The Way Things Work Out...For the Better

I decided to see if I could climb up the mountain to recover some of the goat hair that was falling off the goats I saw yesterday. See, my thinking was that when Peggie gets around to making a Skagway-for-the-summer quilt, she could incorporate things like goat hair. My impression was that the spot might be within climbing distance even for me. I wanted to go up in the evening after it had cooled off a bit. I knew that it might not be easy climbing so I wanted Peggie to come as my spotter and to get me rescued if necessary. I don't have crazy illusions about my youth and physical condition. She was not even close to being interested in my hare-brained idea. But Don was. So after his last tour got in, he called to see if it would be okay to bring his crazy-over-anything-about-animals crew. Sure. But even they wondered why I wanted goat hair. So we drive up there, get out of the truck, and I point to the spot where the goats were and we start to discuss whether it is possible to cross the gulch to climb the other side. In the time it took me to type that, the three young guys had already reached the bottom of the gulch. One of them seems to be part mountain goat himself. He could pick fairly easy climbing routes and go right up. The other two struggled more, but kept at it. Don and I had already decided that it was too much for us, so we offered guidance about direction and stayed at the truck. The one guy, Blair, made it up there in about ten or fifteen minutes. I could already tell it would have taken me an hour. The other two took longer, but once they were up there they got all excited. They found tracks in the moss. Then some hair stuck to a bush. Then a bedding spot in the shrubs, and lots of hair. They stuffed their pockets and went exploring the mountain side. Coming back down was the same. Blair just jumped from rock to rock and came down as if there was a trail. The other two got trapped in some trees, backtracked, slid on their rumps, and generally struggled. They all got back okay. And with two pockets full of hair and the downey undercoat that is more like wool. They gave this to me like it was mine, then asked if they could keep just a little to show when they take out a tour. I'm thinking, you just climbed all over the mountain to get this, and you're asking me if you can keep some? So I got the hair, and the idea of showing it to tourists, without even climbing over one rock. These guys had such a good time, they asked me if I had any other hare-brained schemes they could participate in. So if I come up with any, I will be sure to include them.