Missing hunters in Colorado

[hburggunner]

Trying a new approach.

Dear Heavenly Father,

Please be with these two hunters, Andrew and Ian. They need your help and guidance and no matter their condition or where they are, we know you can help them. Please guide them to safety and use your definition, dear Lord of safety as you guide them. Please watch over their families, friends, loved ones and responders. We pray for their safe return into the arms of their loved ones. Help each of those working to help, be equipped with your spiritual gifts and fruit to do what’s needed in this effort. We ask that You be glorified and praised in all things at all times by all tongues. Forgive us our sins and help us live for your glory.

All this and all things we ask in Jesus name,

Amen.

 

[Deadspace]

People do strange and dangerous things. That doesn’t mean it’s appropriate to speculate as to any of those activities possibly happening in this instance. Time and place man - read the room. When in a hole, stop digging.

He’s got a story to compare against everything. It’s a pattern. Best to just scroll past his posts.

 

[Southernfried]

Looking at the area that the shared set of pins are, and the truck location that they were last seen at, I have to think that they have passed by now. This is my theory.

Grabbed gear at truck for a evening hunt, maybe they saw something close, maybe wanted to check out a new area. On that evening hunt, one of the two was struck with a critical injury due to weather. Broken femur, maybe a head injury due to a rockslide or maybe a fallen tree.

The uninjured one stays with his buddy for a day or two, hoping that help will come, not wanting to abandon his friend to get help. Finally, after a couple of days, and the injury getting worse, the uninjured guy heads out to find help, but due to lack of food, maybe hypothermia he gets easily turned around, and wanders off in the wrong direction. I doubt that either of them made it far since there are a lot of trails and roads in the area. My guess is that they will be found apart from each other, less than 2 miles from the truck.

I hope and pray I am wrong, but this version here, or one similar, is the only thing that makes sense after this length of time, age of the young men etc. For 2 guys to disappear, they either had to be separated at some point, or something disastrous happened to them both, at the same time. I have 32 year old daughter and 27 year old son, I do not want to even think about what horrors are going through these two kids parents minds. May God give them all peace, and strength to get through this, if the worst has truly happened.

 

[Marble]

There’s been a lot of conflicting information but I believe the inReach was left in the vehicle.

A ping requires tracking or a message sent. If the device is on, Garmin can ping it if requested.

I would go one step further and say that OnX would be able to see their location also. I do not know this for a fact, but the AP does speak with satellites when offline. If so, I'm sure these things would be looked at by those searching.

Sent from my SM-S918U using Tapatalk

 

[AZ8]

Isn’t this Fall foliage season in the San Juan’s? Surprised more people haven’t come forward with info that they bumped into them.

Every hour that passes now brings us closer to a conclusion we hoped wasn’t true.

 

[wildwilderness]

My thinking too @TexasCub

After almost a week of no contact, it seems close to zero that this is a Search and Rescue now, but a Search and Recovery.

Let's see if the prayers setforth in this thread do their job. I'm hopeful they do.

Anyone remember the thread from a couple years ago of the hunter who disappeared in the AK tundra while taking a short walk from camp with nary a trace. That case is a strange one too, but seems more likely as possible compared to this one

Yea that TN hunter in Alaska for caribou in 2022 disappeared without a trace. Had to only go 0.7 miles to retrieve a load of meat- he never made it to the meat pack or back… In that case he did set out solo in the morning.

SAR statistics are grim, time to rescue is short, positive outcomes most likely in first 24 hrs, with anything past 51 hrs missing only 1-2% likelihood of success. Most will wait out of hope and respect to call it a recovery and implications for resource management etc until a week or so depending on circumstances.

Prayers for the families and loved ones missing them. Not knowing is a heavy burden

 

[mtnbound]

Question about the inreach pings for my own education. Does simply turning the inreach on and allowing it time to connect to satellites result in a ping that could be used to locate someone? Or does a ping require some manual operation, like sending a message or have the tracking enabled? I typically keep mine off and turn it on to check in once or twice a day with the fam. I do not have the tracking feature enabled. Wondering if I should turn it on while traveling or periodically during the day, if that would result in my location being recorded somehow.

When you turn the unit on, it will collect your current position. If you have set up a mapshare link and sent it to someone, they can then see your previous and current position.

If you only turn it on once or twice a day, you are not really benefiting from the unit's safety features. Garmin, at the request of the responsible law enforcement agency, can provide the history of the device's location. However, without the unit turned on, you would be in the exact same situation as these individuals.

If the unit was left on and you could not, for whatever reason, send a message or SOS, Garmin, at the request of the responsible law enforcement agency, could then provide a much more detailed history, thus saving time and possibly saving your life.

Yes, for safety, keep your unit on and set up a mapshare link with someone. If you go back in this thread, you see where I posted more about this.

 

[ndhuntermanND]

Didn't an older gentleman disappear down in this part of colorado a few years ago??
So weird to be missing 2..

 

[taskswap]

If you only turn it on once or twice a day, you are not really benefiting from the unit's safety features. Garmin, at the request of the responsible law enforcement agency, can provide the history of the device's location. However, without the unit turned on, you would be in the exact same situation as these individuals.

It's also worth noting that the unit needs a "clear view of the sky" to work properly. I've done a lot of testing on this and found that it will still work fine near the top of a pack, like in a "lid" if you have one, but if you bury it at the bottom or place metal things on or next to it (ammo pouch, cathole trowel, etc) that can prevent it from working. Satellite signals TO the device are strong so you may not realize this is happening because it will still function as a GPS. But the device's transmissions are much weaker (or its battery wouldn't last an hour) and more easily disrupted. If you own/use one be sure to keep it as high and external as you can.

 

[Sooner]

Didn't an older gentleman disappear down in this part of colorado a few years ago??
So weird to be missing 2..

Yes, he was from the town in Oklahoma that I live in.

 

[505Wapiti]

Yes, he was from the town in Oklahoma that I live in.

Was that the elderly gentleman from Muldrow? Did they ever find him or any remains?

 

[mtnbound]

I think people have a lot of misconceptions with what happens when you punch that button. Maybe they did, but they didn’t have a clear line of sight for the signal. I’ve used my inreach for messaging and in some places you just can’t get a message to go through. If you got hurt in a spot like that, hitting the SOS button wouldn’t do you any good.

This is why you keep the unit on and share a mapshare link with someone who knows your plan. If you fail to show up or check in, they can see your last position ( by default, your location is sent every 10 minutes) and give that information to the responsible agency. Even if you do not set up a mapshare map with the unit on and at the request of the responsible law enforcement agency, they can request that information from Garmin. Garmin excels at providing direction of travel, time stamps, and movement status, which offer vital information to help locate the missing person.

 

[Sooner]

Was that the elderly gentleman from Muldrow? Did they ever find him or any remains?

Yes sir that is him. I don't think they ever found anything.

 

[mtnbound]

It's also worth noting that the unit needs a "clear view of the sky" to work properly. I've done a lot of testing on this and found that it will still work fine near the top of a pack, like in a "lid" if you have one, but if you bury it at the bottom or place metal things on or next to it (ammo pouch, cathole trowel, etc) that can prevent it from working. Satellite signals TO the device are strong so you may not realize this is happening because it will still function as a GPS. But the device's transmissions are much weaker (or its battery wouldn't last an hour) and more easily disrupted. If you own/use one be sure to keep it as high and external as you can.

100% correct, it is best to keep the unit outside and with the antenna pointed in the proper direction.

 

[Dan Carey]

I think my onX only works when I have phone service.

 

[grfox92]

I think my onX only works when I have phone service.

GPS works with or without service, downloaded maps work without service as well.

Sent from my SM-G990U using Tapatalk

 

[Dan Carey]

I have Garmin GPS, and onX on my phone. My Garmin GPS don't send out.

 

[TexasCub]

Yea that TN hunter in Alaska for caribou in 2022 disappeared without a trace. Had to only go 0.7 miles to retrieve a load of meat- he never made it to the meat pack or back… In that case he did set out solo in the morning.

That’s a different world though, caribou live amongst grizzlies, I can’t count how many hairy grizzly encounters I had while hunting caribou living in Alaska, lost a bunch of caribou to grizzly’s . A solo hunter recovering meat from a previous kill can be the most dangerous thing a hunter can do in the tundra. Alaskas abundance of predators will disappear a human in days, bears, wolves, coyotes, wolverine, foxes,weasel ,eagles they’d make short work of a human body.

 

[Coopsdaddy]

There needs to be an option on the garmin contract that you can designate certain people to access.
Not just at the request of the responsible law enforcement agency.
If my wife wants to have 100% of all my data she should be allowed to get it instantly.
It may be a priority to her,in today’s world it may not be as big priority to others.

 

[Dakota_Rookie]

I have usually turned my InReach on when I intend to check in with my wife. I never thought the unit could still track me when turned on but I just never really felt like I was in danger and would want to conserve battery. What a crazy way to think about after following this thread and having a new perspective. If the unit was turned off and I got into trouble, chances would be good that I wouldn’t be able to turn it on and get the SOS button pressed. At least if it’s always on with tracking, it would provide benefit to a SAR.

I will now be keeping it on with tracking and simply use my battery bank that never seems to fall below 75% on a hunt anyway. If nothing else this thread has given me a new perspective on how quickly it really can go poorly and I hope others take away something similar. I’ll probably have the InReach clipped to my pack on every hunt from now on, even local day hunts where I typically wouldn’t even bring it. I have it. Might as well use it.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk