Mission Reports: Abandoned Vehicle Hackett Gulch

Saturday November 13th two teams from Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery spent the day retrieving an abandoned Jeep ZJ from the bottom of Hackett Gulch. This was in cooperation with USFS as an official request to retrieve and recover the abandoned vehicle, and flat tow it to an area where it could be picked up by a wrecker.

The USFS gave the teams permission to travel onto the closed section of trail to conduct this mission, and once on site, had to work on getting wheels/tires mounted onto the vehicle. Team 1 focused on initial recovery as it had obviously been ransacked by vandals, had sunk into the dirt after a few years, and make the vehicle mobile again.

Once team 2 was on site, the long process of pulling the vehicle up and out of Hackett began. The trail is steep enough in spots that at times, two vehicles had to be used as tow rigs to make it up the hills. The lead vehicle was leap frogging as a 2nd brake rig on the steep downhill sections too. By nightfall, the recovered vehicle was parked and secured for commercial tow, and the teams began their way home.

The mission began around 8 AM and the last responder was home shortly after 9 PM.

Colorado 4×4 Rescue and Recovery

We Recover the Rockies!