07/10/90
I had been working the last five weeks for my brother-in-law
Teryl (what a great guy) who had just purchased a share in a logging company.
We were logging up the Monte Cristo canyon just east of Ogden UT on the Wyoming
border. I would help him on my days off from the Lincoln County Sheriff’s
Office in Kemmerer WY. This particular
morning as I woke up early to go, my wife was even more persistent this morning
that I not go. She had an uneasy feeling
and was worried about me. It just didn’t feel right she said. Later she had
told me that after I had left she even prayed that I would get into a wreck or
have car troubles, anything to prevent me from getting to the logging camp. I
thought it was just because she was pregnant with our second son Shane and it
was the first weekend she wasn’t going to come with me and spend the weekend at
the logging camp. Little did I know it
was promptings to keep me safe.
The long early, just before the crack of dawn drive up the
canyon was beautiful but uneventful. I always love the world in the morning before
everyone else gets up and moving. As soon as I got up to the logging camp I
knew it was going to be a bad day. When
I got to the logging camp and opened my camper, I found that a raccoon had
broken in and had eaten all my Cap’n Crunch and my Oreos. That was breakfast
lunch and dinner all gone. The work day
started out as usual but went downhill fast.
Our equipment was old and we seemed to be plagued with small inconveniences
and break downs.
Before I continue I need to explain how this logging
operation works. We were doing what’s
called ‘highline logging’. This is done
when the mountain is too steep for any kind of equipment to go up or down. The way we logged on this steep terrain was
to string a heavy ¾ cable from a derrick on top of the mountain to a ‘spar’
tree (just a really big tree) in the bottom of the valley. The main cable hangs 20 to 50 feet over the
surface of the steep hill. A second
cable rides down the main line on a block with a series of pullies. When the block hits what’s called a button or
donut it stops and releases the second cable sending it down to the ground. The 2nd cable is then hooked to 3
or 4 logs. The logs are then pulled or
flown up to the “deck”, a level area where the equipment can work. We can only get so many logs in one area on
the hill until the button must be moved down the cable. The button is essentially a large steel piece
that weighed about 60lbs it locks on the main cable and prevents the block from
going further down the cable.
Now back to the story.
As I said, we had had many breakdowns. One, of which, was our radios
that we used to communicate to the guy running the cables, so we were using
hand signals to communicate which was slow and inadequate at best. This day I worked down in the brush hooking
up the trees on the steep mountain side. We had cleaned up all the logs in that
area and it was time for us to move the button to a new area full of lumber. We
signaled for the main cable to be lowered and the main cable with the button
was brought down within my reach, but still over my head. Usually I would have
it lowered to the ground so it could be handed better and kept under control. But
because of the difficulty communicating I decided to go ahead and unlock the
button anyway. I walked the button downhill until I was standing on a very
steep embankment that dropped off making it almost like a cliff. The weight of
the button tried pulling me down the hill.
It took all my strength and body weight but I was able to keep it under
control. I had my heals dug in to the soft mountain soil and I was leaning back
into the mountain to prevent it from running away with me. I tried to tell them
to lower the cable more but about that time the wind gusted causing the main
line to whip, it was like a wave that picked me up and carried me off my feet
and down the very steep hill faster and faster like some kind of out of control
adrenalin filled high adventure zip line.
I was now heading down towards the spar tree at a break neck
speed. I looked for a place to jump off
but I was already high in the air and all I could see were piles of limbs laying
kriss-kross and sticking straight up. As I was flying by it looked as if all of
the limbs had been sharpened to a point. I could just imagine one of them going
right through my gut if I tried to jump off. Not knowing, or really thinking of
what lay ahead I decided not to jump for fear of being gored. Anyway so far the
ride was kinda fun, I remember chuckling to myself about this predicament had
gotten myself into, kind of rolling my eyes thinking, well how are you going to
get yourself out of this one? At the very beginning of this ride I even had to
lift my feet to avoid some limbs, “WHY DIDN’T I LET GO THEN” I thought. Now I
had a bird’s eye view of the whole canyon and I was blissfully unaware of how
fast I was going or how this ride was about to end. When I looked up I saw that
I was racing toward the spar tree. I was
about 50 feet off the ground and moving fast, the witnesses said about thirty to
thirty-five miles an hour. I did not
have any time to think.
The spar tree was about eight feet in diameter at the bottom
and about 3 feet in diameter where the cable was hooked to it. There was one
large limb sticking out at one side that caught my attention. I thought that maybe if I swung out to the
side of the tree just before impact and wrapped myself around this limb it
would save me from falling. I centrally didn’t want to just ride it to a
head-on with the tree. I let go of the chain that was hooked to the button with
one hand and prepared to hit/catch/wrap myself around the limb. When I hit the first thing I saw was my feet,
I hit so hard it caused a bruise across my chest, popped my ribs out of socket where
they attach to my back and a bruised my heart, it also dislocated my arm my momentum
flipped me upside down, wrapping me completely around the limb. Then everything went black. There were flashes of consciousness as I tumbled
down the tree ping ponging through the limbs. I remember seeing my heard hat
sailing like a Frisbee or a space ship across the canyon. I also remember
hitting different limbs as I fell. I hit the ground sitting up with my legs
straight out then bounced one last time about 60ft down the hill finally going unconscious.
When I awoke I was laying face down in the dirt on my stomach unable to breath,
with a mouth full of dirt. For a minute I couldn’t remember who I was or what
had happened. I heard a faint voice
asking me if I was all right. I felt
like I could not breathe, so I asked to be rolled over. The pain was so great that I blacked out
again.
When I came to I was laying on my back in the middle of an
old logging road about 20 feet from the tree.
I had no feeling from my hips down, cuts all over and was still having
trouble breathing. I said a simple
prayer and asked the Lord to help me. I
opened my eyes and there was Ethan Call.
It was his first day with the logging crew. I remembered my wife telling me that he had
served a mission. Up to that day I was
the only priesthood holder on the crew. Relieved and realized Father had heard
my prayer. I asked him to give me a blessing.
As he began, immediately a sense of calm came over Teryl, Ethan
and me. I had been unconscious for most
of the blessing, but I did hear him bless me that my body would be made whole. As I laid there I began to feel again the
sensation in my legs and the pain became bearable. The Holy Ghost bore witness to us that God
had performed a miracle and we were each left with a testimony of what had just
happened.
It became apparent that it was going to be a long time before
medical help arrived. Teryl told me that
Rick Earling had already started down the mountain to get help. I knew it was a two hour drive out of the
canyon to the nearest phone. I closed my
eyes and said another simple prayer and asked for the Lords help again to speed
up the help I so desperately needed. My
prayer was again answered in a miraculous way.
As Rick was speeding down the canyon he happened to run across a
paramedic who was out for an afternoon drive. (this was a Thursday at 10:00am)
The paramedic had a high power radio that he was able to reach across the
mountains to the Weber County Sheriff’s Department. They in turn were able to call McKay Dee
Hospital and get Life Flight on its way.
The paramedic then rushed up the
mountain to where I was laying, he started an IV and stopped all my
bleeding. God had again answered my
prayer. I was able to get the medical
help and the transportation I needed within a fraction of the time we were
expecting.
The helicopter was now circling overhead but after a few
passes they radioed down that the only place they could land was a flat spot
about half a mile up this old logging road.
When I heard this my blood chilled!
I looked to my side to see an old jacked-up Ford 4x4 on the heavily
rutted road. The thought of a ride in the back of a four wheel drive truck over
a rutted, dirt road was more than I could bear.
I again simply asked the Lord for help.
The helicopter circled one last time and radioed down they
had decided to try to land closer. They
were able to land within 50 feet of where I was laying by balancing the
helicopter with the tips of their runners on the road and the back half of the
chopper hovering off the road. Within 15
minutes I arrived at McKay Dee Hospital’s emergency room. They started another IV, put a tube down my
nose into my stomach and also started me on oxygen. They pumped blood out of my stomach for three
hours.
I had four doctors and two specialist working on me for six
hours. They X-rayed me from the top of
my head to my knees and were unable to find any broken bones. This baffled all of them. They stated many times that there was no
possible way a body could have received that many blows, as I was flipped from
branch to branch as I fell down the tree without having some broken bones or
internal injuries. I was given a
cat-scan from my neck to my knees – scanned a half of an inch at a time. This took about one hour. Baffled again because they found
nothing. They were not even able to find
out what had caused the bleeding in my stomach.
My brother Bryan was the first one to get to the emergency
room and was there when they got me settled into a room in intensive care.
The doctors told me I had caused enough trauma to my body
that I wouldn’t walk for a couple of weeks.
That night I asked Bryan to give me a blessing. He did and then left. On his way home he was unable to ignore the
promptings to gather up another elder and return to give me an anointed
blessing. During the blessing the Holy
Ghost again bore witness to me that I would be all right. I was filled with the
confidence that I would be able to walk the next day…which I did!
I am thankful for the blessings I was given by those men who
honored their priesthood. I am also
thankful for the continuous prayers in the hearts of those who are close to
me. I am thankful for miracles. I know that God lives and answer prayers…no
matter how simple they are.
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