January 1999 Campfire Tales

by Larry Heck of

PASS PATROL

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Wheeler Lake

It had been a few years since I had been to Wheeler Lake and Trapdoor had not been there at all. Just seems like there was always something else to do. Last summer we fixed that problem.

We were already into the last weeks of September so we knew we were lucky it wasn’t snowed in yet. I’m happy to say that all the horrible things I said about that trail are still true. Or was that wonderful things I said. I guess it depends on who’s telling the story.

Trapdoor and I got an early start. Must have been around nine o’clock. We crossed over Hoosier Pass south of Breckenridge and turned on the first road going right. That took us past the Montgomery Reservoir and through the mine property on the west side of the lake. The fun stuff started immediately.

We took our time to be sure we didn’t damage anything and just maintained a very slow pace all the way through. Besides big rocks that keep jumping out of the ground to ding the underside, the trail has some nasty brush on both sides to work on the paint. This is not a good place to a shiny new stock vehicle unless you just want to give it more of a “used” look.

I have never driven all the way to the lake. That last quarter mile is more than I care to tackle. If you have lockers and a lift kit, go for it but I’ll warn you that I have seen vehicle get real close to rolling on that turn. I’ve also seen caved in doors, rocker panels, and one time we rescued a driver who lost his transmission trying to get through it.

The Pike National Forest Service Map includes this entire area. The USGS County Maps have more detail. Wheeler Lake is in Park County.

1999 Tracker

More power and more luxury. They aren’t called GEO any longer. The emblem on the front is definitely Chevrolet. Other than that, they still look about the same. Once you get behind the wheel though, major differences are evident. Our test vehicle had a five speed manual with overdrive. On a trip to Colorado Springs, no shifting was necessary. The Tracker pulled right into the main stream of traffic and held the pace with everyone else going up and down the hills with ease. It is true that you aren’t going to go to Wheeler Lake with this little fellow. On the other hand, it would do quite nicely on the major forest roads. It is agile and turns on a dime. It is small enough to work its way around and between many obstacles. Overall, it is a fun little truck to drive.

Pass Patrol Fades into History

Two years ago, Utah wilderness advocates tried to get Pass Patrol thrown out of Grand Staircase. That failed, but they are back and this time it is Canyonlands. Apparently, they convinced Canyonlands that Pass Patrol is a tour company and that I am personally getting rich from annual membership dues. I’ve never made a dime from the club. The expense of operating the club like a business has always eaten up the membership dues and more. Fact is, I’ve been spending my own money and donating weeks of my time every year to keep it going because I felt it was doing a public service by offering rookies with stock vehicles a way to learn how to safely experience public lands.

Pass Patrol recently received a letter (page 1, page 2)from Canyonlands warning us to stay out of the park. It is full of false accusations and lies but they are the ones with the badge. Accused, tried, and proven guilty without even knowing we were on trial. Now that’s what you call the American Way. As you can see, that letter is no simple inquiry to find out what Pass Patrol is. The verdict is stated repeatedly. They call it “Commercial Use” and is defined as

“Any or all goods, activities, services, agreements, or any thing offered to park visitors and/or the general public for recreational purposes, which uses park resources, is undertaken for or results in compensation, monetary gain, benefit or profit to an individual, organization or corporation, whether or not such entity is organized for purposes recognized as non-profit under Local, State, or Federal law.”

In other words, any organized entity. Since all clubs require a membership fee, all clubs fall within that definition. The simple fact is, Canyonlands can use this law to ban any club from entering the park without so much as an inquiry. So how did Pass Patrol become singled out to receive this letter telling us to stay out of Canyonlands?

(1) Even though we are a very small club, we like being under a spotlight and have become one of the best known 4X4 clubs in the country.

(2) The letter pointed out how publishing our membership requirements and trip schedule on the Internet is defined by the park service as “advertising.”

(3) And most of all, we are friendly to park personnel. When a Ranger comes up to us, we visit with him or her instead of just telling them to go play with somebody else. The letter pointed out how during our October trip one of the members told a Ranger that he paid an annual membership fee to belong to the club. According to the letter, that’s a bad thing. Watch out clubs across America. The Park Service may be knocking at your door next.

Our immediate response was to appeal the conviction. That meant sending Canyonlands a complete accounting of how our club funds were spent during 1998. We did it. I’m not sure why. It was kind of an instinctive defensive action. It took the better part of a weekend to finish. Two weeks went by before we heard from them. Then we got another letter. Now it’s okay if we visit the park BUT ONLY TWICE this year and we better be real sure we walk the line. That little booklet mentioned in the letter says you can’t have more than 3 vehicles in a campsite. Our club is small but not that small. Okay, so sometimes we don’t have more than three on a trip but usually we do.

“Well, I’m tired of battling with these guys. I give up.” First it was Grand Staircase and now Canyonlands. Who’s gonna be next at taking a swing at us. We have a saying in our club. “If it ain’t fun, don’t do it!“ Yeah, that means the other side wins this one. I enjoyed being president and coordinating the trips. I got as much out of it as those who followed me. But now I have to donate my time to fight with government officials. No fun! If you want it, you can have it. Anybody who wants to be president of Pass Patrol is welcome to it. So far no one has volunteered to take my place so...

As Pass Patrol fades into history, I will remember the good times. It’s been a good thirteen years. Yup! Good ole lucky number thirteen. We’ve had the good life as far as clubs go. We charged a higher membership fee so we could have that good life. Best of all, it paid for our own little “headquarters”. Most clubs have to work out of someone’s garage or meet at the local Pizza Huts but not us. No sirree. We had a “headquarters“. Sure that’s expensive but its only money. When we wanted to throw a pizza party or someone needed a place to install a winch or wire up some lights, that place was always here.

That’s not all. Our club had its own cell phone along on every trip in case an emergency came up. We used it to stay in touch with the Pass Patrol computer message center when we were on trips just to be sure there were no emergencies that someone on the trip needed to do something about. That’s expensive too, but it was worth it. We used it to get help for a backpacker with a broken leg, another time to get an emergency crew to assist four people we didn’t even know, and we even called a helicopter once. We picked up countless messages for members on the trips and called out for everything from car parts to hotel reservations.

And of course we had our own computer. It answered the phone and had all kinds of mailboxes for the caller to play with. Each mailbox had info about trips, or memberships, or whatever we thought a caller would be interested in. Pass Patrol owned the computer and shared the expense of the phone line connected to it.

And what about these Rangers? The ones that are so eager to throw us out of THEIR park. (Don’t be fooled by the slogans guys. It’s not our park.) In all our thirteen years of trekking up and down the Rockies, Pass Patrol has never needed or requested assistance from a Ranger, but they sure have taken their turns with us. We didn’t hesitate a few years ago when a Ranger in Yellowstone asked us to help him get a park visitor’s vehicle up a steep cliff. We stepped right up to the stump when a Utah Ranger asked us to help him move a fallen tree. We gathered everyone we could when some Colorado Rangers needed help with road repairs. We never hesitated when a ranger asked us to winch some park visitors out of mud. That list goes on and on and would fill a book. Especially if we start counting all the rescues we did without being asked. If we hadn’t rescued them, the rangers would have had too. Shucks fire! Instead of throwing us out of the park, they oughta be pinning honorary ranger badges on us! Just last year, we towed a family with a blown motor three miles out of Sand Dunes National Park. Also last year in Canyonlands, we rescued some mountain bikers who had underestimated the amount of water they should take, and another mountain biker who had more flat tires than materials to fix them. Also in Utah, a few years back we rescued a backpacker with a broken ankle. In Colorado, we rescued some people caught in a Blizzard with no way to survive the night. Also in Colorado, we rescued some backpackers with a sick Llama. It is an endless list.

“Badges? We don’t need no stinking badges!”

When it comes to being commercial though, we did a lousy job of that. Pass Patrol lost money every year since it began. We tried to fix that in 1998 and that was our best year. Although the books have not yet been double checked, it looks like we might have almost broke even.

During 1998, I spent about ten weeks of my time to go on every trip and make sure nobody got into trouble. Okay, so that‘s a lie. Actually, I was there just to have fun, but I do have backcountry travel skills most people don’t share. I figured since I have those skills, it was a good thing to use them to help others learn. Canyonlands used that little fact to classify me as a tour guide. I’ve never seen a tour guide that works for free but they oughta know.

So what now? Well, Pass Patrol will soon be dissolved and will fade into history. It was fun! It was a great thirteen years and I am proud to have been president of Pass Patrol for that entire time.

So what will change? The more things change, the more they stay the same. Very soon, the landlord gets his space back. There won’t be a club, or a headquarters, or a Pass Patrol phone, or a Pass Patrol computer. There won’t be a Pass Patrol. No one will pay anyone anything and no one will be in charge of anything. We won’t accept any new members and we won’t collect any dues from the current ones. We had a lot of fun stuff planned for this year and I expect we will still get to enjoy most of it. Until such time as it becomes illegal for a group of friends to get together and visit public lands, the same people who always went together will still do so, we just won’t be a club.

What about rangers & land managers? Not all of them hate the public. I’ve met some really good ones in my travels. The good ones are just as frustrated with the new Federal policies as the public is. The public is being locked out of more public lands every day with the use of Wilderness study areas and Local Management plans like this one. But we are still the same friendly, courteous, happy go lucky people we always were and the next time a ranger comes up and asks us to move a tree for him or her, we’ll probably trip over each other getting it done.

What about Larry Heck? I’ll continue doing what I do. “I write.” That doesn’t take much office space so I’m merging it back into my home. I’ll have more time for writing and selling so I might even make more money now. I will continue to write books, make videos, and I’ll keep writing a monthly newsletter with places to go in a stock 4X4.

Happy Trails!

Larry is the Guest Expert on Ask an Expert at http://4x4experts.com for the week of February 8-12.  Drop in and say hi.

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