© 2014-2021 Copyright by P. K. H. Groth, Denver, Colorado, USA All rights reserved - See contact page for for permission to republish article excerpts.
Back Country Access Problems
Lordy, ALWAYS Point Your Vehicle Toward an Emergency Exit!: The entry road to the southern Flat Tops traverses a low saddle in the uplift that is always prone to deep snow drifting. There, in 2018, was a tall truck bed camper was camped on the roadside exactly where the biggest drift usually occurs. I stopped to the tell the squatters that they should get their rig pointed toward the south so they did not have to back up in a snow emergency, and perhaps back into a ditch. I know what can happen there after forty five years of encountering stuck vehicles in that at that spot! The truck owner said he would try to reorient the two rigs. However, he was waiting for a sympathetic and helpful hunter to return from Eagle with purchased tire chains. ALWAYS GO PREPARED FOR AT LEAST HALF THE WORST YOU CAN IMAGINE WILL HAPPEN. Communication Problems: Many hunters are accustomed to using their electronic crutches. Do not believe you can rely on them in the Colorado back country. There is little money-making incentive to erect cell towers in sparsely populated remote areas, especially places used only temporarily by hunters. Phones, GPS, internet and even satellite walkie- talkie phones may not work; or not work when there is an emergency. Bring paper copies of maps, trail routes and perhaps satellite images of your immediate hunting area. Back Country Weather Alerts : NOAA National Weather Service operates some radio stations, which relay recorded weather messages from valley towns, which do not represent high backcountry conditions helpful to Colorado hunters. You can get their Call Signs and radio frequencies at http:”www.nws.gov/nwr/stations/php?State=CO Write down the frequencies of area-applicable stations and tape it to your vehicle and camp radio(s). Forest Service Fines Road Blocker: In the early 1980s, a blocked irate Forest Service employee awakened a Flat Top hunter. The hunter had bogged down on the snowy road and simply set up his tent. He was professionally castigated for being inconsiderate to other hunters, and additionally fined for cutting many fresh pine boughs for a tent platform.
© 2016 -2021 Copyright by P. K. H. Groth, Denver, Colorado, USA All rights reserved - See contact page for for permission to republish article excerpts.
Back Country Access Problems