As Traffic Sat Frozen Behind Flashing Railroad Gates and a Freight Train Thundered Closer Every Second, Drivers Could Only Watch in Confusion as a Tattooed Biker Refused to Leave the Tracks While Protecting Something Hidden Beneath His Jacket That No One Was Supposed to Notice

PART 1 — The Crossing Where Time Stopped

Tattooed Biker on Railroad Tracks was the phrase reporters would later repeat endlessly, but in the beginning, it was simply an uncomfortable mystery unfolding under a gray Colorado sky. Late afternoon traffic crawled along Highway 62 outside the small American town of Briar Hollow, where commuters were used to delays caused by freight trains cutting across the valley. No one expected that ordinary inconvenience to become something people would remember for the rest of their lives.