It’s homecoming season for two llamas, who went missing back in July along the high crests of the West Fork of the Cimarron.
The condition of Clavio and Cisneros after they were retrieved: “Excellent, never been happier,” said Lisa Balcomb, who was llama packing three months ago with her sister when the animals escaped. They were spooked by a livestock guardian dog minding a herd of sheep.
Their return marks sweet relief for Balcomb and the end of a worrisome, months-long search to find the animals. Though Balcomb and her husband own llamas, these were rented from a friend’s llama packing company.
Though she had a feeling the winter weather would eventually drive them down from higher elevations, Balcomb and her family members have collectively spent weeks trying to catch them in the mountains.
The hunt was a community effort. People sent them leads and photos across a number of different platforms, especially an online mountaineering forum.
Balcomb said she is so grateful for the invested internet community, without which, she is sure they wouldn’t have been able to bring them home.
Hiker Andrew Mueller snapped this picture of Clavio, one of two llamas that went on the loose in July, in the Uncompahgre Wilderness east of Ridgway. The llamas got away from sisters Lisa Balcomb and Barbara Rogers during a hike in the Cimarrons when a livestock guardian dog protecting a flock of sheep attacked Balcomb’s dog, Nick. Photo courtesy Andrew Mueller
Capture
Though they had some red herrings, or sightings too far out to pursue at a moment’s notice from where they live in Silt, the biggest challenge ended up being physically reaching the creatures where they managed to perch.
During a scouting trip about six weeks ago, her and her sister finally spotted both llamas together. But they couldn’t approach them on the barely walkable rocky mountain brows. At one point, Balcomb brought one of her own animals on a search trip as bait.
They were still camping — llamas out of sight but not out of mind — when Balcomb received a text from a ranch manager in Ridgway that had seen one of their “missing” signs posted at a trailhead.
It was Cisneros. Clavio was nowhere to be seen. They had gone their separate ways at some point, but no one knows why.
Balcomb and her sister retreated from the mountains and asked the ranch manager if Cisneros, who was corralled, grazing in a pasture, could stay for a couple of nights to see if Clavio would follow him.
But it was no luck, days later Balcomb drove to bring Cisneros home solo and remained on the hunt for Clavio until last week.
That’s when they got a call from the Ouray County Sheriff’s Office, reporting a hunter had spotted a llama through his binoculars while on the hunt. He reported it to WestCo Dispatch, which had been notified of the situation.
When she got the call Sunday evening, she loaded up the horse trailer that evening and headed out first thing in the morning.
Tied up on national forest land by Cow Creek, she found the last of the llamas.
Homecoming
Despite their renegade acts, it was almost too easy to load them in the horse trailer and bring them home, Balcomb said.
In her experience, if llamas make up their minds to be tame, they cooperate. “But if they make up their mind that they’re not going to be caught, they’re not going to be caught,” she said.
Llama packer Lisa Balcomb reunited with Clavio after a months-long search for the llama and another one, Cisneros, which escaped during a July trip in the Cimarrons.
Photo courtesy Lisa Balcomb.
Both llamas returned with only their lead ropes and harnesses; they got rid of their top ropes, panniers and saddles on their adventure.
Though Balcomb was beyond happy to see Clavio, it wasn’t as much of a sugary sweet reunion as it was sweet relief.
This breed of llamas are more work partners than pets, she said.
Cisneros is now back with the llama packing company and Clavio will be returned sometime next week when the snow lets up.
“I told everybody they just decided to come off of their sabbatical,” she said, laughing.
