Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Backpack Hunting More on the packgoats

Ever heard of a boy scout pack goat merit badge? Well, sort of. 2 years ago, our church switched it's scout troop from BSA to Trail Life. They have trail badges which are equivalent to BSA merit badges. One thing different about TL is that they allow troops to develop their own trail badges. They are then approved by national and made available to all members. We're in the process of developing a pack animal badge. I've been the main instigator on it. What I've done is list a number of general requirements that apply to all pack animals. The member then chooses 1 of several options depending on what animal he's using. He can choose goats, llamas, horses/mules, or even dogs. I've mainly developed the llama option since that's what we're using but I have a little knowledge about goats so I've done some with that one. It's open for other troops to add requirements for the other animals if they choose.

One requirement is to go on an overnight pack trip while having total control over the animal. We just got back from a 3 night pack trip with each boy having his own llama to care for. it was a great trip and the boys got a lot out of it.
Llamas are kind of specialty animal and it's getting very hard to find good ones. Goats are more practical for most backpackers. They're easy to obtain and keep plus easy to train. If someone asks me about pack llamas, I generally aim them toward the goats. I would likely have goats instead of llamas except for llamas ability to carry elk quarters better.