Bring Those Llamas With!
by Kyle Bushman
Driftless Pack Company
Wisdom MT
It was Saturday October 26th, the opening day of the 2024 Montana rifle season for Elk and Mule Deer. I was out of the wind and burrowed into a comfortable glassing spot atop one of my favorite drainages. An hour or so earlier I had just kicked up one of the biggest public land Mule Deer that I had ever seen, and I had planned to spend the rest of that afternoon behind glass, trying to locate him again. Looking around across all of the various ridge tops and saddles I was tallying up how many other hunters I could see. One…. Two….Three….Four…..ope…..there’s another one! Five……Six……., and myself makes 7….I haphazardly giggled and thought to myself, I think we’ve got this basin covered! I was starting to formulate my evening plan when I felt my pocket start buzzing. I thought that was strange as I hadn’t really ever had cell service in this area. My curiosity started to get the best of me, so I pulled out my phone to see a text message awaiting from my close friend Pete. The message read “We’ve got 3 elk down; can you bring the llamas?”
It didn’t take too much convincing to pull out a bit early. With all of the additional hunting pressure I had seen that afternoon, I was not expecting that buck to be back on his feet that afternoon unless someone happened to step on him. I gathered up my gear, reorganized my pack and started making the 3-mile trek back to the truck. I made good time and threw my gear in the back of the Tacoma right as the sun was starting to dip behind the Western Divide of the Beaverhead Mountains. I thought to myself the fun is just getting started!
On the way down off the mountain, I had sent Pete a message from my Garmin inReach, letting him know I got his message, and I would be back to Wisdom in about an hour, and would gather up the llamas and gear, get them loaded, and head his way. I just needed him to send me a good OnX pin and I would be there as soon as I could!
About an hour later I was back to town. I hooked up the trailer, loaded up 4 saddles, and pannier sets, tossed them in the tack room of the trailer and slammed the door. I had the windows down on the pickup and could hear the llamas sounding alarm calls as they heard the familiar sounds of the rattling trailer pulling up. It was their que; they knew it was time for work. I grabbed the 4 halters and leads that I kept strung up on the rear door of the trailer and called the boys up to be haltered. “Come on boys!”
There are few things in life more humbling and exciting than witnessing an animal outwardly express excitement to do the particular task they were bred or created to do. I imagine it’s the same or a similar sense of wonder and accomplishment that the hound hunter feels when they get an opportunity to work a fresh track and through the incessant barking and chaos it results in a treed mountain lion. Or the waterfowl hunter watching his Lab nervously shaking in excitement at the mere sight of his “master” wearing camouflage. It’s a special thing to see, and it brings a smile to my face regardless of how many times I witness it. I smiled and thought to myself, “I love when these boys get worked up to do work!”
It was well into the night at this point, and I hadn’t heard back from Pete, so I decided to try calling him again. A few short rings later, he picked up, and in all honesty, he sounded like he had gotten hit by a bus. I could tell he had a long day, and it was wearing on him. Regardless of how he was feeling, I eagerly poked and prodded to get the details of how this story played out! His voiced changed from that of a completely exhausted man to that of a proud old timer pulling on his suspender straps while telling the story of a lifetime! I could tell he was proud! Through the broken cell phone coverage, I was able to discern that Pete was hunting with his 2 kids and the day started off hot with bulls bugling and cows chirping as they left the trailhead. At daybreak Pete had a 6x6 bull make his way up towards where he and the kids were sitting. A few cow chirps later and that bull committed on a string to coming up that direction, leaving Pete with a nice easy shot with the rifle. A little while later another nice 5x5 bull followed suit and with a little coaching, and a little luck, his daughter was able to harvest her first bull elk! If that wasn’t just the perfect morning, a nice mature cow followed that same “string” up towards them and Pete’s son was able to take his first elk! Talk about one proud dad! Over the phone he giggled and said, “It was all fun and games until it was time to get all of these elk out and back to camp!”
Pete and the kids spent the next 5 hours quartering and working up these elk. Pete said, “We hand carted the first load of meat and the 2 bull racks 3 miles back to the truck, and after that I knew I was in over my head and was going to need help getting these animals out and back to camp!”
Pete said he was, “At the end of his road for the day”, and physically wasn’t going to be able to make another trip in and directly back out that night. He explained, “All the meat was off the bone and hung in game bags.” The overnight temps were to be in the upper teens so that meat would be just fine till morning. We made plans to meet up the next morning at 5 am. His dad and another close friend planned on going back into that area in the morning and were planning to show me how to get up into that area with my truck and trailer. We decided to all hunt for a few hours in the morning and would link up back at the truck mid-morning to start saddling up the llamas.
Being the llamas were already caught and loaded, I decided to leave them in the trailer overnight, so we could get a nice easy start in the morning. I bedded them with an extra bale of straw, filled the trailer water buckets with water, split up a bale of hay and gave them all a few llama cookies before I closed the rear trailer door. As I turned off the interior trailer lights, the boys alarmed called once again in eager protest, as if they knew our trip was postponed until the morning.
We hit the road at 4 am. The drive to the trailhead was just shy of an hour. It was only like 25 miles away but once you get off the blacktop the road conditions dictate how fast you can drive with a truck and trailer. I pulled up to the gate, parked the truck, staked out the llamas, grabbed my pack and rifle, and we headed in 3 miles to where they found elk the morning before. As action packed as the prior day was, our morning started out slow. I ended up seeing around 40 elk that morning, but they had all pushed down onto private land. It was a nice brisk morning and considering the circumstances I was just happy to have another day in the field doing what I love, and even happier to help a good friend. We started back to the truck to grab the llamas around 10 a.m. I was just about ½ of the way back to the truck when I heard a gunshot that seemed fairly close. I kept thinking, what are the odds that it was one of the guys in Pete’s hunting party and they happened to shoot another elk? I shrugged my shoulders, readjusted my pack, and decided to keep heading back towards the truck. Just a few minutes later, I heard another shot, and I just remembered thinking that the second shot sounded much closer. I sat there for a few minutes just in case something might be in the area and heading in my direction. I gave it 10 minutes or so, but all was quiet in the vicinity of where I was at. I made my way back to the truck and decided to start brushing out and saddling the llamas.
A little while later I heard some hooting and hollering coming up the trail from behind us. It just so happened to be Pete and the rest of his hunting party making their way back. As it turns out they had fired the 2 shots I heard and had just filled two of their cow tags! The day’s mission now went from packing out 3 elk to packing out 5!
Driftless Pack Company
Wisdom MT
It was Saturday October 26th, the opening day of the 2024 Montana rifle season for Elk and Mule Deer. I was out of the wind and burrowed into a comfortable glassing spot atop one of my favorite drainages. An hour or so earlier I had just kicked up one of the biggest public land Mule Deer that I had ever seen, and I had planned to spend the rest of that afternoon behind glass, trying to locate him again. Looking around across all of the various ridge tops and saddles I was tallying up how many other hunters I could see. One…. Two….Three….Four…..ope…..there’s another one! Five……Six……., and myself makes 7….I haphazardly giggled and thought to myself, I think we’ve got this basin covered! I was starting to formulate my evening plan when I felt my pocket start buzzing. I thought that was strange as I hadn’t really ever had cell service in this area. My curiosity started to get the best of me, so I pulled out my phone to see a text message awaiting from my close friend Pete. The message read “We’ve got 3 elk down; can you bring the llamas?”
It didn’t take too much convincing to pull out a bit early. With all of the additional hunting pressure I had seen that afternoon, I was not expecting that buck to be back on his feet that afternoon unless someone happened to step on him. I gathered up my gear, reorganized my pack and started making the 3-mile trek back to the truck. I made good time and threw my gear in the back of the Tacoma right as the sun was starting to dip behind the Western Divide of the Beaverhead Mountains. I thought to myself the fun is just getting started!
On the way down off the mountain, I had sent Pete a message from my Garmin inReach, letting him know I got his message, and I would be back to Wisdom in about an hour, and would gather up the llamas and gear, get them loaded, and head his way. I just needed him to send me a good OnX pin and I would be there as soon as I could!
About an hour later I was back to town. I hooked up the trailer, loaded up 4 saddles, and pannier sets, tossed them in the tack room of the trailer and slammed the door. I had the windows down on the pickup and could hear the llamas sounding alarm calls as they heard the familiar sounds of the rattling trailer pulling up. It was their que; they knew it was time for work. I grabbed the 4 halters and leads that I kept strung up on the rear door of the trailer and called the boys up to be haltered. “Come on boys!”
There are few things in life more humbling and exciting than witnessing an animal outwardly express excitement to do the particular task they were bred or created to do. I imagine it’s the same or a similar sense of wonder and accomplishment that the hound hunter feels when they get an opportunity to work a fresh track and through the incessant barking and chaos it results in a treed mountain lion. Or the waterfowl hunter watching his Lab nervously shaking in excitement at the mere sight of his “master” wearing camouflage. It’s a special thing to see, and it brings a smile to my face regardless of how many times I witness it. I smiled and thought to myself, “I love when these boys get worked up to do work!”
It was well into the night at this point, and I hadn’t heard back from Pete, so I decided to try calling him again. A few short rings later, he picked up, and in all honesty, he sounded like he had gotten hit by a bus. I could tell he had a long day, and it was wearing on him. Regardless of how he was feeling, I eagerly poked and prodded to get the details of how this story played out! His voiced changed from that of a completely exhausted man to that of a proud old timer pulling on his suspender straps while telling the story of a lifetime! I could tell he was proud! Through the broken cell phone coverage, I was able to discern that Pete was hunting with his 2 kids and the day started off hot with bulls bugling and cows chirping as they left the trailhead. At daybreak Pete had a 6x6 bull make his way up towards where he and the kids were sitting. A few cow chirps later and that bull committed on a string to coming up that direction, leaving Pete with a nice easy shot with the rifle. A little while later another nice 5x5 bull followed suit and with a little coaching, and a little luck, his daughter was able to harvest her first bull elk! If that wasn’t just the perfect morning, a nice mature cow followed that same “string” up towards them and Pete’s son was able to take his first elk! Talk about one proud dad! Over the phone he giggled and said, “It was all fun and games until it was time to get all of these elk out and back to camp!”
Pete and the kids spent the next 5 hours quartering and working up these elk. Pete said, “We hand carted the first load of meat and the 2 bull racks 3 miles back to the truck, and after that I knew I was in over my head and was going to need help getting these animals out and back to camp!”
Pete said he was, “At the end of his road for the day”, and physically wasn’t going to be able to make another trip in and directly back out that night. He explained, “All the meat was off the bone and hung in game bags.” The overnight temps were to be in the upper teens so that meat would be just fine till morning. We made plans to meet up the next morning at 5 am. His dad and another close friend planned on going back into that area in the morning and were planning to show me how to get up into that area with my truck and trailer. We decided to all hunt for a few hours in the morning and would link up back at the truck mid-morning to start saddling up the llamas.
Being the llamas were already caught and loaded, I decided to leave them in the trailer overnight, so we could get a nice easy start in the morning. I bedded them with an extra bale of straw, filled the trailer water buckets with water, split up a bale of hay and gave them all a few llama cookies before I closed the rear trailer door. As I turned off the interior trailer lights, the boys alarmed called once again in eager protest, as if they knew our trip was postponed until the morning.
We hit the road at 4 am. The drive to the trailhead was just shy of an hour. It was only like 25 miles away but once you get off the blacktop the road conditions dictate how fast you can drive with a truck and trailer. I pulled up to the gate, parked the truck, staked out the llamas, grabbed my pack and rifle, and we headed in 3 miles to where they found elk the morning before. As action packed as the prior day was, our morning started out slow. I ended up seeing around 40 elk that morning, but they had all pushed down onto private land. It was a nice brisk morning and considering the circumstances I was just happy to have another day in the field doing what I love, and even happier to help a good friend. We started back to the truck to grab the llamas around 10 a.m. I was just about ½ of the way back to the truck when I heard a gunshot that seemed fairly close. I kept thinking, what are the odds that it was one of the guys in Pete’s hunting party and they happened to shoot another elk? I shrugged my shoulders, readjusted my pack, and decided to keep heading back towards the truck. Just a few minutes later, I heard another shot, and I just remembered thinking that the second shot sounded much closer. I sat there for a few minutes just in case something might be in the area and heading in my direction. I gave it 10 minutes or so, but all was quiet in the vicinity of where I was at. I made my way back to the truck and decided to start brushing out and saddling the llamas.
A little while later I heard some hooting and hollering coming up the trail from behind us. It just so happened to be Pete and the rest of his hunting party making their way back. As it turns out they had fired the 2 shots I heard and had just filled two of their cow tags! The day’s mission now went from packing out 3 elk to packing out 5!
We finished saddling up the llamas and I gave a brief handling class to Pete and a couple of the others in his party. These moments are always one of my favorite parts of the experience. I love introducing new people to working with llamas. I love showing them how easy they are to work with and what they are capable of. As we finished saddling, and talking through load out, I answered the typical questions we generally get. How much can they carry? How many miles can they go in a day? How fast do they walk? Are they mean? Can I pet one? Do they spit?
Two of the older guys in Pete’s party were pretty well tuckered out so the three of us, Pete, Ben and I planned on going back in to gather up the first cache of meat from the prior morning. 3 miles in, 3 miles out for that first load. I could’ve strung all 4 boys together and just made short work of the task at hand, but I felt like that would steal an impactful experience from Pete and Ben as to what it is like working firsthand with llamas. There is something empowering about holding that lead and witnessing for yourself what they are capable of. I decided to split up the string and I gave Pete the lead to my most experienced llama named Doc and strung another solid packer behind him named Kidd. I gave Pete’s best friend Ben the lead for Hans, and I took Ringo the “problem child.” Just for reference, Ringo is the llama that hasn’t quite ever figured out where he wants to be in the string and has been known to start a fight from time to time. To make sure we all had an enjoyable morning I figured I’d be the one to take Ringo.
Two of the older guys in Pete’s party were pretty well tuckered out so the three of us, Pete, Ben and I planned on going back in to gather up the first cache of meat from the prior morning. 3 miles in, 3 miles out for that first load. I could’ve strung all 4 boys together and just made short work of the task at hand, but I felt like that would steal an impactful experience from Pete and Ben as to what it is like working firsthand with llamas. There is something empowering about holding that lead and witnessing for yourself what they are capable of. I decided to split up the string and I gave Pete the lead to my most experienced llama named Doc and strung another solid packer behind him named Kidd. I gave Pete’s best friend Ben the lead for Hans, and I took Ringo the “problem child.” Just for reference, Ringo is the llama that hasn’t quite ever figured out where he wants to be in the string and has been known to start a fight from time to time. To make sure we all had an enjoyable morning I figured I’d be the one to take Ringo.
We finished saddling up the llamas and I gave a brief handling class to Pete and a couple of the others in his party. These moments are always one of my favorite parts of the experience. I love introducing new people to working with llamas. I love showing them how easy they are to work with and what they are capable of. As we finished saddling, and talking through load out, I answered the typical questions we generally get. How much can they carry? How many miles can they go in a day? How fast do they walk? Are they mean? Can I pet one? Do they spit?
Two of the older guys in Pete’s party were pretty well tuckered out so the three of us, Pete, Ben and I planned on going back in to gather up the first cache of meat from the prior morning. 3 miles in, 3 miles out for that first load. I could’ve strung all 4 boys together and just made short work of the task at hand, but I felt like that would steal an impactful experience from Pete and Ben as to what it is like working firsthand with llamas. There is something empowering about holding that lead and witnessing for yourself what they are capable of. I decided to split up the string and I gave Pete the lead to my most experienced llama named Doc and strung another solid packer behind him named Kidd. I gave Pete’s best friend Ben the lead for Hans, and I took Ringo the “problem child.” Just for reference, Ringo is the llama that hasn’t quite ever figured out where he wants to be in the string and has been known to start a fight from time to time. To make sure we all had an enjoyable morning I figured I’d be the one to take Ringo.
Together we carelessly hiked back in 3 miles to the 1st cache of meat. It’s amazing how easy 3 miles feels when you are not carrying anything except the clothes on your back and the end of the lead rope. I was getting a kick out of watching Pete make his way up the trail. He kept looking back and checking in on Ben and I with a big ole “shit eating grin”, as if he was a kid on a school bus who was up to no good!
As we made our way up to the 1st meat cache, everything looked to have been perfectly preserved. No signs of bears, wolves or any other predators. All of the game bags hung un-molested, right where Pete and his kids had left them the day prior. We tied the llamas off to nearby trees and I demonstrated to Pete and Ben how to remove the panniers from the saddles. I was happy to see Pete had taken a little extra time the day prior to debone each of the elk quarters, as deboned quarters are so much easier to work with. I then explained to Pete and Ben how important it is to get each pannier balanced out within a couple of lbs. of each pannier set and after we loaded it on the llamas it was imperative that we kept visually checking how each of our loads were riding and make adjustments if they noticed one side riding lower than the other. Once the weight was all split up equally between the llamas, I taught the guys how to elongate the game bags in the panniers and adjust the torsion straps so that each of the loads were matched and riding high and stable on the sides of the llamas. I explained to them that low and saggy loads would be a train wreck, and all of my panniers would be full of holes after picking our way through all of the deadfall on the way back to the primary trail.
When we were loaded, Pete led the way with Doc and Hans back to the trucks. Doc floating behind Pete, Hans behind Doc, carefully picking their way through steep downhill dead fall and the short intermittent section of scree and rock. I’m always amazed at how they can meticulously pick their way through obstacles. Each foot deliberately finds a place to rest as if they were picking their way through a mine field. We ended up taking our first load of 3 elk back to the trucks, dropped our loads, and then immediately headed back in to grab the last 2 cows that were harvested earlier that morning. That second trip put the llamas around a 10-mile trip for the day. If you were to add that first trip in and out for Pete, Ben and I that morning we finished just shy of 16 miles on foot for the day. That’s seems like a fair number of miles but the important thing to remember is that most of them were without having to carry any significant amount weight. We were tired but still feeling pretty dang good considering the circumstances! Looking back, I couldn’t imagine how destroyed our bodies would’ve been trying to pull that same feat off without the llamas!
Once we were back to the trailer with the second load of meat, I immediately started unpacking panniers and taking off saddles and blankets. I offered all the llama’s water, to which none of them drank. 10 miles and none of them seemed phased…. I gave them all a hand full of cookies as a reward for a job well done and loaded them back in the trailer. I guzzled a bottle of water and took in the excitement of everyone standing around talking about how slick those damn llamas were! Pete’s good friend Rusty, flagged me down as I was pulling out of the trailhead and said, “You can hunt with us anytime…. well…. just as long as you promise to bring those llamas with!”
Two of the older guys in Pete’s party were pretty well tuckered out so the three of us, Pete, Ben and I planned on going back in to gather up the first cache of meat from the prior morning. 3 miles in, 3 miles out for that first load. I could’ve strung all 4 boys together and just made short work of the task at hand, but I felt like that would steal an impactful experience from Pete and Ben as to what it is like working firsthand with llamas. There is something empowering about holding that lead and witnessing for yourself what they are capable of. I decided to split up the string and I gave Pete the lead to my most experienced llama named Doc and strung another solid packer behind him named Kidd. I gave Pete’s best friend Ben the lead for Hans, and I took Ringo the “problem child.” Just for reference, Ringo is the llama that hasn’t quite ever figured out where he wants to be in the string and has been known to start a fight from time to time. To make sure we all had an enjoyable morning I figured I’d be the one to take Ringo.
Together we carelessly hiked back in 3 miles to the 1st cache of meat. It’s amazing how easy 3 miles feels when you are not carrying anything except the clothes on your back and the end of the lead rope. I was getting a kick out of watching Pete make his way up the trail. He kept looking back and checking in on Ben and I with a big ole “shit eating grin”, as if he was a kid on a school bus who was up to no good!
As we made our way up to the 1st meat cache, everything looked to have been perfectly preserved. No signs of bears, wolves or any other predators. All of the game bags hung un-molested, right where Pete and his kids had left them the day prior. We tied the llamas off to nearby trees and I demonstrated to Pete and Ben how to remove the panniers from the saddles. I was happy to see Pete had taken a little extra time the day prior to debone each of the elk quarters, as deboned quarters are so much easier to work with. I then explained to Pete and Ben how important it is to get each pannier balanced out within a couple of lbs. of each pannier set and after we loaded it on the llamas it was imperative that we kept visually checking how each of our loads were riding and make adjustments if they noticed one side riding lower than the other. Once the weight was all split up equally between the llamas, I taught the guys how to elongate the game bags in the panniers and adjust the torsion straps so that each of the loads were matched and riding high and stable on the sides of the llamas. I explained to them that low and saggy loads would be a train wreck, and all of my panniers would be full of holes after picking our way through all of the deadfall on the way back to the primary trail.
When we were loaded, Pete led the way with Doc and Hans back to the trucks. Doc floating behind Pete, Hans behind Doc, carefully picking their way through steep downhill dead fall and the short intermittent section of scree and rock. I’m always amazed at how they can meticulously pick their way through obstacles. Each foot deliberately finds a place to rest as if they were picking their way through a mine field. We ended up taking our first load of 3 elk back to the trucks, dropped our loads, and then immediately headed back in to grab the last 2 cows that were harvested earlier that morning. That second trip put the llamas around a 10-mile trip for the day. If you were to add that first trip in and out for Pete, Ben and I that morning we finished just shy of 16 miles on foot for the day. That’s seems like a fair number of miles but the important thing to remember is that most of them were without having to carry any significant amount weight. We were tired but still feeling pretty dang good considering the circumstances! Looking back, I couldn’t imagine how destroyed our bodies would’ve been trying to pull that same feat off without the llamas!
Once we were back to the trailer with the second load of meat, I immediately started unpacking panniers and taking off saddles and blankets. I offered all the llama’s water, to which none of them drank. 10 miles and none of them seemed phased…. I gave them all a hand full of cookies as a reward for a job well done and loaded them back in the trailer. I guzzled a bottle of water and took in the excitement of everyone standing around talking about how slick those damn llamas were! Pete’s good friend Rusty, flagged me down as I was pulling out of the trailhead and said, “You can hunt with us anytime…. well…. just as long as you promise to bring those llamas with!”
