The Park City Police Department earlier in October fielded a report of a person described as a hunter, continuing a series of similar cases during the month.
Someone contacted the police via text message at 5:55 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 10, from Thaynes Canyon Drive. The person told the police they saw a man in camouflage carrying hunting gear, including a bow and arrows, according to public police logs. The person was riding an electric-powered bicycle, the police were told.
The logs did not provide details, including about the location. Thaynes Canyon Drive runs from the edge of the Thaynes Canyon neighborhood and through the neighborhood before intersecting with Park Avenue. It is close to the Park City Golf Club course and in the area of the edge of the terrain at Park City Mountain.
The Police Department received at least three hunting-related reports in the period before the case on Oct. 10. In one of the earlier cases, the police were told of a hunter reportedly seen at Park City Mountain, apparently in the area of a trail. Park City Mountain prohibits hunting all year.
There has long been concern about the danger of hunting occurring in the vicinity of hikers, bicyclists and other recreationists.
“Every year around the start of hunting season, we hear of hunters on trails in Park City. It can be quite startling because hunting is prohibited in every place Park City’s trails exist and we trail users aren’t accustomed to seeing camouflaged, bow-carrying people traipsing through the woods,” Lora Anthony, the executive director of Mountain Trails Foundation, said in a prepared statement in response to a Park Record inquiry about the earlier reports to the police.
She said there is a hunting prohibition at Park City Mountain, Deer Valley Resort and publicly owned places like Round Valley, Bonanza Flat and the Lost Prospector trail. Anthony said Mountain Trails Foundation recommends people remain on trails, wear brightly colored clothes and “in areas of low visibility or short lines of sight, make yourself known with a bell or by whistling.”
“It takes just one misguided hunter to endanger trail users,” she said. “If you encounter a hunter, be polite and, if you’re comfortable with it, nicely mention that they’re on a heavily used public trail system and will likely see other trail users.”
Anthony said trail users may call the authorities or the state Division of Wildlife Resources with concerns. Mountain Trails Foundation also has a program that distributes bicycle bells for free, which can be used to alert hunters to the presence of a bicyclist. More information about the bicycle bell program is available by calling the foundation at 435-655-5853 or emailing [email protected].