Imogene Pass Fatalities.

I find the words 'experienced' and 'no seat belts' hard to swallow in one sentence.....

Sorry to hear about the loss, though you are right it reminds us how dangerous our hobby really is.....

Mike

86/00 CJ7 Laredo, 33x9.5 BFG Muds, 'glass nose to tail in '00 88 Cherokee 235 BFG AT's

Jerry McG wrote:

If you are dropping that distance, you are in big shit, belt or no belt, but 2 did survive, so it really make me wonder what the results would have been if everyone was belted in.

Mike

"L.W.(ßill) Hughes III" wrote:

You're absolutely right, I have no idea how anyone could wheel those roads unbelted, unreal. I use the term "experienced" based upon press reports. Who knows what that means to those who made the statements.

All four were thrown from the vehicle, it's quite remarkeable the 2 kids survived.

Tha's the wreck on Black Bear from a few weeks ago. The one on Imogene just happened yesterday.

Could not have said it better myself.

Damn....I dont pull out of my DRIVEWAY without a belt on.....

SIGH....look for more knee-jerk legislation and lawsuits to seriously impair offroading from stuff like this...

offroading from stuff like this...>

No doubt. While they don't close the Interstates down because of traffic accidents, my USFS contact says the local anti-motorized crowd will try and capitalize on these accidents to further restrict activity on these trails.

Both of the trails are county roads, but that really only means the counties have jursdiction to determine their status, not private landowners, BLM or USFS. The Black Bear trailhead is in Ouray county, which is offroader friendly, but ends in San Migel County (Telluride) which is not. San Migel County has banned ATVs from their sections of Black Bear, Imogene & Ophir Passes. Dirt bikers have complained of being hassseled badly by locals when they come into Telluride from any of these entry points. It's probably only a matter of time before Jeepers get the same treatment from the Telluridians. (If so, the T-Ride residents will be forced to sell several thousand Jeeps lest they become politically incorrect!)

Ouray and Silverton are heavily dependent on off roaders for summer revenues, however Telluride don't need no stinkin' off roaders, in fact they probably don't need no stinkin' revenues, either, since so many residents are flatlanders with ridiculously deep pockets. (The only funny part about Telluride, the anti-ATV Mayor's name is Art Goodtimes!)

Heading to Ouray this weekend and was considering doing Imogene. It's been a long time since I did it and thought the fiance would like it. Hope she isn't reading the paper.

We might actually head up yankee boy basin and do some hiking instead. We'll just have to see.

I haven't been on imogene since my parents and I used to vacation out her when I was like 14. Seem to remember it was gorgeous drive.

Should be a great trip. FWIW, I was at a San Juan Mountains Assoc. dinner tonight and one of the folks thre said the last fatality on either Black Bear or Imogene occurred in 1973. Take a safe capable rig, pay attention, follow the rules of the road and everything should be fine.

But now you have to wonder if this just isn't more ammo for the tree huggers to close down trails!

I hope they actually look at the past occurances (or lack thereof) on these trails!

Trust me, seat belts wouldn’t matter! While we wore ours as we drove both Imogene and Black Bear, I doubt it would help!