Odd rescue scenario; Pronghorns getting killed; Mountain lion killed near school; & More...

[00:00:00] Welcome to the OutThere Colorado Podcast. I'm your host Spencer McKee coming to you from our studio in Colorado Springs, Colorado. Got a few interesting stories that I wanted to chat about today along with an update about marijuana in Colorado Springs. That'll be coming at the end though. Things that we chatted about last week weren't quite as certain as they seemed at that time. But either way, gonna dive into some outdoor recreation related stuff first.

[00:00:29] Starting with a story out of California. And I know, obviously this is a Colorado themed podcast, but this story is pretty wild and honestly there are some lessons to be learned that will apply to hikers in Colorado as well. So the headline for this story, two hiking with 150 pounds of new gear and five gallons of water rescued on a 14,505 foot

[00:00:59] peak with that peak. With that peak being Mount Whitney, the tallest peak in the lower 48 states of the United States. Basically what happened, uh, this took place on November 2nd.

[00:01:13] Two, two, two hikers set out on this trail. It's a little bit over 21 miles to get to the summit of Mount Whitney and back. I think about 6,600 feet of vertical gain along that hike. So very strenuous, very long, definitely a hike that you're not going to want to be carrying excessive gear with, uh, excessive gear with you at while you're, while you're on the trail there.

[00:01:38] But either way, these two people said to be very inexperienced, uh, did not follow that guideline. Basically their plan was to hike about three miles up to a lake called Lone Pine Lake and then set up camp for the night.

[00:01:52] They left the trailhead at about 6 PM. So already a little bit late this time of the year, especially, but by the time 3 AM rolled around, they still had not made it to Lone Pine Lake.

[00:02:05] They'd only traveled about 2.7 miles largely because between the two of them, they had 150 pounds of gear. Can't stress that enough.

[00:02:14] 150 pounds of gear and newly purchased gear too, as said by the Inyo County search and rescue team. So probably not gear they were very familiar with.

[00:02:25] Uh, one, one could believe, but either way they ended up getting to this 2.7 mile mark. They're extremely exhausted.

[00:02:33] One of the hikers had some pretty bad blisters and also had a really bad headache. It was later discovered that, or later, later told the search and rescuers that she actually had a mass in her brain that was sensitive to barometric pressure.

[00:02:46] Uh, obviously that altitude change can trigger that. And at this point they're probably about 1700 vertical feet up this trail as well.

[00:02:55] So they've already had quite a bit of elevation gain over this nine hour period that they're hiking these 2.7 miles.

[00:03:04] Assumedly very, very much so struggling along the way, but either way, they set up camp on the side of the trail and decide to go to bed for the night.

[00:03:13] They wake up a bit later to discover that it's snowing out and their boots are filled with fresh powder.

[00:03:21] Also a problem, right?

[00:03:23] At this point they, they call for help, uh, via iPhone's SOS feature, which very cool that iPhone's doing that.

[00:03:32] Um, you know, love to, love to see that in the hands of more people.

[00:03:36] Uh, but either way, that's what they use to call for help search and rescue crews arrive.

[00:03:42] Um, I think they set out on the trail.

[00:03:45] So remember they started this hike on Friday night at 6 PM call for help, uh, or after they stop at about 3 AM early hours of Saturday morning, call for help.

[00:03:57] When they wake up search and rescue crews launch into the field at about 10 AM on that Saturday morning, they reach the hikers by one 40.

[00:04:07] The hikers take some time to rest in the sun and let their shoes dry out.

[00:04:13] Eventually they feel good enough to start this descent down the mountain.

[00:04:17] They make it back to the trailhead at about 3 15 PM with all their gear.

[00:04:23] Obviously the glaring issue with this hike is 150 pounds of gear.

[00:04:29] And on top of that, it wasn't even just 150 pounds of gear.

[00:04:32] It was also said that they had five gallons of water with them, which weighs about 42 pounds, if my math is correct.

[00:04:40] So that's 192 pounds of gear and water between two people, you know, 96 pounds a person.

[00:04:49] And the reason I wanted to talk about this story too, is when it comes to packing your bag, it's recommended that you only carry about 20% of your body weight.

[00:05:02] No more than that.

[00:05:03] Obviously you can carry less, but no more than that.

[00:05:06] So if you're way, if you weigh about 150 pounds, right?

[00:05:09] That means you're carrying 30 pounds of weight in your backpack.

[00:05:14] So not very much.

[00:05:15] Obviously these people were, were carrying three times that weight.

[00:05:20] Anyone, almost anyone, right?

[00:05:21] It would be extremely exhausted after even walking a few steps with that much weight on their back, let alone 2.7 miles.

[00:05:28] So really important to make sure you're managing the weight in your pack and, and keeping that in mind.

[00:05:36] One thing that I like to do, um, and I've, I've been, I've trail ran or trail and trail running quite a bit, um, over the last few years.

[00:05:45] And one thing that is very important with trail running is cutting weight, obviously.

[00:05:51] And what I find is over time, I can kind of add things into the pack, pull them out as I need them and really hone what type of gear I'm bringing along for that run.

[00:06:02] The same thing goes for hiking or, you know, a backpacking trip where you really want to just be able to form that, that collection of gear that you're bringing along over time.

[00:06:13] And making sure that you're learning how to use everything properly and learning what you need and what you don't need.

[00:06:20] Either way, these, these hikers did not do that.

[00:06:23] Um, clearly, uh, search and rescue also recommended using a water filtration system for long overnight hikes as that cuts weight too.

[00:06:31] As long as you know where these water sources are.

[00:06:34] So obviously planning ahead with that mapping is important.

[00:06:36] Uh, and just, and just knowing the forecast, I think they didn't know that it was going to snow either.

[00:06:41] And might not have been prepared for that.

[00:06:44] They were said to be pretty experienced or pretty inexperienced hikers.

[00:06:48] So probably one of those things where they just kind of bought the whole shop, so to speak, assuming that they would be ready for whatever they encountered.

[00:06:57] That was obviously their pitfall.

[00:06:59] So yeah, wanted to talk about that story just because whenever I started reading into some of the details about that, I honestly couldn't believe it.

[00:07:08] Uh, you know, it's like, at what point of the hike are you like, uh, I think we packed too much gear and should maybe turn around.

[00:07:14] Remember turning around is always an option.

[00:07:17] And they did do the right thing by calling search and rescue when they needed help and stopping on the trail and staying in one spot so they could easily be found.

[00:07:24] So kudos to them for that.

[00:07:26] That said, you know, pack less gear.

[00:07:29] Um, also, I mean, minutes ago, I was just covering another story out of California since we're on the topic of California, apparently that involved a suspected insurance fraud scheme.

[00:07:41] It with a person in a bear outfit.

[00:07:43] So basically this happened back in January, four suspects have now been arrested in the case in recent days.

[00:07:51] Um, but this happened back in January in kind of a, it sounded like a mountainous part of the state.

[00:07:57] These people say that a bear broke into their Rolls Royce vehicle, obviously a luxury car.

[00:08:04] That was a 2010 Rolls Royce.

[00:08:06] And they reported this to their insurance company and said that the bear had damaged the interior of that vehicle with, with photos of claw marks.

[00:08:17] They also submitted security footage of the said bear inside of the vehicle.

[00:08:22] It's pretty grainy.

[00:08:22] You can see it on out there, colorado.com, uh, just type in some keywords from what I'm talking about in Google and it'll pop up.

[00:08:30] But basically a wildlife expert came in as part of this investigation into this insurance claim.

[00:08:37] And they essentially were like, you know, this is a, this is a human in a bear costume, not a bear.

[00:08:43] Turns out the people had also submitted a similar, similar claim for, uh, two other vehicles to two different insurance companies.

[00:08:52] Uh, for the same date, same location.

[00:08:56] Also with video footage of this human in a bear costume or, or alleged human in a bear costume breaking into these vehicles.

[00:09:05] The total amount of fraud in this case.

[00:09:09] Uh, so it was said that the insurance companies were defrauded out of $141,000.

[00:09:15] So a lot of money there.

[00:09:18] Um, obviously all these claims are alleged, uh, probably not helping the case of the defense though.

[00:09:24] Apparently there was a search warrant for the suspect's hat, the suspect's home.

[00:09:29] Whenever they serve that search warrant, they found a, a bear costume complete with claws.

[00:09:36] Uh, there were like these little sharp, like handheld, like knife things.

[00:09:41] Like it's yeah, pretty ridiculous story out of California too.

[00:09:44] So since we're talking about California might as well bring that up, but back to Colorado, something is happening after all this snow that we got on the Eastern planes.

[00:09:56] It's pretty tragic.

[00:09:57] And it involves the second fastest land mammal in or on the planet, I guess, really a second behind only the cheetah.

[00:10:06] Uh, and that is the pronghorn.

[00:10:09] So you see them, they often called antelope, right?

[00:10:11] But by, by people that spot them, but you see them out on the planes a lot.

[00:10:16] One place I always see them is out by that Hartzell area, uh, out in the park County.

[00:10:21] Um, see a huge herds of dozens, if not, you know, a hundred of them together.

[00:10:26] But according to Colorado parks and wildlife, more than a hundred of them have been hit and killed by vehicles in recent days.

[00:10:34] Following this big snow.

[00:10:36] So basically what happens is these pronghorns, they, right.

[00:10:40] They graze in this like planes area, but whenever it snows a lot, they seek refuge on roadways.

[00:10:47] So they get, get past the fencing and they just kind of congregate in these roads and they even sleep in these roads.

[00:10:54] Right.

[00:10:54] So it's, you know, presumably at nighttime, um, pronghorns just laying in these roads in mass, essentially dozens at a time.

[00:11:04] Um, and what happens is these pronghorns, they can't run very fast on icy roads to escape oncoming vehicles and drivers.

[00:11:13] They're either, they don't see them or they're not paying attention.

[00:11:15] They're traveling too fast.

[00:11:17] And I mean, if you're going down any road and at night with visibility already a bit limited, you know, it's probably pretty hard to see a bunch of pronghorn laying down on a road.

[00:11:26] But either way, the drivers plow into these pronghorn and kill them, uh, very sadly.

[00:11:33] So more than a hundred have been killed in the Eastern Plains region in recent days.

[00:11:37] So that's something to be aware of whenever there's deep snow around.

[00:11:41] Know that pronghorns might be in the road.

[00:11:43] Uh, and while pronghorns, they can jump over fences.

[00:11:46] They don't like to, they prefer to go under the fencing, right.

[00:11:48] And whenever there's deep snow, it kind of covers that gap that is below that fencing.

[00:11:54] So it makes it to where they're essentially kind of trapped on these roads and just large congregations.

[00:11:59] And yeah, they, uh, not a great scenario when you got cars there too.

[00:12:05] So be on the lookout for pronghorns on roads and upcoming days and weeks as all this snow and throughout winter is all the snow's falling.

[00:12:13] All the landowners in that area have been asked to kind of plow their fields to make them more livable for pronghorns.

[00:12:21] So that pronghorns don't go onto the road for, to find that lack of snow.

[00:12:25] Right.

[00:12:26] And then, yeah, drivers just go to pay attention, slow down and know that that is a hazard to look out for.

[00:12:34] Also, another story in wildlife news that I wanted to chat about a little bit was a mountain lion was killed kind of in the area of an elementary school in Greeley, Colorado.

[00:12:47] So basically it's sounds like this took place on the morning of November 8th.

[00:12:52] So kids are getting dropped off.

[00:12:55] Parents are in the area.

[00:12:57] And all of a sudden it's realized that a mountain lion is on school grounds and kind of in this general area.

[00:13:03] So, uh, the Greeley police officers arrive at the scene and they, they try to create this sort of containment zone for this mountain lion.

[00:13:15] The school gets put on a secure perimeter status, which basically means no one can enter or leave the building.

[00:13:20] And while officers are trying to contain this predator in this area, it's, it's not going too well.

[00:13:30] Colorado parks and wildlife officials or staff are on the way to help manage the incident, but it's, you know, it's taken them a while to get there.

[00:13:38] So at this point, the police are in charge and kind of alone in this.

[00:13:43] And essentially what happens is the mountain lion tries to break out of this containment area.

[00:13:48] And when it does, one of the officers discharges their weapon shooting and killing this mountain lion.

[00:13:55] So happened at a, I think it was Madison K eight school is the school that it took place at, uh, or at least the area that it took place at is an area that Madison K eight school.

[00:14:07] So pretty interesting situation.

[00:14:10] Uh, one thing that stuck, stuck out to me when I was reporting on this was that it happened in Greeley, Colorado and Greeley, Colorado.

[00:14:18] For those of you don't know, not necessarily right by the mountains, right?

[00:14:21] Like this is, you know, farther East than Fort Collins even.

[00:14:25] And Fort Collins is kind of where those mountains meet the plains in a sense.

[00:14:30] So pretty far from mountainous terrain where you'd expect to see a mountain lion, right?

[00:14:35] But wildlife officials, they basically followed up this report by saying that while mountain lion sightings are rare in Greeley, they're not necessarily unheard of.

[00:14:46] Essentially what mountain lions do when they're entering this part of Colorado is they're kind of following along waterways that go into the Greeley area pretty much in search of prey, right?

[00:14:56] So they follow these waterways and then they're in this spot.

[00:15:00] That's not mountainous.

[00:15:01] So the takeaway here is that mountain lions can be found in kind of unexpected areas.

[00:15:07] You know, you got places like Pueblo, for example, which, you know, it's not right up against mountains, but does have waterways that kind of link mountainous terrain to Pueblo.

[00:15:17] So another place where maybe there could be a mountain lion encounter, you never know.

[00:15:22] Mountain lions travel for prey.

[00:15:23] So if you're seeing deer and you're seeing other prey animals, you know, you got to anticipate that a predator is probably there.

[00:15:31] Um, also kind of another thing that relates to this law enforcement provided steps, uh, for a situation where you encounter a mountain lion.

[00:15:41] They call them the smart steps S M A R T.

[00:15:47] The S stands for a stop.

[00:15:49] Do not approach the mountain lion.

[00:15:50] The M stands for make yourself larger by raising your arms.

[00:15:53] The A stands for announce yourself loudly.

[00:15:56] The R stands for retreat slowly without turning your back.

[00:16:00] And the T stands for tell local authorities.

[00:16:02] And you can make a report online.

[00:16:04] If you spot a mountain lion or have mountain lion encounter, Colorado parks and wildlife makes it easy.

[00:16:08] Just Google search that and you'll find it.

[00:16:11] All right.

[00:16:12] So one last story before we kind of get into the marijuana situation in Colorado Springs is that frontier airlines has recently hidden a thousand dollars in flight vouchers around the, or I guess,

[00:16:29] five thousand dollars each, each flight voucher is worth a thousand dollars.

[00:16:32] They've hidden them around the Denver Metro area.

[00:16:35] It's a sort of scavenger hunt.

[00:16:36] They're hidden in these green branded piggy bank, like plastic piggy bank looking things.

[00:16:43] Um, and yeah, so if you find one of these, you get a thousand dollars in free flights of frontier.

[00:16:48] And you also get a one year membership for frontiers discount, den, low fare travel club.

[00:16:54] Pretty interesting.

[00:16:55] Said to be posting clues about where these little piggy banks can be found on their social media pages.

[00:17:03] So check that out there and maybe you'll have a shot at getting multiple free flights for, for next year and, and cheap flights.

[00:17:12] Uh, you can also enter online too.

[00:17:14] So if you find the article on the out there, Colorado page or on the Denver Gazette page, uh, with Jonathan Ingram reporting on that there, you can find a link to enter this online as well.

[00:17:25] All right, time to kind of backtrack on what was said last week about the Colorado marijuana situation.

[00:17:33] Uh, a little bit of recap there.

[00:17:35] Basically there were two kind of opposing ballot initiatives that took place during the November 6th voting period, um, in Colorado Springs.

[00:17:47] One of which was a vote on whether or not the city should all out ban recreational marijuana sales, which they are already banned, but this would add it into the city charter to make it more permanently officially banned.

[00:18:04] And we'll say, yeah, Colorado Springs, one of the only places in the state where you can't get recreational marijuana.

[00:18:10] You can get it in surrounding communities, but not in Colorado Springs.

[00:18:12] Medical marijuana is sold in Colorado Springs, but yeah, no rec marijuana.

[00:18:18] Um, but either way, this other ballot initiative was essentially should we restrict or should, should Colorado Springs restrict recreational marijuana sales to the existing medical marijuana dispensaries?

[00:18:34] Originally, what we reported on was that the ban or that voters voted to ban recreational marijuana sales while also voting to allow recreational marijuana sales at these medical marijuana dispensaries.

[00:18:51] As more votes have been counted, it looks like voters will not be voting to ban marijuana.

[00:18:59] Voters will not be voting to ban marijuana sales while they're also voting to limit marijuana or recreational marijuana sales to these medical marijuana facilities.

[00:19:08] So the confusion there kind of continues.

[00:19:13] Honestly, I haven't seen a solid confirmation over what exactly got is getting past there, especially with that, that first one I was talking about related to just the specific city charter ban on recreational marijuana sales.

[00:19:28] But there was another kind of confusing aspect that sold or that kind of found its way into this mix.

[00:19:38] Right.

[00:19:39] And that is essentially, I was seeing reports that if recreational marijuana sales are indeed allowed, but restricted to only medical marijuana retail facilities.

[00:19:53] Right.

[00:20:23] And that essentially makes it to where recreational sales can't happen.

[00:20:27] So, I mean, the topic, this entire situation, you know, just continues.

[00:20:33] Colorado Springs will figure it out at some point.

[00:20:35] I imagine maybe you'll see some medical marijuana facilities moving so that they are not within a mile of a school.

[00:20:42] But, I mean, who knows?

[00:20:43] It's a bit chaotic right now in Colorado Springs when it comes to weed.

[00:20:47] And the local voters have, at least in the past years, have continued to vote against recreational marijuana sales.

[00:20:55] So, and it's still a hot button topic.

[00:20:58] So maybe we'll have another update for you here in a week or so about what's going to happen there.

[00:21:05] As far as I know, Colorado Springs remains the largest city in Colorado that, and maybe one of the only cities in Colorado that doesn't allow recreational marijuana sales.

[00:21:16] Yeah.

[00:21:17] Kind of interesting.

[00:21:18] We'll see where it goes.

[00:21:19] But that's about all I got for you today.

[00:21:22] So tune in next week.

[00:21:23] I will have Seth back on talking about some of his latest feature stories.

[00:21:28] Thank you so much for listening to the Out There Colorado podcast.

[00:21:31] Once again, I'm your host, Spencer McGee, and we will chat soon.