Disclaimer: VERY LONG POST - my blog is turning into a journal of sorts so I have included a lot of the details.
If only it had been this relaxing...
Last Friday (May 9th) was the day that never ended... Here's the story: Six of us (George, Alethea, Lisa, Jamie, Scott and I) all went to bed around 1 a.m. Friday morning, just to wake up a few short hours later and be on the road by 5 a.m. to drive down to the Black Canyon stretch of the Colorado River (south of the Hoover Dam). After a quick stop at a Mom & Pops Diner we arrived at the Hacienda Hotel around 8 a.m. where our outfitters met us with kayaks and a shuttle to the put-in. We were all packed and on the beautiful river by 10 a.m. The water was a little on the chilly side (56F), but the ambient temp of ~90F made it very pleasant. We had our first capsized kayak in a matter of seconds. No worries, the dry bags worked! The Black Canyon is the 11 miles section directly below the hoover dam - our group consisted of 4 kayaks and 1 canoe.
Hoover Dam aka Megatron's hide-out
Lisa kayaking the Colorado
The beautiful Colorado River
We paddled around for and hour or so and then decided to pull out into a side canyon to get out and hike to some hot springs. Lisa and Jamie both missed the spot and went a little farther downstream. George went out to see if he could help them come back upriver so we could all hike together. This is when our group split...Alethea, Scott, and I waited for awhile at the mouth of the canyon thinking they'd be back up soon. When they didn't show, we decided to hike up anyway. Along the way we caught an itty bitty froggy woggy and also a chuckawalla (fattest lizard ever!)
Chuckawalla's are fat!
We moseyed along enjoying the scenery and warmth. The hot springs were gorgeous and it was a nice little hike.
Natural hot springs up a side canyon
We got back on the river to head down and catch up with the rest of our group. We rounded a bend when this lady waved us over. She yelled, "your friend fell 50 feet and a helicopter is on its way." I looked at her in disbelief and asked how she knew it was our group. She just kept saying she knew and that he fell 50 feet and was getting life-flighted out. Of course all the worst scenarios are running thru my head at this point. I knew it was George and I imagined him being paralyzed, or having head trauma, or worse... A couple hundred feet from the shore I saw Jamie waving us over. We bolted thru the nastiest brush that tore our legs up, I couldn't get to George fast enough. I was so relieved to finally get to his side, and even more relieved to see him smile at me and tell me he was ok.
After I finally got to George after his fall...
Flash to the other group when George left to go get Jamie and Lisa: It turned out as Jamie was coming back upstream she rolled her kayak and got it full of water (the river doesn't really have rapids so we didn't have skirts for the kayaks). George raced over to help her by paddling to shore towing both her and her kayak, but the current was too strong. They eventually made it to the river bank about a half mile downstream. They were so worn out from paddling and swimming in cold water that they decided to wait for us to come. They rested and skipped some rocks and made sure Jamie was okay (being in the cold water for 20
mins made her shiver!) After awhile of waiting George got bored and decided to climb a cliff that was behind them. He climbed up without any problem (as it usually goes!) but decided it would be sketchy if he went back down that same way. It was about noon by then and he sat up there for a bit and watched the river and waited for the us to come. As he was waiting atop the cliff another group came down the river. Jamie and Lisa waved them over (they were the only other group above us on the river). As Jamie and Lisa talked to this small group asking if they'd seen us, George decided to start the climb down. As he started down he made it down a couple feet when his feet slipped (he was wearing water shoes). As near as we can tell, he slid about 15-20 feet trying to grab at the rocks with no success...as he looked back to see how much farther he was going to fall, he was able to twist and push off from the rock and free fall about another 20 feet. He landed feet first on some sharp rocks and kind of rolled out of it. All he could do was moan. Everyone on the beach heard the sliding and moaning and came running. The first people to get to him were Lisa, Jamie, and the other group they had waved over to talk to. It turns out that three people in that group were all cops/
EMTs. AND of course one of them had his cell phone (which amazingly had service). AND he volunteered on the search and rescue team based out of Vegas, so he called his boys directly. He also called 911. No one would let George move as a precaution since he'd fallen so far, but he had feeling in all his fingers and toes and his pupils were the same size, so things looked relatively good considering his landing spot and how far he'd fallen.
How George landed...check out those unforgiving rocks!
The "Fall Rock" - George fell from about the middle of this picture
Not long after we'd gotten to George's landing spot we heard the helicopter overhead. Two search and rescue guys came down with a back board/gurney/cage and loaded George up.
I was so impressed with their efficiency. They carried George out of the canyon free of the cliff walls and then hoisted him up for his flight back to Vegas.
George arrived to the hospital around 2:30 p.m. where they took an x-ray of his foot, used iodine on all the gashes and scrapes and patched him up...they didn't hold back with all the gauze! Before anyone was even there to pick George up, they wheeled him outside and left him on a bench. I was really surprised they didn't keep him inside with the AC, especially because he had no i.d., cell phone, or money. I guess that is Vegas for you?
Meanwhile we are back on the river, missing George and still feeling a bit frazzled by all the drama we'd witnessed. Plus we weren't sure of George's condition. Time for decisions... We had another 10 miles to kayak before there were any take-outs on the river. From the 911 call earlier, finally a police boat showed up. We used their phone to make a call to my brother-in-law so at least someone out in the real world would know that George was in some hospital in Las Vegas. We also gave the police boat the extra kayak. We decided to push it and paddle the rest of the way to the take-out in order to get to George.
We still tried to enjoy the beautiful scenery...
We had a strong head wind, but luckily the current was with us. We made pretty good time and were at the take-out around 5 p.m. We got a hold of our outfitters and they made a special trip to come pick us up. We finally got back to our cars around 8:30 p.m. where we still had to load our canoe. Unfortunately none of us knew how to use George's ratchet system so that took another hour in the parking lot. By then I had messages on my phone saying that George had been discharged and was at Kate's mom's house in Vegas. So we finally met back up with George around 11 p.m. or so.
After a long day, finally a comfy couch
We visited for a while and found out there were no broken bones or stitches...amazing! He has gashes and scrapes all over his body except for his chest (thank goodness he was wearing his life jacket when he fell). The worst of it was some major heel bruises and one heel had split open. Alethea and I went out to try and find a 24-hour pharmacy to fill George's
prescription and buy some more gauze. We made it back by about 1 a.m. and finally were able to crash on the floor.
Our river trip turned out to be shorter than we expected although it felt longer than anything. I'm so grateful for how well everything worked out, and feel very blessed to have my George with me. Someone was definitely watching over us that day. A lot of lessons were learned, but most of all the reminder of how precious life really is.
Life isn't always a walk in the park, but that doesn't mean you shouldn't take walks in the park :) Even if that means using a wheelchair.
Our first morning there...I LOVE the ocean!
George always has to climb things...even uprooted trees
