SHORTLY AFTER MOVING TO SALIDA IN 2001, I began noticing random license plate frames around town embedded with the words “Old Goats.” I soon learned there was an organization founded in Salida for the purpose of helping preserve the Rocky Mountain goat. Members are referred to as “Old Goats.” While hiking a section of the Colorado Trail above Maysville on Labor Day weekend in 2002, I saw a large contingency of campers and RVs parked in what is locally referred to as the Goat Wadi meadow — an aspen-ringed, grassy meadow that sits adjacent to the trail. This gathering turned ...