We are the party that Tim is referring to in his post dated 01/29/2020 / Below is what happened.
Sue and I decide to leave the house at 11:00AM to go look for Moose and Elk. We stopped at the Shell station in Laporte to fill the truck up with gas and bought two bottles of Smartwater and a small individual bag of Cheez-Its. We headed north on 287 towards Laramie, WY and made a left on county road 80C. Once we got about a mile down the road there was a sign the said “No Winter Maintenance” passing this sign was my first mistake. We saw a large herd of Antelope within the first five miles of the drive, the sun was shining and so far, it was a good day. As our drive went on, we were starting to encounter more and more snow on the road. It was not bad, but after about an hour and a half into the drive I put the truck into four-wheel drive. We passed some summer homes on the left hand side of the ride that were closed up for the winter and you could tell that no one had been to them in a couple of months because the snow was untouched around them. We were probably about 30 miles into the drive and went through a couple of fairly deep snow drifts, but nothing really bad. As we passed a side road on 80C we saw a white Chevy pickup pull out of this side road and head east away from us. This was the only person or vehicle that we would see for the next three days. We got about two miles from the road that the white pickup pulled out of and noticed what seemed to be quite a bit more snow. I sped up to get enough momentum to get through the snow and when I got into it, I noticed the imprint of the front of someone else’s truck and the tire tracks stopped. I hit the brakes knowing that we could not get through it and we slide right into the holes that this person’s vehicle left in the snow. I tried to get the truck to move, but the truck was hung up on the frame and there was no moving it. This was around 1:45 Sunday afternoon. Sue and I tried to both use our cell phones, but both had no service. There were some buildings to our right that were fenced in that people refer to as the old homestead. We looked at them with the binoculars, but the windows and doors were all covered with steel. I got out of the truck and walked around the fence and tried my cell but still no service. I found a couple of pieces of wood to put under the tires, but that did not work and I told Sue that we needed to spend the night. Darkness came quickly and with it came terrible winds. We were on a summit that was close to 10,000 feet elevation. The winds were steady around 40-50 MPH and the temperature went down to 12 degrees. We now had a half a bottle of water left and the Cheez-it’s were gone. Sue was scared of being stuck in the truck all night and kept thinking that someone was going to come up to one of the windows. She also pulled a beanie over her eyes so she could not see outside. I tried beeping the truck horn three times every 15 minutes knowing that was an international sign of distress but no one heard it. To get through the night I started the truck once and hour to warm the cab. The next morning (Monday) I walked around a little more and tried my cell, but had no luck. Around 11AM I told Sue that I was going to walk 2 hours east and try to reach one of those summer homes. AllI had on was a long sleeve T-shirt, jeans and I hoodie with some summer hiking boots. Sue had on jeans and a long sleeve shirt and a white windbreaker. Standing outside of the truck I noticed that the wind was cutting through my hoodie, so I took Sues windbreaker with me. Walking was really easy, I had the wind at my back and I felt pretty good, but I could not find the houses. After walking for a while my phone vibrated and said "congratulations, you have achieved 360 percent of your daily goal" I looked at my phone and realized I walked over 10 miles and it was also 4 PM. I was in a panic and started to walk by west but the wind was directly in my face and it was terrible. Also I was starting to cramp up from being dehydrated. At this point I realized that I was going to have to spend the night. I looked all around and could not find anything to hide from the wind except a decent size pine tree. Darkness fell and there was no moon, my cramps were getting really bad and I ate some snow but I was worried about lowering my core temperature. I prayed a lot and just kept exercising and moving my arms and legs all night. The ground was covered with snow and it was too cold to lay down or sit on. This was the worse night of my life and the biggest test of my life. There were a couple of coyotes nearby that I could hear but they never got close enough for me to see them. I was sure that I was going to die so I made videos for Sue and all of my kids. I watched the videos a few days afterwards, and I could not let anyone see them, I was delirious and kept mentioning someone named Bill. I finally go through the night and at daybreak I started walking again. At this point my body was so drained and I was dragging my feet and the cramps were killing me. My pee also started to look like coffee. I kept walking no matter how slow and I finally came across a house with windows on the bottom floor. It was about 250 yards from the road with a snow filled field in front of it, and I could actually see team coming out of the heater vent. I was so excited and crawled under a cattle gates and started across the field. As I was walking the snow started around my ankles and then started approaching my knees and waist. I crossed a small bridge that goes over Sheep Creek on the property and there is a big propane tank on the other side. When I reached the propane tank the snow was over waist deep and I was out of breath. I fell forward and under the snow and was scared that I would suffocate, so I took a break under some small pine trees and rested but now I had another problem, my jeans were now soaked from the snow and I wa snow shaking uncontrollably. I now realized that the snow around the house had not been touched all winter and was well over my head. This was so disheartening and I was sure that I would die. I walked back through the field, crawled under the gate and just layed in the road. I had nothing left mentally or physically. I made a straight line with small rocks across the road hoping the a helicopter would fly by. This was my only chance. At this point my wife knows that something is really wrong at that she might die in the truck. Around 12:30 PM she got out of the truck, climbed the fence of the old homestead and walked through the snow drifts to get near the main building. When she got close she turned her phone off and restarted it, when it started it had one small bar! She called our neighbor who called search and rescue and told them where she was. S & R sent out a helicopter and found Sue in the truck, they dropped off water, energy bars and a coat. They also told here that a ground tea was coming in to get her and the helicopter then took off to look for me. At this point I was delirious and hallucinating, talking to my imaginary friend Bill and I knew that the minute it got dark, I would not last long. I heard the helicopter fly over and the circled around the house that I tried to get to. They later told me that they saw my tracks trying to get to the house and looping back out. They also saw my straight line of rocks across the road. I was laying down in he snow with my wifes white windbreaker, I didn't have the strength to get up but was waving my arm. I was very scared that the wind was blowing too hard for them to land but the pilot dropped that thing on the road about 200 yards from me. The pilot and her crew came and got me and pretty much carried me back to the helicopter. The took my vitals and my temperature was 93 degrees. They took my clothes off and put an electric blanket on me and heated the IVs going into my arm. When we got to PVH my kidneys were almost shut down and I had Rhabdomyolysis. I spent a week in the hospital and a couple of weeks recuperating. I made a lot of mistakes on this trip and became complacent with taking things for granted. I walked 16 miles total with no food,water, or sleep for 52 hours. My wife and the UCHealth helicopter team saved my life. Larimer County Sheriffs, and Search and Rescue came and got my wife with a snowcat, and the Fort Collins Mountaineers pulled my truck out 3 days later and brought it home. I could never thank these people enough!!
-Mike