You can see it across town every morning. Beautiful hot air balloons ascending into the heavens. Those balloons are often piloted by Austin Machland, owner of Rocky Mountain Balloon Adventures.
Rocky Mountain Balloon Adventures was started by Austin's father in 1986. Since then they have flown thousands of satisfied customers high into the sky to get glimpses of the San Juan Mountains that very very few people get to see for themselves unless they are on one of their balloons!
Today, we get a chance to ride along with Austin and see what makes Hot Air Ballooning such a unique experience that often checks off the bucket list for many people.
It was a beautiful sunny afternoon in Pagosa Springs, CO. I was out and about with our newest Team M-Squared broker Anthony Damico shooting footage of various neighborhoods in the uptown area. When all of a sudden we get this phone call from one of our favorite lenders, Jerry Williams with NuWave Lending.
Jerry proceeded to explain that a bear got trapped in his garage and he thinks it might possibly still be stuck in the loft above the garage. Jerry's idea was to get our drone out and fly it into the loft to see if the bear was indeed stuck up there.
With an idea like that, how can you say no?!?! So Anthony and I took off and went immediately to Jerry's place.
Well, the short story is that we used my camera instead, which has incredible low light capabilities. After taking the camera up there, we quickly determined the bear was no longer in the garage or loft. Regardless, the amount of damage that we saw was incredible.
I knew bears were strong, but not this strong. 2x6's were torn off the wall, dirt bikes tipped over, trash everywhere. Somehow the bear managed to rip the lights off the ceiling. It was incredible what the bear accomplished.
Colorado Parks & Wildlife showed up and confirmed the obvious. The kind ranger gave us some bear proofing tips. And the clean up began.
Overall, we're super glad no one was hurt. And hopefully Jerry's insurance will cover quite a bit of this. It was a good lesson for all that when living in bear country, make sure your food is secure and all doors and windows are locked!