Pickup truck driven up Colorado hiking trail, stuck for four days above treeline

A Colorado Springs driver was ticketed after piloting his full-size pickup along a hiking trail and getting stuck at 13,000 feet recently. The truck remained there for four days until a towing company was able to wrench it free. 

Hikers posted photos and complaints on social media about the stuck truck, making it one of the more high profile cases of recreational misuse of machinery in the high country. 

But the owner of the towing company told CBS News Colorado that “this happens once a week.” 

It’s an “ongoing issue” often with people coming in from out-of-state who rent off-road vehicles (or snowmobiles in the winter), drive up hiking trail, across high country wetlands, and to the edges of lakes, according to Charlie Stubblefield, owner of Mountain Recovery. They are unfamiliar with trail rules and regulations, don’t ask questions, and aren’t given guidance by the companies they rent from. 

“They’re unaware, out of their element, and unprepared. And they end up in a situation like this GMC did. And then they’re a problem,” Stubblefield said, “because somebody didn’t give somebody a map.”

The truck, a 2023 GMC, slid off the Mount Cameron trail on August 27, its rear passenger-side wheel sinking in the scree (loose rock) and high-centering its differential on the downhill edge of the steep footpath. His truck immobilized above timberline, the driver abandoned it and hiked several miles to the town of Alma to call for help. 

Mount Cameron is 14,238 feet above see level. Because it isn’t separate from its neighboring peaks by more than 300 feet in elevation, it is technically not counted as a “14er.” Still, it is a popular destination as part of the four-peak loop called “Decalibron” which is comprised of trails across Democrat, Lincoln, Cameron and Bross. 

Stubblefield said the GMC’s driver was a young man based at the Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs. That driver called Stubblefield’s business for an estimate for vehicle recovery and was not enthused. So the driver contacted a volunteer organization, Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery. The non-profit offers free recovery of vehicles 365 days a year in nearly all conditions. Its volunteers often build complex winch systems to pull four-wheeling vehicles – some which have rolled until lodged against trees – safely back onto the roads and toward civilization. On-site repairs are not uncommon. 

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Eight of its team members responded to the Mount Cameron trail the morning of Aug. 31, according to spokesperson Kimi McBryde. They drove a small Jeep to the site and spent 12 hours trying to dislodge the GMC from its position – unsuccessfully. McBryde said crews were unable to sink solid winch anchors into the surrounding scree and had to resort to shoveling rocks by hand. The truck was again abandoned as the sun began to set. 

The owner then called Stubblefield’s Mountain Recovery back the next day and accepted his offer.

Stubblefield enlisted two of his best recovery drivers and sent them out with a “track machine,” a modified, tank-treaded excavator. The treads kept terrain impact to a minimum, yet the 4,000-pound vehicle was heavy enough to lift the GMC straight up if necessary, Stubblefield said. 

The recovery crew used the track machine to “level out” the ground underneath and beside the GMC, then tugged it uphill and forward. Once on the hiking trail again, the pickup’s driver was able to back the truck down the hill. 

U.S. Forest Service spokesperson Donna Nemeth confirmed that the GMC driver was issued a citation for driving a vehicle off of a designated route on the Motor Vehicle Use Map. She did not state the amount of the fine.

But Stubblefield said those Forest Service tickets are usually in the range of $150. 

Mountain Recovery’s invoice for the GMC’s recovery: Nearly $3,500. 

Therein lies part of the problem, Stubblefield explained: A lack of consequences for bad backcountry behavior. 

A meeting – between the USFS, several counties (Summit, Eagle, Pitkin and Grand), search and rescue agencies, Stubblefield’s Mountain Recovery and McBryde’s Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery – addressed that issue two weeks ago. Stubblefield said the discussion brought up the possibility that stuck vehicles’ drivers be required to hire tow companies for recovery, and not let the rental companies send up their own personnel into the backcountry or ask volunteers like Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery to get their vehicle unstuck – without cost.

“We have the ability to hold someone’s vehicle until they pay the bill,” Stubblefield said. “It gives what we do for the Forest Service teeth.”  

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Stubblefield added that Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery is staffed with good-hearted people doing good work. But it’s possible that careless backcountry drivers are let off the hook by their free service. 

“That’s a 100% fair question,” Colorado 4×4’s McBryde acknowledged. “I think we try to approach those situations in that it’s a mistake and an experience. Even the most experienced people get stuck and need help. Things happen, right?”

What complicates the idea, McBryde said, is the potential subjectivity in the decisions to nail someone financially or let them escape their misadventure with their wallet intact. Who will be the person to determine whether a driver was careless or properly prepared? 

“This guy messed up,” she said about the GMC driver, but that’s not always the case. The most experienced and well-prepared drivers can have mechanical breakdowns. 

Further, her teams won’t touch a vehicle unless the driver/owner is on site, and on-trail education occurs then and there, on the spot. 

“It’s pretty embarrassing,” she said. “You get your stuck and have a fleet of people come get you. I don’t want to say ‘shaming,’ but it’s embarrassing.”  

McBryde concluded by pointing out that many of the non-profits biggest donations come from the people it rescues, and there is no plan to stop providing free recovery. 

“We love the wilderness. A lot of us come from service backgrounds – military, EMS,” she said. “Most do it because they have this cool, built-up vehicle and they want to give back. And this is a good way to do it.”  

Aside from penalizing errant drivers after the fact, taking preventative measures is also on the table. Stubblefield said rental companies may be required to operate more like backcountry guides and further educate their customers before the keys are turned in the ignition.

All participants admitted that whatever comes of the meetings between the Forest Service, counties, search and rescue, and recovery teams, changes will take time to implement.