Picture it: Father's Day, 2019.
It's a beautiful Sunday morning and I just got off the phone with my dad. We talk of normal things: plans of summer, when I'm coming to visit....and the ironic one: how prepared am I for an emergency on the trail.
See, I like to go hiking in the woods and I do, quite often with my dog Patty. She's a good dog but has needed quite a bit of training since we acquired her a year ago. She's been a learning experience since most of my training techniques that I've used on previous dogs do not seem to work. But, finally she's coming around to realizing that if she behaves and listens, she gets more adventures.
Anyway, I explained to my dad that I am quite prepared when I hike carrying a pack with extra clothes, food, a compass, a charged phone and a fire starter, along with a 3 liter bladder of water. You read too many news articles today about people getting lost in the woods. If Patty decides to take a run after a deer, there's no telling where I would end up trying to find her. Plus, people get lost just by wondering off trail. It's only happened to me once and I was so close to a road, I could hear cars so I wasn't concerned. But I am a capricorn, and I like to be prepared.
So this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I decided to head 20 minutes up the road to Pilot Mountain and take a little walk. I figured it would take a couple of hours, be good exercise for Patty and I and sometime to clear my head before school tomorrow. I had only 2 days left of work before summer vacay and had to give a presentation the next day. As excited as I was for this opportunity, I was nervous because I was presenting to teachers and I was presenting to teachers who didn't really want to be there. So, there's some pressure to entertain there.
Anyhoo, I head up the mountain and decided to do a trail I haven't done in years. The Ledge Spring Trail is a loop around the side of the mountain and is labeled strenuous for various reasons. It is a hike down and up, mostly rocks and steps through the middle. This is the trail you use if you are doing some rock climbing. It's only 2.2 miles, but it feels like 5 once you've climbed all those steps. I decide that we are going to go down the trail from the climbers end (where they go out on the ledges and tie off their ropes) and come back up the steps. I thought maybe it would be easier? I'm not sure what I was thinking.
This being Sunday and a holiday, there were many people at the park and lots hiking the trails. It was hot--hotter than I expected but good walking. The first part of the trail is all downhill, for about 3/4 of a mile then it evens out for a short bit before you start climbing stairs. You come across a small spring right before it starts going up and I stopped to let Patty have a drink and take a break. Then we headed up.
About a mile and a half into the walk, I kept up with the same family of hikers. We were taking it slow by that point and they asked me how much further we had to go. It had been maybe 15 years since I had hiked this trail and I was thinking we had about a mile to go tops. I was tired and stepped off the trail on a soft spot to let them pass by. It was hot and I could feel myself getting overheated.
As they headed up the next set of steps, I went to step down to the trail and that's when it happened. My left foot slipped on the soft earth and my right tried to catch up. I grabbed a tree to try and stop but it was too late. My left ankle twisted under me, and went so far that I heard a "pop" and then another "pop" as I went down. I only slid about 3 feet but the damage was done. The guy up the stairs heard me scream and asked if I was alright. I answered "no, I am not alright."
He came back down and I told him I most certainly had broken my leg. He calmly pulled out his phone and dialed 911 and put it on speaker. He relayed the message that I had fallen and broken my leg and needed help. His signal kept going out, so he had to call back. 911 told us that the park rangers and EMT's had been notified and tried to get our location. This is the hard part. I thought we maybe only had 3/4 of a mile left, but we were unsure. I was in pain and was trying to breathe through it but a lot of this was a blur. The guys who called 911 (TJ) 's girlfriend (Shannon) came back and placed ice packs on my leg. She gave Patty some water and hung out and talked to me. A ranger showed up about 5 minutes later (I am guessing) and asked me a bunch of questions. I was alert and had not hit my head but was adamant about a broken leg. I have never broken a bone before, but I knew I had then. The pain was too intense and my foot was tingling like it was going numb. The park ranger "ordered" a stokes basket. I was wondering how the hell I was getting out of there.
A few minutes later, the EMT's came and checked me out. The put an IV in right there and gave me some pain medication. The other looked a me and asked how much I liked my hiking boots. I was rather confused at this question until he explained that it had to come off and he needed to cut. I told him NOT to cut my boot off! I could buy new shoestrings but I was attached to those boots. He pulled out his scissors and cut my laces and pulled the boot off. Not much pain there until they went for the sock. I told them to cut the sock--I was not attached to those!
There was quite a bit of swelling. They splinted my leg and got me up enough to place me into the basket--which was a stretcher basket that I realized they would be carrying me out with. Now, I am not a light weight girl, and I knew we had a least 3/4 of a mile of this trail left, all of it uphill and rocky stairs. Even though the drugs were kicking in, I felt sorry for these guys. It was not going to be easy nor fun.
With a least 8 guys at a time, I was carried up over rocks, around trees and through very thin parts of the trail. We would go maybe 100-200 yards and have to stop because it was a lot to carry this much weight and shift it while going around things. About half way though, they stopped and gave me more pain medicine so most of that trip was somewhat of a blur. I kept telling them that I was grateful for what they were doing. I know it was tough, and they kept changing people out. But the whole time, they were so nice, respectful of each other and worked very well as a team. I felt safe and taken care of the whole time.
Meanwhile, someone had to come get the dog and I was out of contact with Hope because I could not access my phone during the walk out and I was also kinda high. Well, I was high. When we got to the top of the steps at the park, I was looking around for Hope. She needed to come get Patty since I could not take her to the hospital with me. Turns out, she thought I was at Hanging Rock instead of Pilot Mountain, and was on the way to the hospital instead. Thank goodness for kind strangers. The couple that helped me get help was now going to drive my Jeep with my dog back to my house and let Patty in and feed her. All while I got to take a trip for the first time in an ambulance.
Long story somewhat longer, I have a Maisonneuve fracture. Some fancy French guy named it. It's a spiral type fracture that starts in the ankle and runs up the fibula. They gave me some fancy footwear (a boot) and some crutches and sent me on my way saying that there was a 5% chance of surgery and they'd be in touch. Oh, and yes, you can still take a trip to the beach....
It's a beautiful Sunday morning and I just got off the phone with my dad. We talk of normal things: plans of summer, when I'm coming to visit....and the ironic one: how prepared am I for an emergency on the trail.
See, I like to go hiking in the woods and I do, quite often with my dog Patty. She's a good dog but has needed quite a bit of training since we acquired her a year ago. She's been a learning experience since most of my training techniques that I've used on previous dogs do not seem to work. But, finally she's coming around to realizing that if she behaves and listens, she gets more adventures.
 |
| pic was taken in the winter...obviously |
Anyway, I explained to my dad that I am quite prepared when I hike carrying a pack with extra clothes, food, a compass, a charged phone and a fire starter, along with a 3 liter bladder of water. You read too many news articles today about people getting lost in the woods. If Patty decides to take a run after a deer, there's no telling where I would end up trying to find her. Plus, people get lost just by wondering off trail. It's only happened to me once and I was so close to a road, I could hear cars so I wasn't concerned. But I am a capricorn, and I like to be prepared.
So this beautiful Sunday afternoon, I decided to head 20 minutes up the road to Pilot Mountain and take a little walk. I figured it would take a couple of hours, be good exercise for Patty and I and sometime to clear my head before school tomorrow. I had only 2 days left of work before summer vacay and had to give a presentation the next day. As excited as I was for this opportunity, I was nervous because I was presenting to teachers and I was presenting to teachers who didn't really want to be there. So, there's some pressure to entertain there.
Anyhoo, I head up the mountain and decided to do a trail I haven't done in years. The Ledge Spring Trail is a loop around the side of the mountain and is labeled strenuous for various reasons. It is a hike down and up, mostly rocks and steps through the middle. This is the trail you use if you are doing some rock climbing. It's only 2.2 miles, but it feels like 5 once you've climbed all those steps. I decide that we are going to go down the trail from the climbers end (where they go out on the ledges and tie off their ropes) and come back up the steps. I thought maybe it would be easier? I'm not sure what I was thinking.
This being Sunday and a holiday, there were many people at the park and lots hiking the trails. It was hot--hotter than I expected but good walking. The first part of the trail is all downhill, for about 3/4 of a mile then it evens out for a short bit before you start climbing stairs. You come across a small spring right before it starts going up and I stopped to let Patty have a drink and take a break. Then we headed up.
About a mile and a half into the walk, I kept up with the same family of hikers. We were taking it slow by that point and they asked me how much further we had to go. It had been maybe 15 years since I had hiked this trail and I was thinking we had about a mile to go tops. I was tired and stepped off the trail on a soft spot to let them pass by. It was hot and I could feel myself getting overheated.
As they headed up the next set of steps, I went to step down to the trail and that's when it happened. My left foot slipped on the soft earth and my right tried to catch up. I grabbed a tree to try and stop but it was too late. My left ankle twisted under me, and went so far that I heard a "pop" and then another "pop" as I went down. I only slid about 3 feet but the damage was done. The guy up the stairs heard me scream and asked if I was alright. I answered "no, I am not alright."
He came back down and I told him I most certainly had broken my leg. He calmly pulled out his phone and dialed 911 and put it on speaker. He relayed the message that I had fallen and broken my leg and needed help. His signal kept going out, so he had to call back. 911 told us that the park rangers and EMT's had been notified and tried to get our location. This is the hard part. I thought we maybe only had 3/4 of a mile left, but we were unsure. I was in pain and was trying to breathe through it but a lot of this was a blur. The guys who called 911 (TJ) 's girlfriend (Shannon) came back and placed ice packs on my leg. She gave Patty some water and hung out and talked to me. A ranger showed up about 5 minutes later (I am guessing) and asked me a bunch of questions. I was alert and had not hit my head but was adamant about a broken leg. I have never broken a bone before, but I knew I had then. The pain was too intense and my foot was tingling like it was going numb. The park ranger "ordered" a stokes basket. I was wondering how the hell I was getting out of there.
A few minutes later, the EMT's came and checked me out. The put an IV in right there and gave me some pain medication. The other looked a me and asked how much I liked my hiking boots. I was rather confused at this question until he explained that it had to come off and he needed to cut. I told him NOT to cut my boot off! I could buy new shoestrings but I was attached to those boots. He pulled out his scissors and cut my laces and pulled the boot off. Not much pain there until they went for the sock. I told them to cut the sock--I was not attached to those!
There was quite a bit of swelling. They splinted my leg and got me up enough to place me into the basket--which was a stretcher basket that I realized they would be carrying me out with. Now, I am not a light weight girl, and I knew we had a least 3/4 of a mile of this trail left, all of it uphill and rocky stairs. Even though the drugs were kicking in, I felt sorry for these guys. It was not going to be easy nor fun.
With a least 8 guys at a time, I was carried up over rocks, around trees and through very thin parts of the trail. We would go maybe 100-200 yards and have to stop because it was a lot to carry this much weight and shift it while going around things. About half way though, they stopped and gave me more pain medicine so most of that trip was somewhat of a blur. I kept telling them that I was grateful for what they were doing. I know it was tough, and they kept changing people out. But the whole time, they were so nice, respectful of each other and worked very well as a team. I felt safe and taken care of the whole time.
 |
| Patty's hero and mine, Shannon |
Meanwhile, someone had to come get the dog and I was out of contact with Hope because I could not access my phone during the walk out and I was also kinda high. Well, I was high. When we got to the top of the steps at the park, I was looking around for Hope. She needed to come get Patty since I could not take her to the hospital with me. Turns out, she thought I was at Hanging Rock instead of Pilot Mountain, and was on the way to the hospital instead. Thank goodness for kind strangers. The couple that helped me get help was now going to drive my Jeep with my dog back to my house and let Patty in and feed her. All while I got to take a trip for the first time in an ambulance.
 |
| this sucks |
Long story somewhat longer, I have a Maisonneuve fracture. Some fancy French guy named it. It's a spiral type fracture that starts in the ankle and runs up the fibula. They gave me some fancy footwear (a boot) and some crutches and sent me on my way saying that there was a 5% chance of surgery and they'd be in touch. Oh, and yes, you can still take a trip to the beach....
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