


It was a windy stormy night at our Collegiate Peaks Elk camp and we were awakened at 4 am by shouts of help from our hunting buddies in the tent next to ours. Their wall tent was loosing the battle against the Colorado Mountain wind. As we were getting up to assist a loud noise that sounded like a freight train rumbling through our camp and ending with a crash knocked us back on our bunks. Fortunately the 100 foot tall pine beetle infested tree had barely missed our tent but landed squarely on top of a brand new Ford 250 4 door 4×4. It looked like a gladiator brought to his knees. Neither the sheriff nor the state patrol would come to our aid. The road in and out was littered with trees. The National Forest Service detoured a crew on their way to a beaver damn project and commenced to cut away the tree from hell. Hours later we secured the doors with bungee cords and drove to town. Severely limping but boldly running down the highway we were greeted by horns and cheers from passing cars!