Pack Goats

Pack goats are wethers, trained young, carrying panniers on day trips and multi-day routes. They are not horses. They will not carry a person, they are slower than walking pace on the flat, and they are unbothered by terrain that a horse would refuse. What they carry is gear, tools, and forage on ground where no vehicle goes.

The practice is old — goats have been pack animals for as long as people have kept them — and it is having a small revival among hunters, trail crews, and backcountry builders who want to move material without a helicopter or a mule.

Training starts with handling and lead work, then empty panniers, then weight in increments until the animal is carrying roughly a quarter of its body weight. The critical lessons are standing still while being loaded, crossing water without panic, and accepting a picket line at camp.

Bucks are not used. The smell taints everything in the pack, and a rutting buck is a hazard rather than a help.

Our terrain has places a truck cannot reach and a wheelbarrow cannot follow. Fencing materials, tools, and charcoal feedstock move on goats. It is slower than a machine and considerably more pleasant, and it keeps four animals in work that would otherwise be lawn ornaments.