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Goats. As adults with three children, Tom and Teri were looking for a way to take the kids on hikes and overnight camping trips without having to carry everything. And as aging boomers, they found their knees and backs to be increasingly resistant to heavier and heavier loads.

Tom and Teri have both spent many years exploring the trails of Arizona. In addition to their outdoor experience, Tom is a gourmet chef and a trainer in Leave No Trace outdoor skills and ethics, and Teri is a naturopathic physician and high school biology teacher. John Dell, a guide who often joins them, has twenty years experience guiding wilderness excursions throughout the western U.S. and is a retired professional forester with extensive background in public wildland management.

THE GOATS--Goats have been used for thousands of years in Tibet as pack animals traveling across the Himalayas. They are naturally adapted to wild surroundings and have a low impact on the environment.

We use a type of male goat called 'wethers' which are noted for their gentleness and lack of a musky smell. We have had all our goats since they were less than a week old. We raise them on bottles of milk and they are friendly and well-bonded to people.

Wethers range in size from 200 to 300 pounds, depending on the breed, and can carry approximately 25% of their body weight. They can travel 5 to 10 miles a day, depending on the ruggedness of the terrain and the conditioning of the goat. The walking speed of a goat is about the same as that of a person, making them ideally suited for people who like to hike but don’t like to carry the pack.

THE BUSINESS--Purple Mountain Pack Goats is an outfitting business which operates under a Special Use Permit from the United States Forest Service. We guide day hikes, overnight hikes and camping trips in the Coronado National Forest (which covers most of southeastern Arizona). We also work with surveyors, photographers, outdoors sportsmen and others to carry equipment and to pack camps in and out.

In addtion to hiking and camping trips, we plan educational field trips for grades 3-12. The trips include age-appropriate lessons and activities in ecology and environmental biology.

Hiking with pack animals make the trails more accessible to everyone, especially seasoned citizens, individuals with disabilities that prevent them from carrying backpacks, and families hiking with children. Hiking with the DiMaggios has the added dimension of gourmet food and information about natural history as well as the flora and fauna of the area.