why she was off in 2022 for maternity leave: Delilah was born in May.
Lolo, son of Lilac, turned 6 this spring.
He is a sweet fella to work with. He took a long time to get used to mud puddles on the trail! He has a subordinate disposition and doesn’t get into any tiffs with the other boys.
Lolo is tall and slender and is an excellent packer. He is nimble on his feet. He is quite hesitant to lead, usually needing a good leader ahead of him.
Dillon is a 7-year old gelding who has completed four seasons of packing with us. Dillon handles steep ground and rough trail easily, and he leads very well. He is easy to handle and has a nice, calm disposition. He is tolerant of meeting people and is quite curious.
Lilac, the daughter of Sybok and Ilia, turned 8 in December. She’s quite friendly, but a bit nervous around bouncy children. One unique trait: she likes to chase balls, and is faster than our Labrador Retriever. Due to her exceptional strength, large size, and nimble feet, she started adulthood as a mother (of Lolo, Willow, Tully, and her newest, Apollo).
Lilac finally got a year with the pack string in 2021. She was excellent on the trail, demonstrating her strength when a cooler she was carrying got hung up on a branch of a downed tree. She proceeded to separate the cooler from its lid!
We’re looking forward to having her rejoin the pack string in 2023.
Tully will be joining the pack string in 2023. He is very calm and tolerant of close contact with people. He’s also shown a tendency to be lazy on the training hikes last year. We will see how he does.
Sybok is 12. He is part guanaco, which is the wild parent of the domestic llama, so he is exceedingly wary, intelligent, and athletic, and did a wonderful job leading the string on our most challenging Goat Rocks trip. It is like having a deer on a lead rope! He is a subordinate male who rarely gets into any arguments with the other males. He is very leery of new situations.
Sybok is reluctant to allow anyone to get close, which makes it a challenge to halter or unhalter him. He is very capable on the trail. He has never spit at anything, but is not easy to handle. Please move slowly around this guy. Attempting to pet this wary fella is a recipe for a tangled pack string.