At 8:57 am I clicked on the menu to go to another page, just to make sure my session was still active. Immediately the loading icon started to spin, and the page took over 30 seconds to load. "Uh oh, our worst fears may be coming true" I thought to myself. I shot a text to the group to see if they were logged on yet and what they were experiencing. When I had logged on at 8:45, the site had been responsive and downright snappy. We had discussed this possibility the day before, that technology may fail, and being in-person at a license agent may be the most fail-proof way to get a left-over tag.

Colorado Parks & Wildlife had issued recommendations on how to properly log on and have everything verified to make sure we didn't run into any account issues at the most critical time. Our entire group had obliged and ensured our ducks were in a row and ready to roll. I read every strategy article I could find and had a plan in place for what tags I was going to target first to maximize my opportunity for success. I had failed to draw an antelope tag, and there were only two tags left in the unit where I had access to hunt, so my chances would be slim, and I needed to be as quick as possible to hit the lottery.

Unfortunately we had seen this type of unreliability before, on the old antiquated system, before the new iPAWS. We hoped this shiny new system was built with the latest technology of server load balancing, and on-demand virtual servers. But alas, we were let down, and what should have taken two minutes, ended up taking twenty six from start to finish. We're sorry CPW, but you failed us today. Articles highlighting the availability of over 50K leftover tags had us excited for all the opportunity we would have this season. But it was all a pipe dream, locked behind inadequate technology. Even the phone line was dead by 9:03 when we attempted to go with plan B.