Donny llama
As I grow older and have new experiences I add them to my knowledge of how the world works, however; my core values in life have come from time spent in my home mountains of Vail, Colorado. Every year, for the past 16 years my family has gone on a llama powered backpacking trip lead by our close family friend, Donny Shefchik. We call him “ the Donny llama” as a nickname. This seasoned mountain guide and his vast amount of life experiences is something that I continue to look up too. I believe in the Donny llama and his practices in sustainability, strength, and adventure.
Each year in the fall my family goes on an exodus into the mountains surrounding where we live. On our travels through the beautiful Gore Range, I learned to appreciate the mountains. Our friend Donny leads by example and always picks up any trash, left by pervious hikers, that we encounter. He has taught me that it is important for us to tread lightly on the land in order to preserve it in its most raw and wild state. He even goes as far to place his footsteps mindfully and try not to leave tracks behind when we are off trail, in order to give the next people that pass through the same experience that we had. This philosophy of “Leave No Trace” stuck with me and is something that I believe is essential to carry on if we, humans, wish to be able to sustain the earth. Also, when we are backpacking we are self-sufficient and therefore being more sustainable, except for having the llamas carry all of our gear. Sharing the love for the mountains in a sustainable way is a value that I live by.
The Donny llama and his llama helpers have taught me to be strong and have perseverance in order to fight for what I believe in. Strength is an important aspect and trait to have in life. I learned that I must be able to power forward in life with my head held high. Having the strength, courage, and compassion to help others is something the Donny llama does and I have learned these values and try to reenact them each day. To take on the weight of someone else’s problems or their backpack takes a lot of strength. I believe that I have to be smart, and try not to be too strong; sometimes I have to let the llamas help carry the load. Then it is polite to acknowledge their strength and thank them for supporting me. Being strong is an important mental and physical aspect of life, in order to stay positive.
“In the spirit of adventure” is how all of Donny’s emails end. The spirit of adventure is what really keeps me going. I believe going out, trying, new challenges, and new experiences, is a very healthy practice. A Native American saying that my family enjoys is, “If you are not living on the edge, then you are taking up too much room.” When I was out backpacking with my family and the Donny llama, I truly felt on the edge and alive. I was blessed enough that sometimes we were actually on the edge of a gnarly mountain ridge. This sort of adventure challenged me in the best of ways and created a good learning environment for me. I was given the opportunity to practice the skills I had just learned, and that would directly benefit our group, in an environment that I enjoyed being in.
It takes strength to go out into the wilderness and live sustainably with the land for a few days. During those times of adventure, I was living in a way where I could feel good about my self and truly believe that what I was doing was right. Donny llama’s type of teaching, helped turn me into the person I am today, and I try to adopt the practices I observed from him.