So our trip to RSA to hunt with Riaan is coming up in 9 days 13 hours 27 minutes and 36 seconds from now.

I decide to go with my buddies and float the Lochsa river in Idaho over the Memorial day weekend to take the edge off. For those of you who aren't familiar the Lochsa is quite a wild river. Comes out of Lolo pass and , along with the Selway, forms the Clearwater. It is noted for it's BIG waves and flips in high water. It was running at 6' for those who are familiar with the river.

It rained most of the weekend, but the river was still dropping. Most of the snow is gone due to the warm April here in the NW U.S.

I'm mindful of that fact that I have this big trip coming so I'm not doing anything radical. My buddy flips in No-See-Em and rides his catboat upside down, all the way through Ten Pin (a tricky class IV that's full of rocks), for a mile and a half. I'm thinking, glad that's not me. I don't want to get hurt and miss my huntin' trip.

I make it through the all the rapids. Stalled on Joneys Waves. Had to drop my oars and grab a fist full of frame as I thought I was going over for sure. My buddy Dewey slammed into me and knocked me off before I slid back down the wave and cartwheeled. Got to surf on Surf Wave (WoooHooo, look no hands!!).

I'm back in camp and thinking, "Cool, I got it made. Not even a bruise". We're getting ready to eat. Grilled burgers, chips, etc... I'm looking for the mayo and can't find any on the table. I think to myself, "There's some in the cooler on the raft". Since this river is all day trips, the raft is on the trailer.

I climb up, grab it an step/jump down. I hear a snap in my ankle and the next thing I know I'm on the ground trying to breath as I've knocked the wind out of me.

First thought I had was, "Goddamnit! I just broke my ankle and now I have to cancel my trip."

My ankle is screaming like hell and my ribs ain't too quiet either. I stand up and tentatively put weight on my left foot. "Okay it'll bear weight, let's try walking on it. Not bad... Hurts but not like it's broke. Ribs are sore, what the hell did I hit."

I look down and there is a rock that is just poking through the soil with wet grass on it. I'd apparently stepped on it and twisted my ankle. My buddies didn't see it happen, but they heard a load crash and think that I hit the trailer on the way down.

Needless to say I wasn't able to float the next day, but I was able to walk on it if it was bandaged. Kept icing it down and elevating it. Ibuprofen has become my new friend.

I was able to take the dog for a walk yesterday and wasn't too bad. A little gimpy after and this morning, but not bad. It is a study in purple. Even my toes are shades of green and violet.

Rib's seem to be staying the same or a bit worse. Hard to sleep because rolling on my side is a fun filled experience in pain.

But I think that I'll still be able to make the trip.

It's always something...

-Steve

Get yourself some DMSO.

I fell while building my trophy room 6 weeks before my last African trip--completely tore my bicep tendon loose. Had to have major surgery. Got my arm out of the cast at 4:00 PM, was on the plane at 6:00 PM. Initially, I could not straighten my arm at all and could carry my rifle in that hand a max of 15 seconds (right arm, I'm right handed). Had to be very careful because the mend was still quite fragile and open for redamage--plus I was told that if I redid it, it couldn't be repaired again. At any rate, the hunt went fine and by the time I returned I could staighten my arm 80% of the way and carry my rifle in that hand nearly 30 minutes. Actually, it was good therapy. Incidently, the medic wasn't too keen on my rapid departure, but actually was helpful and supportive. He took it out of the cast 1 week earlier than he normally would have, abmonishing me to be very careful. It was a great hunt! My arm is now actually 110%--stronger than my left arm. Be careful out there!

About 8 years ago, I was out doing some fall Steelheading with my 12 yr. old son. We had just crossed a pretty fast flowing stream and were working our way to a good run. I was wearing neoprene waders with felt bottom boots. Great on rocks, but on mud they're slicker than grease.

The path was a bit muddy, and I slipped, so quickly that the only thing I had time to think about was my expensive fishing rod. I lifted my arm to keep the rod from landing under me, and instead landed my chest right on a large rock about 18" from the ground. I heard the *SNAP* of my ribs.

Once I got my wind back, I had to work my way back across the river, in extreme pain, and also trying to keep an eye on my son, as he crossed.

I drove 2 hours home. I didn't tell my (then) wife, because she was an easily stressed nag, and I knew she'd harass me until I went to the hospital. I knew that they wouldn't be able to help me, and didn't want to spend hours sitting there.

So, after dinner, I went to lay on the bed for a while. My wife came in and playfully threw her - not inconsiderable bulk - full weight onto my chest. I almost passed out from the pain!! She noticed my pained expression and asked what was wrong. I just gritted my teeth and said "Nothing, Honey. I'm just too full from dinner."

On the first evening, on my first salmon fishing trip to Norway, 20 years old, having just bought the licence, I slipped on wet grass and twisted my ankle so I just was able to walk with the help of a stick. Just getting into the waders was pure hell not to mention wading in a rocky river but there was nothing else do do. My friends drowe me down to the river and I stumbled around in the current. Good thing my mother did not se me...

But i killed some nice fish.



Not Africa, but nothern Norway was about as exotic to us in those years...



Regards,

Martin

You made the mistake of thinking about "not getting hurt". Live life with reckless abandon and you'll never get a scratch.

So go to Africa and slap a Cape Buffalo on the ass for me.

Bryan

Steve,



I did the same thing last summer, except I sprained left ankle and hobbled around and then wife says maybe you have a break and just think no Africa next summer..i shot out of the house to the hospital and no break but a sprain...Two days later I sprained theright even worse was guess and blue all the away around and to the toes....



Mike

Bummer. Two years ago drew an elk license in Colorado that took 7 points (seven years of applying) to get. Finished teaching a night class a week before the hunt, stepped off the curb onto an itty bitty rock, and tore my ankle. Docs thought about operating on it, but decided not to. Hunted with crutches, a cane, and LOTs of pain killers. Guides and rancher were amazed at my...(I'll call it stupidity), but I got my elk!

Not quite the same thing, but relative.



A horse slipped and fell on me, pretty much crushing my left foot. Amazingly, NOTHING was broken (from X-rays taken a few days later)! This was on the FIRST day of my first-ever elk hunt, in Montana in November of 2002. In January of 2003, I was called up to fight in Iraq. Like I said, the horse pretty much crushed my left foot, despite what the X-rays indicated, and while it's okay "now" -- I was still hobbling around, on "bad" days, well into May of last year. What a way to go to war.



Yup, if it's not one thing, it's always another.



Russ

Steve,

That "snap" sound is familiar to me as I have had bad ankles since I played competitive tennis in High school. I rolled my ankles so often that I started wearing high top sneakers and 10" combat boots daily just to keep them from popping out. Only now are they getting normal again (age 32). I would keep that ankle wrapped up before and during your trip and that way you won't feel the need to be tentative with it. This is also a good idea I think as it seems once you pop that joint out, it tends to become a more regular occurence.

JMHO,

JohnTheGreek

P.S. The prior post is correct, don't worry about ever getting hurt and you can almost bet you never will. Have a GREAT hunt!

All,

You know that was what I was thinking. Don't think about it and it won't happen. But I was doing a rather hazardous activity the whole day and I didn't get hurt. It was after it was all over and I wasn't thinking about what might happen that I got whacked. It just goes to show you that God does have a sense of humor.

I injured myself a few years back as well (same leg). I was shooting at a nice muley. I shot and missed and stepped sideways to get on him again.

As I was stepping I heard this load crack and my leg stopped. I looked down thinking that I'd ran into a stump. Nothing there.

"Okay focus on the deer, Steve..." I pull the rifle up and plant my left leg. It starts to wobble and gyrate. Damn I've blown out my knee. No pain at all, just can't put any weight on it. So I start to hop on one foot and take my last shot at the deer as he disappears into the reprod.

My buddy's were looking at me and couldn't figure out what the hell I was doing. One of my buddy's is a paraplegic and hunts from a quad. He ended up hauling me out of the hole we were in. Otherwise I'd still be there now.

Went to the doc, was told I'd torn the cartilage and I needed to be off it for two weeks. Told her to give me a brace and my buddies could set me up on a stump and drive deer to me.

Swelled up as big as a casaba melon that night and didn't get a lick of sleep.

Ended up getting an MRI after I got back home. The doc asked if I'd ever injured the knee before as I didn't have an ACL. I said no that it had always been 100%.

They did surgery about a month after and found that I'd torn the meniscus, torn my ACL (not all the way through, still a thread left. That's why it didn't show up on the MRI), injured the top of the tibia and did something else to something else. All that and it didn't hurt a bit when it happened.

Any way the point of it all, is that weird things happen at weird times.

Take Care,

-Steve

Steve, I assume I'll still be seeing you at Hartsford on the 13th? I'll look for the guy limping and grimacing My wife rolled her ankle five weeks ago. After it swelled to the size of a soft ball I thouhgt it might be broken. It was The Dr. will have her out of her walking boot by next week, in time for the trip. Be carefull an African hunt is too important to cancel over an injury, maybe a death.

After having driven for 26 years without having an accident, I totaled a Bronco just a few days prior to leaving for my first safari in Namibia in 2002...... fortunately, I wasn't seriously injured but did have my bell rung.............

I broke my ankle 6 weeks before a wilderness elk hunt in Alberta. I was jogging and ran by the local orthopedist wife(she is quite good looking). She started humming the theme song to Rocky as I passed her. When I turned my head to make a comment, I stepped in a hole where the asphalt had broken off the pavement. I turned my ankle under, heard a "pop", and flew into the ditch. I accused her husband of sending her out to distract future patients.

I was placed in a cast and 5 days later I shot 2 hogs out of a boxstand over looking a corn field. My buddy has to push me up the ladder to get me into it. The orthopedist took me out of the cast at 4 weeks because it was a soggy mess and placed me into a walking boot. I purchased a pair of knee high Schnee pack boots and used them in place of the walking boot. I was able to make the hunt. The horses greatly assisted me in getting around the Canadian Rockies. We spent a lot of time glassing for bulls. I was quite lucky and took a 6x5 on the 7th evening of the hunt.

Why worry about anything? Tommorrow you might be dead.

PS The story outlined. A good reason to take out travel insurance if something untoward happens before your safari - or during it!

An acquaintance was involved in a car accident during his South African safari on the roads. Insurance covered his flight back home and return later to finish the safari. A fractured collar-bone.

Kino,

I'll be there even if they have to wheel me aboard on a gurney.

Look forward to swapping stories.

-Steve

I can almost feel your "pain"

Here's a Link of the beginning of my elk trip.

Steve, I'm glad you're okay, more or less.



Some people get in shape, workout like fiends, run miles each day, etc., etc., before going on safari.



This merely increases the odds that they will suffer a debilitating pre-safari injury.



I, on the other hand, just keep on sitting around on my ass, overeating and doing what has always come naturally, i.e., as little as possible.



Every time I get the urge to exercise, I lie down on the couch and sleep until it passes.



Like the first man on the moon, Neil Armstrong, I believe that we are all born with a limited number of heartbeats, and I'll be damned if I'll waste any of mine on exercise. (This is true--he really said that.)



Sure, I might run a higher risk of being injured while on safari, but at least I'll be injured IN AFRICA--WHILE HUNTING! As a friend of mine once said, there are far worse ways to die than on the horns of a charging buffalo!



Good luck on your safari!

I must say, I like your attitude! Not what I do, but I like it none-the-less!

Yeh, been there & done that. On my 1st trip to RSA in 98 I ruptured my ACL (2) months before the trip. I taped it up, put a brace on & went. When I got home I had reconstructive surgery. Sometimes life just deals you lemons, just keep moving forward.

I've been told that if your injured. In a cast or walking boot you received better treatment from the airline crew. Anyone have first hand knowledge of this?