Llama hiking

Llama hiking

Hiking is a popular pastime in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Most of the trails are fairly strenuous due to the mountainous terrain and carrying more than the absolute minimum of necessary supplies in a back pack can add to that strain. Several companies have come up with a novel idea - using llamas to carry food and equipment leaving you to practically skip along the trails unburdened.

Indigent to the Peruvian Andes, llamas and their padded feet (like dogs,) easily handle the rocky treks and are much more environmentally friendly to the ground than horses' hooves. A llama can carry about 25% of its body weight with no problem. This means an average animal of 300 pounds can carry around 75 pounds of equipment in its packs. By contrast, an average human could only handle about ten to fifteen pounds, even on a level surface for any duration.

Llamas are also very intelligent animals: dig into your pocket and they will follow you down to check out what you're doing. In the mountains they will see and hear things long before you do opening your eyes to things you might not have seen or heard.