Death Valley Debacle

[trailhound]

Now that DV is hitting 100F+ degrees, regular trip reports have slowed down. I figured that I could post this account of being in the park from March 21 to 28.

Here is where our Death Valley adventure began.



Here is where our Death Valley adventure ended.



We were hiking across the desert to Red Wall Canyon. I stepped down into a gully about 2.5 feet deep and 3 feet wide. Somehow. I lost either my balance or my footing and took a fall. I slammed into the far wall of the gully. My right leg pulled up so the left knee jammed into the right foot which got wedged between two rocks. Lightning bolts were coming out of the right foot. After a struggle, I got to my feet and started a slow hobble to the vehicle. Fortunately it was only 1/4 mile away.

Two hours later I arrived at Centennial Hills Hospital in Las Vegas.  X-rays showed that the fifth metatarsal bone was fractured. They gave me a stiff soled sandal to wear that kept the foot from flexing. Our flight home was 4 days away. We drove around the valley playing the tourists who never get out of their car.  At least, I managed a few pictures.




















You may notice that the last picture was from The Natural Bridge area. We checked it out the day before to get the cobwebs out. Besides. we hadn't been there in 25 years. Here are the (once) happy hikers.

[Bluegreen kayak]

I am so sorry to read about your injury - are you any better now? The pictures look wonderful; is the third one, the stripy mountain, Schwaub Peak?

[trailhound]

I am so sorry to read about your injury - are you any better now? The pictures look wonderful; is the third one, the stripy mountain, Schwaub Peak?

Thank you. I wore a giant boot on the right foot for 6 weeks. The bone has mostly healed. So, I no longer have to use the boot. I have started a walking program preferably on grass not concrete. I started at 15 minutes and am working up gradually. The stripy mountain picture was taken looking east towards Beatty Nevada from Hwy 374. The topo map calls it Bare Mountain.

[Daymoth]

Nooooooo

Dude Redwall is your curse, didnt it elude you last time?

Im glad you at least got some fantastic snowy views ( that second panorama is stunning) and that your foot is on the mend.

[MojaveGeek]

Whoa, too bad about the fall, could happen to any of us, so sobering to think about. I did an uncontrolled drop about 6 feet in a nearby canyon some years ago but was able to recover after a day with ice and bed rest. I'm glad you could get back out and at least enjoy the scenery. Must have been inconvenient to hobble around though. (Well I could tell you about a week hiking with in indwelling urinary catheter, but that would be just TMI ). I guess it must have hurt like hell which was your cue to get x-ray? I sort of learned over the years that if something hurts like hell and doesn't start to clear up in a few hours, I'm probably badly enough damaged to seek medical help.

Thanks for the pix!!

[trailhound]

Thank you for your kind words. The foot had lightning bolts coming out of it. So, I knew it needed medical attention.  Several years ago, I looked up the nearest big hospital in Vegas and put it in my GPS. That came in handy. Spending 6 weeks sitting around doing nothing because I had to stay off the foot has cost me a lot. At my age (74), I am not sure how much I can recover, but I am trying.  Yes, I have a love-hate relationship going with Red Wall Canyon. There was a road grader parked nearby. I kept thinking, if I knew how to operate it, I would scrape a smooth path to the canyon mouth. Of course, the park service would have a hit man looking for me.

[MojaveGeek]

So we're of similar ages... and we know we don't heal as fast as we used to. If you can get PT (Medicare covers it if a doc approves) I highly recommend it - done it for knees and shoulders with good results.

I had a trip where we flew into LV as the minor infection in my arm was blowing up. Doctor Wife marked the margins of the inflammation with a pen so we could watch it grow. Went to Sunrise Hospital (near the Strip) and got IV, kept the IV shunt in and I came back for another dose that evening (Saturday night in an LV ER near the Strip... not a place where you want to be). Eventually it got worse, I got admitted, got a PICC line, was ready to head out to SPW with a cooler full of IV bags... but they decided surgery was needed to remove some of the infection (it was actually quite serious) and that finished the trip. I did get to do the IV on a hiking vacation thing some years later, different infection, different venue.

Anyway, I figured that since Sunrise Hospital was in east LV that their branch over near Summerlin (west) would be called "Sunset" but with some further thought, that's not a great idea. Glad you were able to get there quickly!

Now here is my Redwall / Road grader story. My son was a couple years old and in a backpack. Eric was with us. They were grading the road so we could not park at the proper spot. Eric drove 1/4 mile and sprinted back. In the mean time we found a scorpion in the kid back. But he was strapped in with the marvelous 5 point harness that would hold him literally upside down, so was a bit of work to get him out. In the mean time I brushed the scorp off the pack... but then it could not be found and we worried it fell into one of the pack pockets. Which we had to empty, very carefully. Never found it. Digonnet has a scorpion sketch on his Redwall pages. Interesting.

OK, so on the way back it was pretty late, dark in fact as we got to the road. Eric ran off to fetch the car. I whipped it out and was taking a leak but.. something sounded strange. When Eric came back I told him the good news - I had found his hat in the dark - as well as the bad, that it was now full of piss.

But I totally love Redwall on a nice sunny day!