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<\/p>\nSeveral weeks ago I presented this mystery to my readers because I was at a loss to figure it out myself. None of us found a logical explanation so on my latest Montana trip I decided to investigate a little more aggressively.<\/p>\n
First a little background for those who may have missed my original post on the subject.<\/p>\n
In the summer of 2014 I noticed an old Dodge Dakota pickup parked at a remote trailhead to the Continental Divide Trail near Paul Reservoir and close to the border of Montana and Idaho. It raised my curiosity because it looked like it had been there for a very long time but I soon forgot about it (almost) as I pursued my primary interest of photographing birds.<\/p>\n
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But a year later (July, 2015) on yet another trip to Paul Reservoir the pickup was still there (or there again). But now it was surrounded by an active electric fence (a solar panel and transformer were attached to the vehicle) that was barely large enough to enclose the pickup. There was a wooden stock rack in the bed of the vehicle but the Dakota isn’t a full sized pickup so it wasn’t large enough to haul horses or grown cattle. There were sunscreens on the windows, the tires were inflated and it had Colorado plates. There were no tracks in the grass to indicate that it had been moved recently. I was mystified as to why an apparently functional vehicle would be left there for so long and why the Forest Service would allow it.<\/p>\n
So, when I returned home I emailed the Caribou-Targhee National Forest a link to my original blog post and asked them politely for an explanation. They never responded and that irritated me – especially because I was watching my blog stats when I sent the email and someone from Driggs, Idaho (they have an office there) opened that blog post within 30 seconds of me sending the email (and twice more within the next 30 minutes). So on this latest trip I made a point of visiting their office in Dubois, Idaho for two reasons – to solve the mystery and to let them know of my irritation when they ignored my email and questions.<\/p>\n
Eventually I talked to one of their Forest Service field officers (Bill)\u00a0on the phone and here’s what I found out:<\/p>\n
The pickup is owned by a hard core back country hiker who apparently spends most of his summers on the Continental Divide Trail. The interior of the pickup is used as a food drop – friends occasionally bring food by and place it in the cab and he picks it up periodically. He hikes with 2 llamas (or alpacas, can’t remember) – thus the stock rack in the bed of the pickup. The purpose of the electric fence is to make the food-laden vehicle bear-proof (a method approved by the Forest Service).<\/p>\n
Mystery solved.<\/p>\n
Now if there was just some way to make government agencies like the U. S. Forest Service a little more responsive to the tax-paying public…<\/p>\n
Ron<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Several weeks ago I presented this mystery to my readers because I was at a loss to figure it out myself. None of us found a logical explanation so on my latest Montana trip I decided to investigate a little more aggressively.<\/p>\n