Tried going out to Bear/Pinnacle lake on Friday morning, but was not impressed to find the road blocked off, before the road splits to hike Boardman, by some sketchy looking truck. There was another suburban like vehicle parked nearby with someone sleeping in the drivers seat. You could see some ruffling inside the truck pictured. The truck had a tarp draped over it and covering the windows from the inside, but you could still see some light from a phone or flashlight inside.
Hopefully this gets cleared soon as it's blocking the trial head access for Bear Lake, Pinnacle Lake, Ashland Lakes and Boardman Lake, to name a few.
Ended up spending another 25 minutes driving back down the service road to do another hike. All in all, ended up being a fantastic day.
Comments
Too bad, that is a long hard road too. Did you contact the authorities? I probably would have. :/
Posted by:
JoleneG on Oct 14, 2018 11:19 AM
Unfortunately I didn't see anyone from the FS on the way down and on Friday, the Verlot ranger station isn't open. It sounds like this was reported the next day.
Posted by:
minimalist marble on Oct 17, 2018 07:51 AM
Have you ever broke down on a FS road? It's no fun...
Looks to me like the suspension gave out, and he was stuck for the night with no cell service. He did the right thing by putting out a reflective triangle out to warn other motorists, and wrapped a tarp around the cab to ward off the cold night. Now just hunker down and wait for a friendly hiker to drive by...
Posted by:
mato on Oct 16, 2018 10:01 AM
That may have been the case, but this truck was still blocking the road when I tried (and failed) to reach Pinnacle Lake on Saturday. It seemed strange that the driver wouldn't have tried to push it over to the side of the road, and as a female, the entire scene raised alarm bells in my head. I turned around and rerouted to another trail and alerted a forest ranger whom I encountered about the issue. He promised to look into it, so hopefully it's been resolved by now.
Posted by:
curriewurst on Oct 16, 2018 10:47 AM
I personally haven't been broken down on a FS road, but can imagine the challenges.
Agreed, upon initial sights, this would look like a broken down vehicle, but after looking around more than 3 seconds you'd see the second SUV nearby, appearing to be fully functional and also parked off the side of the road allowing other cars past. Seems to me it would've been pretty easy to use the second vehicle to help move the "broken down" one, unless after inhaling too many exhaust fumes the obvious became unthinkable.
Glad to hear this was reported by curriewurst and hopefully cleared.
Posted by:
minimalist marble on Oct 17, 2018 07:56 AM
It is unsafe to apply blind optimism to situations like this on mountain loop highway. There is a surplus of not so innocent people who frequent the area and it has a long standing history of crime associated with such people. After personally experiencing this, I would consider myself a fool to assume everyone I meet in the woods is another kind-hearted happy-go-lucky hiker.
Posted by:
jglasson on Oct 20, 2018 08:10 AM
You'd think that if they were looking for help, they'd appear when they heard another vehicle... it's not like driving up a FS road is particularly quiet.. it would raise alarm bells with me too.
Posted by:
ehiker on Nov 07, 2018 01:55 PM