RESCUE & RECOVERY

 

The boys, I mean men…I mean boys on my side of the family have a tradition of camping on Memorial Weekend.  They head up on the mountain every year- sometimes with a few horses.  Always with 4-wheelers, and now it’s the big debate whether it can really be called camping if not in a tent but a nice warm trailer equipped with toilette and microwave.  I say- up in the mountains, surrounded by trees…it’s camping.

This year didn’t turn out so well.  The night they got there, they were waiting for one last man to arrive on 4-wheeler.  He was heading up the pitch black canyon with only his headlights.  He wasn’t there on time so my brother went to look for him.  From what I understand, he came upon him about 10 minutes out…noticing him by what he described looked like two shining eyes laying off the side of the dirt path that looked like road kill to him.  Then he noticed the man move.  He realized it was Paul. 

Long story short, Paul is fine.  He turned his head for a moment looking to see if he was at the right spot and by the time he turned his head back he was heading off the mountain.  He ditched the 4-wheeler and rolled down a good 45 degree incline.  He was lucky (blessed) to be conscious with nothing broken and had managed to climb his way back up to the road to wait with a profusely bleeding head.  The emergency team from the nearest town of 3oo was called after about 20 minutes, since the only cell reception was a small spot down the road about 5 minutes.  The ambulance took him to the nearest hospital a good 45 miles away.  He spent the night being sewn up stitch by stitch, and thankfully walked out of the ER the next morning with a few relatively minor deep cuts and a small concussion.  Although the full recovery to his bruised body will be a while. 

The 4 wheeler was found the next morning 150 feet down the mountain side.  Only a small dent on one of the wheel rims and a few scrapes to the paint.  Pretty amazing considering what could have happened.  The last photo shows how steep the slope really was against the flat road.