Stay the Trail

Posting this in the event anybody recognizes the truck. Education on staying the trail is important. Follow the Facebook post for details.

 

Well, that's some BS.

 

JBFC.

 

It's unfortunate that the poster didn't get a license plate picture.

If it was me I would have walked up to the truck asked, "do you need help getting out?" When they replied, "yes" I would have taken a picture of his license plate and said, "let me contact the USFS and Sheriff's Dept for you."

 

Rig looks familiar, but then the built red ones seem to stand out to me as not very common. Heck, red isn't very common. I think there's one or two up here and I'll keep an eye out. Not a whole lot of identifying features to go from though.

I could, however, do without the Jeep/Toyota digs in the FB post. Some good-natured ribbing is fine, but this is an issue that affects everybody and is perpetrated by vehicles of all makes. If you see an entire group of one make doing something boneheaded, ok, fine (especially if it's that FB group I seem to recall hearing about on here that thinks whatever is fine). If it's one guy being a dick, that's the driver, not the rig.

Also, I'm not on FB so I can't comment, but there's a comment there by a guy named Hunter putting forth a suspect Instagram post or something. Unfortunately he's failed to recognize some significant details in that the Instagram post is a 3rd gen quad cab that's orange, while the offender is I'm pretty sure a 2nd gen and most definitely an access cab that's red, even accounting for shitty color in a the pictures.

 

I just pointed that out, prior to reading your post (self congratulatory back pat), before that group started an ill fated witch hunt.

 

I don't think I'm going to last long on that page/group.

Someone just excitedly posted pictures of their trip with this gem.

 

Awesome.... LOL I'm patiently waiting for my group request to be accepted.. the who's a better driver Taco/Jeep will never end, like discussing woman and men drivers.. I once posted on here driving through a designated river crossing by the sand dunes with small water roosting a little for the photo op and got a bitch slap form someone on here that I was not treading lightly. But the above is ridiculous wild flower wheelin.

 

Oh my, couldn't make the tight turn in a Jeep...

 

There's another group on Facebook, "Colorado Toyota 4x4" (that I'm no longer a member of) that had members posting in SUPPORT of helping that asshat out.

They got all kinds of pissed when I mentioned just having the Sheriff's Dept. help them out.

 

I noticed your posts Ed, you kinda missed the point. Directly confront them about their poor actions, help them out of the area to minimize resource damage, report them with quality pictures.

They were not getting pissed about mentioning the sheriff's office. They were mad that you would rather keep allowing resource damage and just reporting it to authorities. We need to self police and educate, minimize others damage when we can. Trails will close if you just turn people in.

They guy who posted those pictures failed us all. They didn't tell the offender to stop, they didn't help pull them back on trail, they didn't get quality pictures to turn them into the NFS rangers. Also, you need to go to the local rangers office for jurisdiction reasons.

 

When I looked the OP remarked he now knew what he needs to do if he comes across this again.

 

Judging my the quality of the pictures, it looks like the OP's camera was digitally zooming in. And if that's the case, that guy was probably WAY too far away and the guy got himself unstuck before the OP could even say anything.

 

Dupe thread but it doesn't really matter. Will you guys educate me on the "high alpine Tundra" the post is referring to without making me feel like an idiot?

Not defending the dude by any means, just trying to understand the situation a little more. The guy obviously has very little regard or respect for the environment but is there something particularly important here?

The photographer also does no justice by not approaching the individual but not everyone has that in them so I'll move on from that part.

 

The rate of growth of the vegetation at those elevations is so slow it will take decades for it to recover to the state in which it was at just prior to the destruction.

 

Thank you.

 

There appear to be two schools of thought on this one. Many of the 'official types' (as in organization leaders, agency employees, leos, etc.) will often say do not confront someone, just take good pictures and report it. On the other hand, you have a point that stopping something in progress and educating someone who's open to it is also a good approach. Problem is you don't know who you're going to be dealing with in any given situation. I haven't ever dealt with anyone on the extreme end of 'fuck you and fuck off', but I know people who have. Personally I've dealt with people who were apologetic and some who were polite but didn't give a shit and kept doing it anyway (despite me standing there with a big ass camera taking pictures).

There's only three pictures, but I get the impression from the sequence that he wasn't ever stuck. There's just a hole there, probably an old mine shaft/pit, that he decided to try and drive through.

There's a number of resources out there, but http://www.14ers.org/alpine-vegetation-and-the-struggle-to-survive/ is a quick one. It isn't just the plants, it's the soil underneath as well. It's typically very sandy with little organic content. Once the top is damaged, it can quickly begin to rut and wash or blow away. It's not all that dissimilar to desert environments, and cryptobiotic soil in particular.

 

Ironically, my second wheeling trip ever at these altitudes exposed me to the kind of lunacy which motivated me to never go wheeling unarmed. A group of ATVers were ranting and raving like lunatics at our group of vehicles who were exercising "stay the trail" and clearing the route of snow in the spring. The ATVers were using an illegal bypass to get around the snow, and were livid that we weren't doing the same. That bypass was a muddy mess void of any vegetation given how much use it had seen. Someone in our group attempted to explain the appropriate behavior to them, and smartly let it be when it was clear it was an exercise in futility.

FWIW, for someone else to drive onto the tundra to help recover a stuck vehicle without the approval/permission of the FS (if that area was NF, which I suspect it is) or LEO would be just as illegal/punishable as the stuck vehicle's driver. I'm not advocating for not helping, just know the legal ball of wax said help entails.

 

Like others have said. It's a very delicate and fragile ecosystem. And it's not just vegetation destruction but the balance of everything that depends upon it.