The 3 of us left the trailhead intent on a 5 day multipurpose adventure. Tenoch, a big strong 4 year old was ready to progress to game trails & bushwhacking strung with a single mentor. Rusty his mentor was experienced, trail wise & excelled at both leading & following, besides he needed to counteract the effects of lush summer pasture.

Our destination, a high country basin (a very lengthy trip via horse trail ) offers a very challenging "llama cutoff". We follow the horse trail for a few miles, then dive off into the timber, bushwhacking over, under & around deadfall, encountering several deep eroded gullies with only a few possibilities to cross. Finally reaching the tumultuous, boulder strewn steep bank stream that drains the basin far above. We wade across at the only possible spot I know, and turn up the drainage through the timber connecting small segments of game trails, twisting & turning, more gullies to negotiate reaching the edge of a steep 1500 deep ½ mile wide rock slide (the main horse block) with only a single poor game trail traversing its expanse. A little more timber & we break into the open & start climbing (no trail) toward a little timbered bench, our first camp.

At first we could only hear the distant bleating but upon reaching our campsite we could see the upper slopes covered with sheep. Apparently they were drawn by the same abundant feed & water that attracted us. (This was a year of drought). In the morning leaving the llamas grazing in camp it was time for a little exploring. This was cut short by some rather insistent alarm calling. Upon reaching camp the source of dismay was apparent. 3 4,000 sheep were descending the slope across the creek headed for our bench. My efforts to comfort Tenoch were ignored, apparently I didnt understand the severity of our situation. In any event it seemed prudent to defend our camp. Finally the alarm calling ceased, I assumed my efforts met with Tenoch's approval. Returning to camp after the crisis passed Tenoch had disappeared leaving his lead still attached to the picket. Grabbing the treat bucket & following his running tracks to an over look of the open slopes below revealed he had already entered the timber.

Thinking it best to move camp down to the timber to begin the search, Rusty ended up with 2 saddles & 4 panniers. Reaching the timber, Tenochs tracks entered on the same game trail we came up, still running. Each & every spot we had to cross there were his tracks, so we continued on. He found his way across the rock slide back down through the timber & eroded gully exactly back tracking to the creek crossing. As unbelievable as it seemed, I realized he was finding his way to the truck. We sped up now, only catching a track once in a while & when we saw his tracks on the horse trail hurried on to the truck. Tenochs tracks were all around the truck, leaving & returning, but no Tenoch, of course by now we were several hours behind him & he must of got tired of waiting. With Rusty unpacked & loaded in the truck, we started down the road looking for signs when we saw him ¼ mile ahead. In case he was still spooked I didnt want to push him & parked 200 yards away and called him. Here he came at a full run, I guess he was really happy those darn sheep didnt get us.

Hearing you couldn't have just one, Albert & Sondra Ellis started with a couple of pack llamas in 1987 and have now evolved into Highline Trail Llamas, specializing in breeding pack llamas and llama trekking and rentals. Quite a leap from a pair to over 150 animals......but that's another story.