SEVIERVILLE, TENN. -- While the hikers rested along a Bluff Mountain trail, J.J. stopped eating leaves and pulled on his tether as he made a whining, humming sound.
That's a llama's way of saying he wants to keep moving, explains J.J.'s owner, Sandy Sgrillo.
Ms. Sgrillo, the operator of Smoky Mountain Llama Treks, knows all of her llamas' habits and personalities.
She has trained six of them over the past two years to carry food and camping equipment on hikes in forests surrounding Great Smoky Mountains National Park. The government doesn't allow commercial operators inside the park.
Customers can register for outings lasting from an hour to two days. The most elaborate package includes a steak dinner served on china, accommodations on an inflatable mattress in a tent and breakfast the next morning. The llamas carry all the equipment: tables, chairs, tents and food.
Llamas, members of the camel family, were domesticated thousands of years ago by the Incas in South America as beasts of burden. Their two-toed feet have padding, not hooves, making them sure-footed along steep, rocky inclines.
Llama trekking has long been common in western U.S. states, but the trend didn't take hold in the eastern half of the country until the last few years.
The Alpaca and Llama Show Association says it has noticed an increase over the last decade, with more than 4,000 llamas currently registered with the group, compared with about 500 in 1992.
Not everyone uses llamas to carry hiking gear. Some people keep them as pets or show animals. The Talamore Golf Club in Southern Pines, N.C., uses a pair -- Chi Chi and Freddie -- as caddies on special occasions. The rest of the time, they stay in a pen on the 14th tee.
Ms. Sgrillo got interested in llama trekking after she moved to Sevierville in 1998 from Miami, where she was a limousine driver for 10 years.
"I just got sick of the city life, the traffic, the crime, the nonsense going on," she said. "I'm a nature lover. I always came to this area for vacation."
She took a hike with the only llama trekking company serving the Smoky Mountains area, and the guide told Ms. Sgrillo that she didn't know anything about llamas before starting the business. She said she quickly found they were easy and inexpensive to manage.
When the company closed, Ms. Sgrillo saw her opportunity.
"No one else is doing it. That's when I went, 'Cha-ching! I'm going to do it,' " she said. "I didn't even know how to buy a llama, but I found out everything real fast."
Ms. Sgrillo's only competition is Great Smoky Mountains National Park, which uses llamas three times a week to carry groceries, laundry and trash up and down Mount LeConte for guests at a lodge perched on the highest pinnacle in the Smokies.
While Ms. Sgrillo can't take her animals on trails in the Smokies, she says there are plenty of public and private trails with Smoky Mountain views, and she offers treks in the Pisgah National Forest across the border in North Carolina.
Ms. Sgrillo trains her llamas not to fear people and to enjoy being petted. Their good-natured disposition surprises most of her customers. "They don't know what to expect because everyone who's seen llamas has seen them in petting zoos. They're nasty, dirty and spitting," she said.
Llamas do spit but usually at each other when they're fighting. They also hum and click to communicate, and make a shrill sound when startled.
On the Bluff Mountain trail, about 50 kilometres outside Knoxville, Ms. Sgrillo led J.J., a two-year-old brown llama with a saddle-like pack on its back. Two other llamas, also with halters and leads, were paired with hikers. Ms. Sgrillo's other three llamas stayed at home.
Banana Man, so called because he likes to eat bananas, walked along the trail slowly, often stopping to nibble on grass or pull off leaves and pine needles.
Ms. Sgrillo says she has to watch the llamas carefully to make sure they don't eat anything they shouldn't. Since the animals aren't native to the mountains, eating vegetation such as rhododendron or mountain laurel can kill them.
For more information on Smoky Mountain Llama Treks, phone (865) 428-4606 or visit http://www.smokymountainllamatreks.com.
