Missing hunters in Colorado

[Dan Carey]

Five days is too long. This is not going well and I fear they are in real trouble.

 

[3forks]

I rescued a guy in a sinking kayak while in a land based shark fishing tournament. We could see him with binos repeatedly flipping his kayak over. No cell signal on that entire beach. Wife said babe you have to go get that guy. I hopped in my kayak and took off, by the time I reached him we were about 3 miles offshore and I mean I paddled my everlovin arse off to get there. Paddled up to him and said hey man you need help? He said Nah I'm probably OK I just need to get back in. Stunned for a second I just kinda looked. His kayak was about half full of water, he'd crawl into it and the water would rush to the back and the bow would shoot up into the air and dump him off the back. I said how about I tow you in? He very casually said yeah I guess that'd be OK. I hooked up to him and 2 hours later landed on the beach 18 miles East of where my camp was. Dude was toast and acted like it was no big deal, didn't even thank me.

The ego some people have is unbelievable to me.

In this case, the guy is either too dumb to realize he was in trouble, or such an insecure egomaniac that he’d rather die than admit he needed help. Unreal, that he couldn’t even swallow his pride enough to thank you for the effort you put in to get him back on the beach.

 

[Stubborn_bowhunter]

Honestly, I never experienced (or noticed) anyone caring about me or what I did until that point in my life.

Looking back on it, I should have at least told people where I was going. Back then, I did what I wanted, when I wanted, with no regrets. Honestly, it was quite liberating and awesome....

Hopefully these guys are just out there enjoying themselves.

I know this feeling well.

I've always disappeared into the woods and gave people a general idea when I'd be back.
When I started dating my now wife I got this reality check on a two week sheep hunt that has no service except in some rare spots.

I got one text out to her while stalking on a nasty ridgeline. Then she assumed I would be able to text back..

Luckily my buddy's wife at the time was pretty used to this and talked mine off the whole "call search and rescue."

Needless to say I had a lot of messages when I got service.

The realization was that someone actually cared about my well-being enough to worry. I hadn't really had or thought about it before that moment.

Now I always have the Garmin. It's worrying that it's not working for them now.
Really hope these guys are alright.

 

[mtnbound]

I’m not following the math here. Between the 3 zones you have 150%?

The rings are related to Lost Person Behavior; these rings are specific to Hunters based on previous missing persons finds from the last known point. LPB is what SAR uses for missing person operations to help define and prioritize search areas. There is also a 95% zone that I omitted.

 

[MuleDeerMike]

The rings are related to Lost Person Behavior; these rings are specific to Hunters based on previous missing persons finds from the last known point. LPB is what SAR uses for missing person operations to help define and prioritize search areas. There is also a 95% zone that I omitted.

Out of curiosity, how many miles is the 95% zone?

 

[mtnbound]

Out of curiosity, how many miles is the 95% zone?

359 square miles or 10.7 miles in any direction from the last known point.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Was the #3 red dot their last position? That looks to be bit gnarly.

 

[mtnbound]

Was the #3 red dot their last position? That looks to be bit gnarly.

No, their last 2 positions were back at their vehicle which is #1.

 

[Chasing elk]

I've been following updates on Facebook. This is definitely a bad situation obviously.
None of it makes sense with most of their gear in the car still.

If it were foul play, you'd think someone would have taken all of their gear as well. Maybe not.

Also, as far as foul play what would those two really have for someone to harm them over? Everything was left in the car it sounds like.


I hope they are found alive soon.

 

[Bobrobheimer]

Lightning seems like the most likely candidate at this point to me. But hopefully not and they roll out anytime now.

 

[justin davis]

Saw in Facebook that there is now a $10,000 reward for finding them.

Seems like something is wrong.

 

[NRA4LIFE]

Without taking their gear, It seems they were just on a day hunt. Go up in the AM, come back in the PM. Something must have happened to them that day to not make it back. Not good.

 

[RS_Non-Res]

Those yellow trails/tracks off the SE side of the map go uphill from the lake. The lake's drainage goes off the map to the east: Downhill along the creek the takes you ...away... from the trail/track. It's about 7.5 miles from #3 to the paved highway where it crosses the creek. Only by an act of God did I find our Yurt skiing in there at about 7 pm in February (bitd). It's big country, plenty of open space but the woods are super dense compared to where I like to hunt. There's also a bazillian trails that make all sorts of loops. It would be hard to get out along a trail w/o some sort of gps and map.

 

[sndmn11]

I've been following updates on Facebook. This is definitely a bad situation obviously.
None of it makes sense with most of their gear in the car still.

If it were foul play, you'd think someone would have taken all of their gear as well. Maybe not.

Also, as far as foul play what would those two really have for someone to harm them over? Everything was left in the car it sounds like.


I hope they are found alive soon.

I said it earlier and I don't think it was taken seriously. Conejos County and the San Luis Valley has a recent history of people disappearing, bodies dumped there, and weird occurrences. It is one of those places where investigators go looking for a certain person's remains, and stumble upon other unknown victims.

It is my favorite place in Colorado by far, but there's a concentration of eye opening and bizarre things there.

 

[justin davis]

I said it earlier and I don't think it was taken seriously. Conejos County and the San Luis Valley has a recent history of people disappearing, bodies dumped there, and weird occurrences. It is one of those places where investigators go looking for a certain person's remains, and stumble upon other unknown victims.

It is my favorite place in Colorado by far, but there's a concentration of eye opening and bizarre things there.

Interesting

 

[loganwayne]

Im definitely not to big of a man to say I've gotten myself lost in places where other people would be familiar and have no issues. Going from being in the mountains to the flatish areas of northern Wisconsin and the UP i can get turned around pretty easy in the woods.

 

[3forks]

I said it earlier and I don't think it was taken seriously. Conejos County and the San Luis Valley has a recent history of people disappearing, bodies dumped there, and weird occurrences. It is one of those places where investigators go looking for a certain person's remains, and stumble upon other unknown victims.

It is my favorite place in Colorado by far, but there's a concentration of eye opening and bizarre things there.

I thought about that aspect of the area too. I’ve spent a lot of time down there, but it gets a ton of tourist traffic, and the crime and murders and all the weird stuff typically happens to locals and people living on the fringes of normal society.

I’m not saying foul play couldn’t have happened, but I don’t think it’s likely as it relates to the missing hunters. However… if foul play is involved, and there was ever a place where something like that would happen, that area is where it would.

 

[180ls1]

Im definitely not to big of a man to say I've gotten myself lost in places where other people would be familiar and have no issues. Going from being in the mountains to the flatish areas of northern Wisconsin and the UP i can get turned around pretty easy in the woods.

Yup, just like the lost/found rifle thread.

If you think it'll never happen to you, you're exactly who it'll happen to.

 

[stalkingwolf]

I'm thinking lightening at this point. Seems too strange for two guys to go missing. My guess is they were riding out one of those storms from last weekend and got hit

 

[Poser]

I’m not sure about East of the divide, but San Juan’s West of the divide did get hammered last week, particularly on the day they went missing. Big booms with lots of very intense lightning, hail, heavy rain… I only saw it from 6,500 feet. Higher elevations were getting it quite a bit more intense. Given the timing, Lightning seems to be a likely culprit.