Saturday 10/22/2011
Started the day on the lower duc at about 9am. Beautiful overcast fall day with some light rain/drizzle. Not much happening for me on the Duc after ~3 hours and given the number of rigs/guide boats I saw at my first spot I decided to hit some smaller less traveled water.
About 1:30 PM I pull in my first and only fish of the weekend/
About 15 minutes later Bill Boston from Port Angeles wanders down the short trail and greets me with a thumbs up and asks if he can fish above me. Bill is a guide on the Olympic Peninsula that specializes in Fly fishing, here is his website. There’s plenty of space so we settle in and start talking about snaggers, etiquette, fishing on the OP, and his raft for a few minutes when it happens.
Walking up the bank to switch out a lure my right foot sinks an inch or 2 into the mud and my left foot gives way. I go down with the left foot up in the air, the right foot stays planted. I hear that sound, the sound you never forget after the first time. I fall back, lift up my leg my foot is dangling. As I sit up my vision starts to get fuzzy and my ears start ringing. I tell Bill I think my ankle is broken.
Bill comes over, we gather ourselves and he lets me know we’re going to get out no problem. He reels up the line that’s still in the river, gathers my gear and starts helping me up the trail. It’s too slippery so I have to drag myself. When it gets too steep I changed over to crawling on my hands and knees. When I get stuck he helps me up over the roots. Luckily it was a short trip up-hill to the road, maybe 100ft of distance and 30ft of ascent.
He kicks the rocks/limbs out of the way and sets to work moving my truck, putting my gear and coho into his rig. We take a trip to the hospital and he guides my mom back to my truck.
Fractured ankle (fibula) with unstable mortise. No weight for 4-6 weeks. Then 2-3 months of a little weight. Swelling for up to a year.
Can’t help but be thankful it happened where it did with who it did. If I had to drag myself out from some other holes I was thinking of visiting on the Sol Duc it would have been really bad.
So thanks Bill, I owe you.
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