An Extraordinary Time

It has been an extraordinary time since we have been forced off the road. We are now back in New York, flew into Rochester on Oct 20 and after visiting with dear family are currently staying in a "barn apartment" at our friends Harry and Muffy's near Oneonta. Kathy got the stitches in her head out last week, there were a little over 30 of them. Now she has to let her neck vertebrae heal and was fortunate to find a doctor to follow up on her healing.

The moments of the accident and immediately following were extraordinary and will leave indelible marks on our memories. We are both grateful to be alive and grateful that Kathy will be ok after she heals, that is our mutual overwhelming feeling. Kathy doesn't remember anything from the time we started going off the road to the point where she realized that she was lying on the ground and a group of people were attending to her. I remember some amazing and rapid events that were unreal and gripping. It was October 7, 4:53 PM. As we were traveling down I-15, I was sitting back and lost in thought when I suddenly felt the trailer swaying behind us. It all happened so quickly. I remember the truck rolling over a few times, someone said it was one and a half times, but I couldn't tell from inside how much we rolled. It just struck me that "this can't be happening." We came to a stop with the truck resting on its side, my side, so Kathy was above me and hanging by her seat belt. I quickly unlatched my seat belt and reached up to get her out of her seatbelt. Then she stood up on the center console, with me holding her legs. All the windows were smashed and she could get her head out the side window. I realized there was a large group of people outside the truck ready to assist us. They were there immediately, what a great display of the best in people, willing to help. Someone yelled "how many are there?" I responded "Two." I think we repeated that exchange. They got Kathy out by assisting her through the drivers window and then I stood up inside the truck. My glasses had come off, so I looked around and found them, still ok. It didn't occur to me at that point to look for Kathy's glasses, and then it was my turn to get out. Some of the helpers were trying to break a lower window thinking that would be easier for me to escape from. I yelled out that I could get out the same way Kathy did and proceeded to pull myself out the drivers window too. They had Kathy lying on the ground when I got out, and instructed me to lie next to her. Two different paramedics were checking us out, one was already talking with Kathy and the other started with me. I learned later that his name was Jonathon and he was two vehicles behind us when he saw the crash. I realized pretty quickly that I wasn't hurt badly. I was covered with blood, but most of it was Kathy's. She had a big gash on her head and I remarked to her that she was going to need stitches. At which I was instructed not to alarm her. Jonathon was seeing if I had any soreness, and I realized I had some sore ribs, at the points where the seat belt would have dug in. I wasn't too bad. Kathy also realized that the fingers on her left hand were tingling, that was not a good sign. The paramedics realized that she could have a serious neck injury and had her lying very still. They soon got her on a back board to keep her immobilized. She was never able to look around the accident scene itself. Even though I was instructed to lie down, I sat up and look around. The place looked like a hurricane had come through. Our trailer was torn apart and all of our stuff was strewn about. What a mess. Later, we would have to go through it, but at the towing company's yard. For now, I knew that we had to get Kathy to a hospital quickly and when the ambulance showed up we were ready to roll. I managed to pick up a sweater that was lying on the ground and my jacket, and a woman police officer held up our laptop still in the case and asked me if I wanted to take that. It would still work. They also located Kathy's purse, and I still had my cell phone attached to my belt, so with only those items, the laptop and no extra clothes we went off in the ambulance to the hospital back to Cedar City where we had driven through earlier.

At the hospital they sewed up Kathy's wound, did a good job with that, and took X-Rays of both of us. When they found out that Kathy had a broken vertebrae, the C7 in her neck, they said they would have to airlift her to the Intermountain Medical Center in Murray, Utah - near Salt Lake City. I didn't receive that news so well, but that was our only chance. So off we went in a Life Flight plane - see http://intermountainhealthcare.org/services/lifeflight/Pages/home.aspx/ Kathy was strapped down in the back brace (she didn't like that), I sat in a seat up front, two evac nurses and the pilot Tyler skillfully guiding the plane through the night sky. From the Salt Lake airport they transported us by ambulance to the Medical Center. When we arrived at IMC, another ambulance arrived at the same time. The two crews knew each other well and exchanged pleasant greetings. I found out that the other victim had been hiking down in the Glen Canyon Recreation area and had fallen. He had a broken C2 vertebrae, which was a worse break than Kathy's, but not knowing how badly he was hurt he hiked out a long ways to get medical help. he and other family members were up in a section called the "Hole in the Rock" where back in 1879 some Mormon pioneers had managed get their wagon train down a steep 2000 foot drop to the Colorado River. I met his wife later and she said they had come up the Hole in the Rock from Glen Canyon below and were near the top when he fell. They eventually got to a hospital in Page, Az and like us had to be transported to the IMC for surgical care. see http://www.nps.gov/glca/historyculture/holeintherock.htm

Our hearts go out to everyone who let us know that we were being thought of and cared about and to the whole group of people with Intermountain Health Care who gave Kathy exceptional care and made us feel welcome and cared for. Kathy had her surgery on October 8, was done about 8:30 PM, and we stayed at the hospital until she was released on October 13. We stayed in the Salt Lake area in a comfortable extended stay apartment through Springhill apartments, got a great medical rate of $50/night, and our thanks to the good people there who made sure we had all we needed. We saw Dr. Bauman, her surgeon again on October 19. He told us to come back and hike the Grand Canyon and Utah again and it was then we learned that he has hiked numerous times in the nearby Wasatch range. He and his dog have been up Mt Olympus at least 6 times, since it's right near his house. I got to hike up it on October 17, see photo I took on my hike, the Intermountain Medical Center is the most prominent landmark visible. The building we were in was the large glass sided one to the right. We enjoyed the view from our room looking at the Wastach Mountains, many were snow covered. Olympus is a little over 9000 feet high and did not have snow on it the day I climbed it. There were marvelous views going up it and of course at the top. I told Dr Bauman that we would be back to hike out here, and I hope I'm right.

Finished at Bryce But Now Temporarily Off the Road and More

In response to an inquiry from our friend Tracy who worked with us at Bryce Canyon:
Hi Tracy,I am glad you made it home ok, we have not. We did get to the Grand Canyon and did rim-rim-rim then pulled up stakes at Bryce on Wednesday and started heading to Las Vegas to see my aunt and uncle. We made it south of Cedar City when Kathy felt the trailer swaying behind us then lost it completley and ended up in the median and rolled over, both truck and trailer were destroyed and Kathy ended up with a broken neck vertebrae and a severe laceration on her head. I just had bruised ribs. We were taken to the Cedar City Hospital (an amazing number of people showed up on the scene to help immediately). When they determined Kathy had a broken vertebrae, they airlifted us up to Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City. She got surgery to repair her vertebrae yesterday, which was successful. Now she is recovering, but we expect to leave the hospital tomorrow, I am staying in the same room with her. It has been amazing. Now we have to figure out our next steps, and get back east somehow/sometime. But we are doing things a day at a time, and getting Kathy on the road to recovery has been the most important thing so far. We will get through this, but not sure if we will volunteer again soon. We have accepted a position at Big Bend which we were excited about, starting January 25, but Kathy will probably be in a neck brace for 3 months and will need a full 6 months before she can resume normal activities. So basically, we are alive, that was the first thing that occurred to us after the crash, and anything we lost can be replaced. I am taking the view that this is a bump on our road right now, and we will have many more miles to go before we are done.

Not sure there will be any more updates to this blog for a while, there is so much more to say but this is all I can fit in for now.

Kathy Finally Sees a Moose

We went to the High Uintas Wilderness this past weekend and Kathy finally saw a moose. Earlier attempts to see one in New Hampshire and Maine had been for naught. But we saw this one along the road on the way to Moon Lake, which was actually outside the wilderness. We had spent the day before hiking in the wilderness but never saw much of any wildlife except birds, a chipmunk and a grouse. We did get close enough to see Mt. Emmons, a 13er and the 4th highest peak in Utah. It is a trailess peak and some day we hope to climb it as well as some of the other Uintas. Any of the major peaks are quite a ways in and are normally done as a backpack. We camped and hiked in from the Swift Creek trailhead and got as far as Farmers Lake, about 9 miles in. We met a wilderness ranger who was leading a mule team in to break down two of their work camps and we met one of his workers. Other than that we didn't see anyone else on the trail, and it was a glorious fall day with lots of golden aspens.

On Monday Sept 21 I gave my first evening program at Bryce. It was titled Bryce Canyon National Park: The Early Years and it covered the years 1915 - 1942. 1915 was the first year anyone had a thought about making Bryce Canyon a National Park. J.W. Humphrey, a forest ranger, upon seeing the spectacle of Bryce Canyon thought it merited national park status so all could enjoy it. Largely due to his efforts, Bryce Canyon became a National Monument in 1923 and then a National Park in 1928. I was able to gather lots of old photos of Bryce Canyon and pieced together an entertaining show. This show will be available on special request (I bring it to you).

Our hike in the Uintas was a warm up for a rim-to-rim hike we plan to do in the Grand Canyon next weekend. I tested out my new light weight La Sportiva trail shoes, even on rocky ground they seemed to hold up well and today my feet feel ok, so I think it's a go. The only complaint I have is sand gets in through the mesh uppers but we will only have sand near the bottom of the GC. We are also finishing up our work here at Bryce this week, and our bosses our having a going away party for us tonight. We can't miss that so we hightailed it back here.

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National Parks: America's Best Idea

This Sunday Sept 27 is the start of a new Ken Burns series on PBS: National Parks: America's Best Idea. Also Saturday is National Public Lands Day, you can get into national parks free that day, plus volunteer. See http://www.nps.gov/september26/ Makes me proud to be serving with the NPS right now. I tell our visitors that it's a good thing we have embraced the idea of making some of our prized natural areas protected, open to all and there for future generations. The natural wonder of Bryce Canyon could last another 2.5 million years if we don't do things that could destroy it. Unfortunately, due to climate change, parks like Glacier and Joshua Tree are more imminiently threatened, but that's another topis for another day. Support your National Parks.

Back to the North Rim! This Time with My Kids

My kids (Katherine, Colleen and Ben) came to visit us and we met up in Las Vegas and after visiting with our Uncle Sam and Aunt Ruby, we took off on Sunday Sept 13 for the North Rim (again). We stayed at the Kaibab Lodge outside the park for two nights and went to Cape Royal, Cape Final, and down to Supai Tunnel on the North Kaibab Trail. It was the first view for Ben, K&C had been to the western part of the GC back in '91 I believe. We had great views, and the 4 mile round trip hike out to Cape Final was worth it. We got to Bryce on Tuesday Sept 15 and were met by our friends Matt & Margie from back home. They brought salmon and asparagus and garlic bread and we all enjoyed it on a

rainy damp night crowded in our trailer. Our friend Tracy who volunteers with us accomodated all 3 of the kids in the spare bedroom in her apartment, what a godsend that was as all the motels/hotels in the area were booked. All of us enjoyed some hiking in Bryce, I led a park-sponsored hike on the "Best 3-mile hike in the world" which my kids, Kathy and M&M participated in, then later that day we hiked along the rim to "Beyond Bryce Point". We hiked from Bryce Point to Sunset Point on part of the Peekaboo Loop the next day. M&M camped out in our little staff compound, it was so cold at night that Matt's head even got cold! After Bryce, they all went to Zion, then to Las Vegas. I am told that Ben got into a picture with a ground squirrel at Zion, he was imitating it, maybe a picture will arise. Ben also did a pretty good imitation of a hoodoo here at Bryce. Kathy and I just hung out at Bryce and nearby after our special guests left. We needed to refrain from much traveling this past weekend, although we did fit in a short trip to the nearby Black Mountains and a bike ride to Panguitch. Two things we never got around to until now. Two more weeks here at Bryce and then we go to the Grand Canyon for a rim-to-rim-to-rim in early October and start heading back east. Oh boy.

Mt. Timpanogos and Delano

Kathy and I climbed Mt Timpanogos and Mt Delano this past weekend. We had thought about hiking King's Peak, Utah's highest mountain, but then realized it would require more time than we had. King's Peak is a 6-7 mile drive from Bryce and is a 29 mile hike, so we decided we would need more than the three days we had. Mt Timpanogos is 11,750 feet elevation and is about 5,000 foot elevation gain from Aspen Grove trailhead. It is the Timpanogos Wilderness, but is also just outside of Provo and gets a lot of urban traffic. Since it was Labor Day weekend, there were many other hikers, I estimated we saw 300, many wearing BYU sweat shirts or t-shirts. We were given a map with distances by the USFS at the entrance gate which said it was a 6.9 mile hike to Emerald Lake then another 3 miles to the summit from there. But since it only took us about 4 hours to hike up, we doubted the distance. There were supposed to be two trails from Emerald Lake (we only saw one), and we took what seemed like a more direct route over a rock fall, so maybe that is what made the hike shorter than what was on the USFS sheet. There are also a few glaciers toward the top. many were using one of them as a fast way down, either on skis, butts, or foot. A volunteer with TERT (Timpanogos Emergency Response Team) told us they do many rescues for people coming down the glacier. We met two guys later who had done it, ripping apart ponchos that they tried to use for sleds and admitting they hit a few rocks on the way down, ouch.

The view from the top was stunning, overlooking Provo and Utah Lake as well as the rest of the wilderness. There was a shelter, but most of the people found a rocky perch to hang out on. We didn't mind sharing the summit with the others, as they had all earned it. There were several families, but most of the people seemed to be college age.

The next day we went to the Tushars and climbed Delano Peak, 12,173 feet high. What a contrast from Timpanogos. We didn't know what to expect from the hike, and never found the trailhead although we came across pieces of the trail, so we bushwacked. It turned out to be a short hike, we were up it in 1.5 hours. We also had the mountain to ourselves, although there were several ATVs and jeeps tooling along the forest road. It was extremely windy on top, but we had great views in every direction. There was a mailbox with a log sheet and we read through several of the entries. Many of them noted the preponderous of mountain goats, but we never saw any. So Kathy wrote that we saw many velociraptors, hah. We attempted to come down the steep side of the mountain, but then chickened out, but still made a wide loop and came down through a herd of cattle, and one bull who eyed us intently. We kept our distance.

There is so much more to do in Utah and the surrounding states than we have time for. We hope to get in some paddling, maybe in Glen Canyon area, hike in the Henry Mountains and get into the Grand Staircase Escalante some more. We are also planning a trip to the North Rim this coming weekend when my kids come out. We're looking forward to that. Meanwhile, families have gone back home so we expect to see more of the "newly weds" and "nearly deads" visiting Bryce in September, that should be a change of pace for us.

Tushar Mountains and Skyline National Rec.Trail

I hiked the Skyline National Recreational Trail in the Tushar Mountains this past Sunday.

What a great trail, it is only 8.4 miles, mostly above 10,000 feet. I did about half of it but roamed up to the base of Holly Mountain and summitted City Creek Peak (over 11,000 ft elevation) which was not a bad off-trail climb. I saw no one else on the trail or the peaks the whole day, although there was an ATV near the trailhead that went in a different direction. The Skyline trail is open to non-motorized traffic only. I came across a sleeping bag cached near Holly peak, and examined it to be sure there was no body in it. Glad there wasn't. We want to get back to do Delano Peak in the Tushars which is over 12,000 feet. The 'haze' seemed to get worse during the course of the day, and when I got back down I discovered it was from a fire almost 100 miles away in the Pine Valley Wilderness, south of Cedar City. It is not noticeable at Bryce Canyon thankfully. I did get close to it driving down I-15 on Tuesday, there were several noticeable smoke plumes and later that night after dark a bright blaze was easily spotted from I-15. Earlier on Tuesday I led a group of about 30 7th grade boys from Reagan Academy near Provo, Utah and 10 adult chapperones on a hike in Bryce Canyon. They were good kids, a little on the lively side but eager to learn. Our ranger Nova led about the same number of girls, some of them caught up to use even though we had a 30 minute head start. They will be allowed back again if they wish to come