Hiking Backpacks

While hiking the San Juan mountains in Colorado, we spotted a small herd of mountain goats. Wild animals bring out the animal instincts of hikers and our predator instincts kicked in. We all hunched down, trying to avoid being spotted. We watched for a few minutes, then continued hiking to our nearby campsite. We felt proud of our goat spotting, momentarily treasuring the rare experience.

The elation and pride were short lived. :)

We arrived at our campsite, wriggled our happy bare toes and snacked on cliff bars. Then the goats came. They didn’t hunch in the bushes inspecting us, they just came right over and surrounded us. We were excited that we got to see them so close up. Until they wouldn’t go away. We figured out what they wanted when Jack peed next to a bush. The goats wanted our urine! The crazy critters! They followed us around waiting for us to relieve ourselves, sometimes quite impatiently. Then they licked it up. Must’ve been the salt in it. Shrug.

I can’t tell you how disconcerting it is to pee while surrounded by three goats huffing and stomping impatiently.

I was instantly inspired to blog about this experience after seeing the pic below I found on Best Hike (Rocky Mountains)…see the look in the goats eyes! Jeez!

Mountain Goats - Glacier National Park - flickr - Nigel Finney