How We Got Llamas in the First Place

“Quirky Getaway”.--That’s how Jim Yenckel, the Mid Atlantic Travel Expert, described Twin Creeks Llama Treks on an edition of NPR’s Metro Connection that aired shortly after we started our business. I think most of our friends and family would agree with that description. When we first broke the news that we were buying llamas and were going to start a hiking business, our friends would smile a blank smile and nod vacantly, as if to humor the mentally unstable. Those who have come to visit and have experienced the gentle nature of the llamas and the pleasure of their company on a hike have come around to our way of thinking. But I’m sure most of our acquaintances still inwardly think of us as “quirky”. But that’s OK with us, ‘cause we’re having a ball.

 

The question we’re inevitably asked, (that is, of course, after “Do they really spit?”), is “How did you ever decide to get into llama trekking?” There is no clear answer to that question, because it is not something we ever planned to do—it just sort of evolved—like serendipity. 

 

After spending 24 years in the Air Force, Tim retired and took a job in Northern VA. As we were living in Southern MD at the time, and hating life on the beltway, we decided to buy our dream getaway in the mountains of the Shenandoah Valley. Well, that’s not quite true, because, again, we never planned to do this. We drove out to the valley on a 3 day Valentine’s Day weekend in 1998, and, on a whim, dropped into a local realty office just to check out prices for the area. We described our idea of the perfect piece of property, (several acres, pasture, woods, mountain views, a stream), and when the agent drove us out to see a piece property that was for sale, and it was 100% what we had envisioned, we bought it on the spot. 

 

We had always thought we would someday like to have horses, but when we settled in and started thinking along those lines, I was afraid that horses were more demanding and expensive to maintain than I was prepared for. But we wanted some kind of livestock to make use of our pasture. I certainly wasn’t going to raise anything that was ever going to end up on someone’s dinner plate, and after months of research it seemed like llamas would be the perfect additions to our family. The next dilemma was what we would do with them. Again, serendipitously, I read an article about llama picnic hikes and thought that might be just the ticket. Here we were living in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains—and we love hiking and meeting people—and we’re, well, sort of “quirky”. 

 

Tim was coming up on his 50^th birthday, so I planned a surprise trip with a group of our close friends to go to NC and take a llama trek. We loved the experience—the llamas were so captivating and cute and added a whole new dimension to the adventure of hiking. So the decision was made to go forward.

 

Our first Christmas with our first 3 llamas

Getting Started: Selecting the Llamas

The next hurdle was finding the right llamas. It would have been ideal to buy llamas that were already pack trained and trail wise, but we would have had to travel some distance to find them. Most of the llama packing in those days was done in the western mountainous states; Wyoming, Oregon, Washington, Montana, all a 3 to 4 days drive from Virginia.   It was important to us, as new llama folks, to buy our llamas from a farm close by, from people who could mentor us and offer us support.

We also wanted to find llamas that had the right temperament, were trained to lead, and easily handled. We knew that we were not going to be doing arduous, long distance hikes, so we focused on finding sound llamas with good temperaments, and hoped to train them to be good packers.  We found the perfect match for our first boys at a farm near Roanoke, VA, who sold us 3 llamas. Over the next couple of years we expanded our herd to a total of 8, all purchased from reputable llama farms within an hour from our farm.  

 

Back in 2001, when we first started our llama quest, there were lots of llamas and llama farms in Virginia. I seem to remember that there were over 200 llama farms in the mid-Atlantic area, and we visited as many as we could. We have been very pleased with our selection of llamas. They all were easily trained to carry a pack and all were very enthusiastic about going on hikes.

 

 

Choosing the Trails 

Looking back on those early years, I am amazed that we were able to find the time to do all the trail exploring that we did, given that we were both working full time and keeping up with the maintenance on our 20 acre farm. Almost every weekend, we would load up our 2 dogs, bearded collies, Cayce and Bonny, and drive a couple of hours to hike a new trail.

Our vision was to find trails that were easy to moderate in difficulty, had beautiful scenery, were circular rather than out and back, no longer than 5 miles, and within an hour’s drive of the farm. Oh, and not to forget, this was a picnic hike, so we needed a spot along the trail that was clear and flat where we could spread a blanket and have lunch. Our target clientele were people from the Washington, DC metro area, children and adults, who wanted a day’s adventure out of the city, and to return to their warm beds at night.

Given that there were over 2000 miles of trails in the George Washington National Forest alone, we were optimistic that we would find lots of good trails. But finding even one trail that met our criteria was a challenge. What we discovered was that most trails started at the foot of the mountain, headed straight up to the top, before leveling out along the ridge. But it was more than 5 miles just to reach the top, and a very steep and strenuous climb for the average person, and forget finding a flat, cleared spot to set up a picnic.

After months and miles of hiking the GWNF, we started focusing our attention on on the nearby State Park, The Shenandoah River State Park, only 8 miles from the farm. This park was perfect for us. Lots of shorter trails, with breathtaking views of the Shenandoah River, and beautifully maintained hiking paths.  

Negotiating Permits for Public Lands

We faced many hurdles during our first year, but the biggest was negotiating with park authorities to get permits to use public lands. At that time, the concept of hiking with llamas was quite novel in our area of Virginia. We initially concentrated on finding trails in the GWNF because we knew that several years prior, there had been a group that had been granted permission to hike in that park.  But our attention turned to the trails at the Shenandoah River State Park because of its proximity and the selection of trails. So I made my first call to the park authorities.

I think it was a bit of a shock to everyone we spoke to in the Virginia State Parks system, as no one had ever asked about admitting llamas into the parks before. I think this actually worked to our advantage in the long run, because there wasn’t an existing policy regarding llamas. I remember my first conversation with the state director. He was immediately intrigued by the idea of people hiking with llamas in the parks, but didn’t have any guidelines as to rules and regulations. He mused for a moment and said, “Well, if you walk them on a lead, maybe we should treat them more like dogs than horses”. To my knowledge, most areas that are public lands treat llamas as pack stock and restrict them to the trails that are open to horses. The state park, however, was concerned about llamas sharing trails with horses, as they had recently opened a riding stable on the premises, and were concerned with the liability presented by horses spooking at the sight of a llama.

In dealing with a bureaucracy, persistence and patience are definite virtues. After a year of calling and nudging, they finally agreed to a meeting to be attended by the State Director, the Regional Director, the Park Manager, the owners of the horse stables, ourselves, and our llamas.  We loaded up our 2 best boys and took them over to the park. The meeting was held in a wooded picnic area. We tied the llamas to adjacent trees a few yards from the table where we sat. No one present had ever seen a llama before, and observed them closely during the meeting. The llamas behaved like angels, waiting patiently and nibbling at the grass. Napoleon would circle the tree he was tied to until his lead was completely wound, then reverse his direction and unwind himself. The horse person was impressed and commented that it looked almost as if Napoleon were entertaining himself. She admitted that her horses would never be able to figure out how to unwind themselves.

After a couple of hours of discussing our business plan, our desires for a trail, the llamas’ near zero impact on the trails, we could see that their resistance was waning. The main concern of all present was the potential problems with horse/llama encounters. When the park manager suggested that we could use the pedestrian trails and stay off the riding trails, we practically levitated off our bench. That was exactly what we wanted, the pedestrian trails were the prettiest in the park, better maintained, and generally easier to negotiate.

The one remark that will forever stand out in my memory was spoken at the conclusion of our discussion, when the park had given us their approval for Twin Creeks Llamas to conduct Llama Hikes with lunch in the Shenandoah River State Park. The Regional Park Manager looked at the two of us with a truly mystified expression on his face and said, “Well, I guess you can do it….I just don’t see why anyone would want to”. After 19 years and hundreds of hikes later, I think the joke is on him.  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had a wonderful relationship with the park service, and appreciate all the help and consideration they gave us and our llamas. By practicing “leave-no-trace”, we demonstrated that llamas are trail friendly animals.

Right at the time that we had established our trekking business, serendipity stepped in again, in the form of the Washington Post. Quite unexpectedly, the travel editor of the Post called, wanting to do an article on llama trekking. A wonderful article, with photos, appeared in the Sunday edition of the paper, and we were off and running.

Photo that appeared in the Washington Post