Huffing and puffing up the hill. Trying to keep up with the others. I still couldn't breathe, but don't worry, I did go to the doc and by the next adventure I'll have an inhaler or two and will be good to go.
But on this adventure I was having a hard time up a steep hill to gain the ridge. My buddies were already on the ridge and I could hear them yelling.
Get up here!
Come on!
There's a goat!
A goat? Sweet. We've seen goats on this trail before so it was well within the realm of possibilities. I pushed even harder to get to the ridge before the goat disappeared. It was standing higher up on a ledge. I snapped a few pictures of the mature male as I settled my breath. Cool. Got a good one.
I started a few more steps up the trail and the guys were standing there pointing directly in front of me. Not up at the ledge. Down a bit and right in front of me. At the baby goat. BABY GOAT!!!!
Yeah, it was awesome. The kid didn't care a bit that we were there. Or that I took like a million pictures. (They can do some amazing things on SD cards nowadays.) It was all good until the little guy started getting stompy. Then he lowered his head. I looked up from the viewfinder to see the adult warily watching me and decided maybe I'd taken enough photos.
We continued up to the summit with no more goats. Our return trip was similarly devoid of ungulates, but surprises like this keep even little run of the mill hikes adventurous.
