Page 80 - The Pocket Guide to Equine Knots

CONCLUSION: LIFELINES

I write this shortly after returning from a pack trip into the wilderness north of Yellowstone
National Park. After twenty years of applying, I drew a mountain goat tag. Perhaps it came
too late in life—I’m certainly not of an age or physical condition to tackle nearly vertical

slopes looking for creatures that laugh at lung-aching altitude or scramble up sheer cliffs
needing only suggestions of ledges to bound their way to the top.
No matter. When an opportunity comes, you take it and be thankful for it. And, after

guiding a friend to a goat years earlier, I knew that the animals sometimes frequented the
bottoms of those cliffs, not always the top. And more important, a wilderness quest is a
“hunt” enough in itself. So, the tag was an excuse to go, but to go with a goal in mind—to
look hard for mountain goat, but enjoy the challenge and not be disappointed if I came
home without one.

And it went just that way. My friend Billy and I saw mountain sheep, but no goats. The
surroundings were spectacular: a rugged ridge that formed the border of Yellowstone to our
south, a panoramic wall of rock with timber patches below, green yet, but with white

patches of early fleeting snow. The horses and the mules behaved, and for the most part
our packing skills proved themselves. Each day we rode taking just one lightly packed
animal with us to relieve the burden of excessive gear strapped to our saddle horses.