Rented llamas for the first time last season. Most of the negative posts are way off and are obviously based on experience with untrained animals that were more suited for pets than pack animals. The llamas we rented packed 40 lbs in each panier and top loaded 20 making a total of 100lbs. We were in some pretty rugged country in Southwest CO and I couldn' t begin to out walk one of the things. They never once spit at us and the trainer explained that the animals that do this have been raised as pets and shown affection. They treat their animals well but they are purely pack animals that are well trained and routinely given work outs. They also never layed down on us while packing. They did not spook at the slightest whim like some horses sometimes will. He did tell us that horses did not care for them though. He also told us that most bears didn' t care for the things either and would normally avoid them completely. I know the camp next to us had been seeing bear close to camp everyday until we showed up. After we moved our camp we found out that they had spotted more bears again. If you plan to hunt bears that isn' t a good thing, but if you don' t want bears destroying an elk camp it could work out great. The bear thing may have been purely coincidental but that was our experience with using them. I would gladly use them again.

We did talk to an outfitter who would pack us in with horses if we wanted. And he did explain that he could carry more awkwardly shaped loads due to the larger size of his paniers. And of course as mentioned you can ride a horse. I would also make the assumption that there is the same difference between a typical riding horse and a good mountain horse used for packing, and I have very limited experience with the everyday riding kind and none with a good pack animal.

My problem with the horses is I have very little experience with them and unless the horse was near dead it would probably kill me in the mountains because of some idiot with a llama laying in the middle of the trail. LOL

Hobbes,

Where do you rent your llamas from in SW Co? How much do they tend to run? Where do you hunt with them? Thanks for the info.

Tenderfoots.

LOL ! You' re the one riding the horses to make the hunt easier, not us !!

No, I' m the one buckin' hay bales in -30 weather, re-shoein' while 1200 lb critters lean on my back, an' huntin' 5 times the territory you camel jockies cover.

We rented from Buckhorn Llamas in Durango. Their main office is in Northern CO but they rent from a farm in Durango also. The animals were $40 per day per llama. We also had to pay for an orientation class and you can rent a livestock pen that fits in the back of your truck.

I am not furtunate enough to live in the West and I have never owned horses so to use horses I would have to pay an outfitter. I prefer more of a do it yourself hunt so I chose the llamas. Although we didn' t kill any elk, if we had we could have gotten those llamas into anything to pack them out. We lead them through some pretty nasty blowdowns a couple times and up and down some very steep terain where there weren' t any trails. The horses we checked into would be used to pack us in and we could pay to have a horse left with us, but as I said, a 1200 pound horse would kill me. The llamas required no food to be packed in and rarely would even take a drink. They eat just about anything around them.

If you want to learn more about the llamas go to Bowsite.com and go to the Elk forums. There are a lot of guys there that use llamas.

LOL AGAIN ! You don' t have a clue what I do for a living or what condition I am in, do you ?

Hobbes - I rented from the same people for several years - excellent animals. I am renting from another guy in Pagosa Springs this year - we' ll see how they do.

Good Recipie:

Lama quarter
2 onions
2 ribs celery
2 carrots
2 quarts stock
2 tbs butter

melt butter add onions, celery, carrots and sweat.

Throw lama away and go to the store and buy a chicken.
add the chicken to the pot along with the stock and sit back and watch the wolves turn their noses up at the lama you threw away and enjoy the chicken.

Wash with a cold beer

I love camp cookin