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The following is the complaint letter I sent to the outfitter. the attorney General of the state of Colorado, and the office of outfitter registration. At first the outfitter agreed to refund half of our money and it never happened. He never responded to the Better Business Bureau of the Southwest who represents the attorney general and as of today's date I have not heard from the Office of outfitter registration. Here is our story, watch out for this outfitter.

Kevin Faddis DBA Dryside Outfitters

I don’t know where to begin. It has taken me several days to calm down so that I could sit down and compose this letter. I have been a hunter for more than 35 years and I understand hunting and the fair chase concept. I have been on many guided hunts over the last 10 years or so and never before has one been so misrepresented as the one that I went on with you the first week of September 2007.

The following are problems we had with the hunt:

1. Lodging- A) You had nearly a year to prepare for our arrival and you knew the day we would be arriving and you were nowhere to be seen and our accommodations were not complete in the least. We even took your drywall inside so it would not be ruined in the thunderstorm that afternoon. B) You were specifically asked in the conference call (#2 below) if a washer and dryer would be available and you responded that they would. David gave up an afternoon hunt when they were forced to drive into town to use laundry facilities because they were told yours did not work and they had no clean clothes remaining. We were told not to bring a full weeks worth of clothes as you assured us we would have laundry facilities. C) We were not advised that the power would be turned off during the evenings and that the bathroom facilities would not be operating. The bathroom was not finished and Todd as good hearted as he is decided to finish the floor tile in the area of the sink and shower so that we would not be walking on plywood. We also ran out of water on two occasions. You blamed this on the person you had hired to fill the water tank you use. We do not feel it was our responsibility to determine how much water would be needed for our group. That is your responsibility. D) You were asked specifically by Jimmy if there was a place to plug in his motor home and he was told yes. He stated that the breaker kept tripping or the diesel generator was running out of fuel. We were not advised that the generator was to be shut off at 10:00 PM , 1/2 of the people had not had showers by that time of night and after the generator was off we had no running water for flushing the toilet or other personal hygene.

2. Misrepresentation- A) I set up a conference call one month prior to our arrival in which You, Myself, Dusty, Todd, Jimmy, David, Murphy and my partner Tom participated. We were told in no uncertain terms in this call that there were elk everywhere and that we would have no problem getting a shot at a bull elk at between 10 to 30 feet. Mule deer was a bonus and we may or may not get a shot. You told us that we would have to maintain our composure they would be so close. B) You assured us during the conference call and your signed contract stated that the guiding would be 2 on 1 in other words 2 hunters one guide. Most days it was 3 on 1 except for 1 day which you guided us yourself and the last evening it was 5 on 0. C) The same paragraph of your contract stated all transportation would be provided. I ended up driving my crew cab truck because four large men and equipment would not have fit in the truck provided.

3. Guides and Hunting- A) It was apparent after the second day of hunting and in speaking to your guides; there was no prior scouting done before our arrival, again contrary to your assurances in our conference call. Two of the guides were hired the week before our arrival and my guide was shown the property I hunted the day before we arrived. . They claimed that they tried to get you to show them the property so they could become prepared for our hunt, but that you were to busy racing motorcycles on the weekends and did not make the time available .The guides tried hard to overcome these circumstances said you were to busy to show them the properties. This was of extreme embarrassment to them and unfair to us! B) The morning of the fourth day Jonathon and his guide saw bull elk but they thought they could not go after without trespassing, only to find out later that the property was part of the land we could hunt but you failed to properly show Spencer (your guide) the boundaries. C) The evening that John Cotta shot his deer he was left in the field without a guide and ended up gutting, dragging, and loading the deer by himself arriving back at camp quite late. D) The Fourth evening in an attempt to pacify us you took Todd, Bill and I on a hike to look for elk somewhere where you were supposed to have killed one with a muzzleloader the year before. It was apparent that this had also not been scouted, as not one track or droppings were seen by any of us. And it appeared from all the “No Trespassing, Bureau of Reclamation” signs we saw that you took us trespassing. Todd Rhea later told me that you had advised him that we trespassed to get to this awesome hunting location where you claimed there would be a lot of game. Elk to be specific. We knew nothing of this and would not have gone if we had known we were in violation of any state laws. Not only were there no Elk, worse we could have all been arrested as a result of your actions. E) Jimmy was on a hunt and saw a huge mule deer but did not know if they could go on that piece of property. His guide called you by cell phone and never received a reply until after the hunt was over. Later that night at dinner we found he found out we could have gone to that location. F) On our day of departure, Todd, John and Jonathan went back to look for the Elk that Todd had shot the prior evening. You stayed at the house! This was the only Elk that anyone had an opportunity to shoot. G) On the last day of our hunt, Murphy successfully took a Buck. One that he and the others had to skin and cut up as you and the other guides went off to help Todd look for an Elk that he had shot. Instead of having dinner, you and your guides should have taken care of the Deer for them. Your contract states that you and the guides take care of the animals.

I have downloaded the Colorado Revised Statutes from the Colorado Office of Outfitter Registration and found that you have violated 4 of those statutes and perhaps more.

Kevin, our time is very valuable to us especially our vacation time. We booked this hunt with you out of good faith from our conversations and your literature. When you calculate in the $2,500 hunt cost to you, cost of tags, fuel, driving time and incidentals for 11 men we are talking about somewhere in the neighborhood of $40,000 to $50,000 for a hunt with zero elk harvested and three Mule Deer between eleven hunters. Due to the lack of service, facilities, guiding, pre-scouting and preparation, that was misrepresented by you and the inconvenience experienced we are requesting a 50% refund of the $2,500 hunt fees paid. Frankly we think to be more than generous and very fair.

This letter was sent certified mail and we will give you 21 days to refund 50% of our hunt fees or this package will be forwarded to our attorney, the Office of Outfitter Registration and the Attorney General of the State of Colorado. You will find enclosed the package I have prepared for the Office of Outfitter Registration along with signed statements from the parties involved.

Was the outfitter notified of problems? - YES