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Driver who got pickup stuck on Colorado 14er is hit with hefty tow bill

Throughout the Colorado Rocky Mountains and Interstate 70 corridor, vehicle recoveries like this are all-too common, according to the company that towed the pickup from Mt. Lincoln

A driver who apparently didn't realize he was on a hiking trail, not a road, got his vehicle stuck above 10,000 feet on Mt. Lincoln in Park County on Aug. 27, 2023. It took several days to recover the vehicle.
A driver who apparently didn’t realize he was on a hiking trail, not a road, got his vehicle stuck above 10,000 feet on Mt. Lincoln in Park County on Aug. 27, 2023. It took several days to recover the vehicle.

The now-infamous driver of a pickup truck that became stuck on a Colorado 14er late last month initially balked when Mountain Recovery, a local tow company, quoted its rates to retrieve the vehicle.

But about a week later, the driver who somewhat inexplicably traversed his GMC Canyon up a hiking trail at Mount Lincoln, a 14,293-foot peak in Park County, on Aug. 27, called Mountain Recovery back.

After an unsuccessful attempt to recover the truck, the vehicle was still at the top of the mountain, and he decided he needed the tow company’s expertise after all, Mountain Recovery owner Charlie Stubblefield said.

“Anything we do off-road is very expensive. The equipment is expensive and the liability is expensive,” Stubblefield said. “You have to have a five-star, awesome operator go out there. It’s not a cheap date.”

Read the full story at our partner, Summit Daily.