Pack Animal Magazine (formerly The Backcountry Llama)
8 years as editor of Pack Animal Magazine
Pack Animal was a quarterly print publication for those who enjoy exploring the great outdoors with the help of alternative pack animals. Originally called The Backcountry Llama, it was launched in October of 1987 by Noel McRae. Noel passed it to Dick Williams in 2007, who published the last issue of 2012 and handed it off to me. Over its last eight years, the scope of the magazine expanded. In the spring of 2018, I renamed the magazine to reflect that broadened focus. Our last issue was published at the end of 2020.
Pack Animal Magazine told the stories of people exploring the great outdoors with llamas, goats, donkeys, yaks... and any number of other animals that will happily follow you up the trail while hauling all your stuff. We are passionate about our quadruped hiking companions: they willingly haul our gear so we can hike further, stay longer, and forgo counting ounces; they enable all sorts of people to get out, from families with small children to folks with bad backs to hobbyists with cumbersome equipment; and because of their size and disposition, many of these alternative pack animals can be leased by hikers with only a basic familiarity of animal husbandry.
But a pack animal is a means to an end, albeit a companionable one, so we also printed stories that matter to the hiker, the fly angler, the conservationist, the hunter, the climber, the plein air painter, the nature photographer, the mountain biker, the backcountry skier, the trail maintenance crew member—basically, anyone who values our public land. Every issue contained regular columns about navigation skills, public land advocacy, and minimum impact camping.
The following pieces were ones I wrote during my time as editor:
Berserk Llama Stew (Fall 2013)
The Engineer's Cyclist (Spring 2014)
Dr. Murray Fowler, Father of Zoological Medicine (Summer 2014)
Yak Packing (Summer 2015)
What Makes A Llama A Pack Llama? (Fall 2015)
Shinrin-Yoku, Friluftsliv, and American Life (Summer 2018)
Llamas and Goats, Packing Together (Fall 2018)
A Mule Person (Winter 2019)
Dual Passions (Fall 2020)
