I finally received a letter from the Clark Creek Ranger District regarding my encounter on Mt. Evans (read the first part of the story if you are not familiar with it). It took me almost six weeks and several e-mails to get an official statement from the Ranger District. I guess an underfunded federal agency has more pressing issues to deal with.
The good news is that it was an over-eager FS employee who kicked me off the mountain.
The bad news is that, according to the letter, the Federal Code of Regulation [36 CFR 261.10(a)], which applies to communication equipment, is written with some built-in ambiguity and might be interpreted differently in other Forest Service units.
Official Response
Well, I will deal with another interpretation if and when I run into another issue. The Clear Creek Ranger District interpretation however makes sense to me – chapter closed!
I really appreciate the clarification.
Read the entire letter by clicking on the thumbnail to the right.
That’s my last post from Mt Evans but there are two more pictures I wanted to share. The first one was shot at the Summit Lake trail-head early in the morning. The trail starts on the right side of the picture, goes up the ridge to Mt. Spalding and over to Mt. Evans.
Panorama of the Mt. Evans Area
Mountain goat on Mt. Evans
The second picture is from a close encounter of the third kind… well, not quite but is was remarkable. This unflinching mountain goat approached me. The picture is shot with a 52mm lens, not a tele-photo lens. He came up to me at arms lengh… too close for my taste. I normally try to keep a save distance between wild animals and myself, but this guy was not shy at all. Since I had never heard about occurrences of rabies in mountain goats and since I received some goat combat lessons earlier in the year (courtesy of Rooster) on my trip to Mt. Herman, I took the chance to take some real close-up shots instead of retreating.
Comments are open, feel free to add your thoughts.
73, Matt/KØMOS
!! WARNING !! There are old mountaineers, and
bold mountaineers... there are no old-bold mountaineers.
Hiking and mountain climbing are potentially hazardous activities particularly in Colorado with its extreme elevations. I am not accepting responsibility for any death or injury resulting from activations based on my trip reports. Proper training, experience, and personal capability assessment is required - enjoy!
Excellent photography. Thanks for the inclusion of the letter clarifying the antenna issue.
Many thanks for sharing your Mt. Evans experience with us. It was very responsible of you to redact the name of the over-eager employee. I would be interested in knowing whether and how often this kind of thing has happened to others, SOTA participants or not.
I would also be interested in participating in a proactive approach with all federal agencies in charge of summit access–the NPS, the BLM, and of course the FS. Perhaps just bringing the matter to their attention on a national scale (rather than on a ranger-by-ranger scale) would be helpful.
Though it would certainly take some concerted and persistent effort, maybe the related CFR sections can be amended to clarify the status of SOTA and other individual amateur activities.
Todd
K7TFC / Medford, Oregon, USA
Mark –
Here are some additional ideas about being cautious around mountain goats – http://www.peninsuladailynews.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=2011307089996
This follow-up story does not describe how the goat stood his ground over the bleeding and dying victim, thus not allowing others in the party to come to his aid. A tragic story.
Etienne, K7ATN
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