Moab

Russ and I spent a weekend in Moab four wheeling with several of our friends. We drove down early Saturday morning. Russ' sister, Kristin, stayed at our house the night before so she would be with Bryce until Lauren, my brother's girlfriend, could pick him up for the rest of the weekend. I was really nervous to leave Bryce overnight for the first time. I tried, unsuccessfully, to convince Russ that we shouldn't go on the trip so I wouldn't have to leave him. We rode down with our neighbor/friends, Kolby and Kasey who also lent us their parent's four wheeler. Once we got on the road I was fine and stopped worrying about Bryce. On the way down the ball broke off of the hitch and our trailer started drawing on the freeway. Good thing we had the chain attached our we would have lost 2 fourwheelers and probably caused an accident. Luckily they had an extra ball in the truck so we went on our way. We spent the morning on the Poison Spider trail. I have driven through Moab countless times but never stopped to check out any of the trails or hikes. I am not sure what I expected the trails to be like but I had no idea how incredibly scary, fun and beautiful it would be. Poison Spider had a little bit of everything. It had boulders, red rock and sand. I was so scared at first going up the uneven rocks. I grew up four wheeling in the mountains not on red rock that goes almost straight up. I got of the four wheeler several times and watched Russ drive up.

We spend Saturday afternoon in Kane Canyon on the south side of Moab. This trail was beautiful. I went through and around a river. There was also a very narrow bridge and sheets of metal drilled into the ground to help ATVs get up certain areas.

After a long, dusty day we went out to dinner and relaxed in the hot tub. We were all exhausted and slept so good. It was so weird going to bed knowing there was no chance I'd have to wake up in the night to a crying baby or at 7 because Bryce was ready to wake up. Sunday morning we got up, got ready and went out to the Pancake Haus. We decided to go on one more trail before we hit the road to head home. We planned to meet at Fins and Things but last minute decided to go to Hell's Revenge. I wasn't too excited about it because we were sore from the day before and we were told that Hell's Revenge was a rugged, rough trail but we went along anyway. The trail started out fine. It has some very steep red rock but we all went up it okay. I was shocked to see Jeeps, Hummers and really big Jeeps with seats for people on tours. Fairly early on in the trail we came across the park rangers and a burnt out Jeep. Apparently, it had been stolen the night before from someone in town but they aren't sure how it caught fire. They think tried to take it up a hill and it rolled so they came back and lit it on fire. It was still smoking when we got there and you could see the burn on the nearby tree because the fire was so hot.

 We continued along the trail until we got to Hell's Gate (or the escalator. I'm not certain of the name). We stopped here and the Razrs that were with us went up this very steep, uneven part. The video and pictures do not this trail justice. Russ is in the video of the Razr going up.

 We continued on with about 3 miles left on the trail. One of the Razrs tried to go up this very steep spot right off the trail but decided not to because as he would go up the front tires lifted off like it was going to flip. We were watching from the top and I took a picture of them attempting it.

  One of the four wheelers that was with us was watching from down below and decided that he was going to try to go up it. He had his wife on the back and as he went up their front tires lifted off, it seemed like slow motion as the four wheeler started to flip backwards. I turned away as soon as I knew it was going to flip. Everyone said it bounced on top of them as it landed. I ran down immediately and called 911. We never had cell service anywhere on any of the trails but we did on this one. Several of the guys lifted the four wheeler off of Shawn as I tried to explain to the 911 operator where we were on the trail. His wife, Tiffany, was not under the four wheeler and walked away without a scratch. Shawn wasn't so lucky. The operator was asking questions such as: is he conscious? yes he was, is he bleeding? yes he was bleeding a lot. She said we needed to keep pressure on the wound until help could arrive. I handed off my cell phone and ran over to put pressure to stop the bleeding. When I got closer that is when I realized how bad it really was. His face and cheeks were split open almost ear to ear and down his bottom lip. There was tons of blood and I could see his teeth and the fat inside is cheeks. I started shaking but did my best to stay calm because I didn't want to alarm him.  Someone offered up a shirt and I held it on his mouth. Kasey, our neighbor/friend, help pressure on a gash above his head. We kept reassuring him that he was going to be okay and help was on the way. Several of the guys gave him a blessing that we would be comforted and he would heal from his injury quickly. It felt like we were crouched there forever. I kept wiping the blood from his nose so he could breathe. He would moan and cry because he was in so much pain but there was really nothing that we could do except wait. Lots of people drove by and several asked if they could call for help for us but one couple from New York stopped and held a tarp over Shawn and us helping him. Finally the park rangers arrived but they didn't do anything. They didn't even come down near him. They waited up on the top for the EMTs to arrive. Shawn kept asking if his wife was okay and we kept reassuring him she was. He said that his teeth had been knocked out and were in his mouth and asked me to get them out. Someone pulled a glove out of the first aid kit and I swept his mouth but I could feel the teeth were still marginally attached so I left them alone. Finally the EMTs arrived and took over caring for him. They gave him some pain medication and he seemed to feel a lot better. After they took over it was a little while longer before the life flight helicopter got there. One the life flight nurses got there they took over. The were very efficient assessing the situation and loading him on to the stretcher. They had to load him on his side because if he laid on his back he would choke on the blood. All the guys helped carry the stretcher up the rock to the helicopter. It was 1:40 minutes from the time I called 911 until he was up in the helicopter. After he was gone it was time to ride the rest of the way out. We were all extremely cautious and terrified. I think I was off the four wheeler more than I was on it. When we got to the trucks we saw Shawn's teeth marks on the four wheeler's metal rack. It must bitten the bar and that must be what ripped his mouth open and knocked out his teeth. Once we all got to the cars and loaded up Ryan and his wife took Tiffany to Grand Junction, Colorado to meet Shawn there at the hospital. As we drove home it is all we could think or talk about. It was so surreal. It never seems like that kind of stuff doesn't happen to you or your group but it does. For the next week it was consistently on my mind and I didn't even really know him but it felt like we did after that. We got updates through friends and after a week of being in the hospital he came home. He lost 7 teeth and broke bones in his face but no other part of his body was hurt. All things considered he came out of it pretty well. We visited him two weeks after and I was amazed at how well his face had healed. He was swollen and bruised a bit but I could barely see the scars from across the room. He said it had really turned into a very spiritual experience and asked for anything we remembered because he is keeping a journal of the event. Overall it was a great trip but I am not sure how eager I am to go back and do it again.