Yesterday, Sunday March 30th at Weir Canyon my friend crashed, was unconscious and bleeding. Luckily he was air evac'd and he will recover. Today he is doing well. But I only got the name of one of the MTBers, John, that helped us and one hiker that is also a mtn bkr named Gary and his family and even his dog
Thank you guys SO much for assistance and staying with him once he was conscious and talking, so I could ride out and direct the emergency personnel to him. Thank you for giving him a coat and water and helping him to walk far enough out to get to the helicopter. I saw the helicopter land and I am pretty sure it would have been a delay to find us down further in the canyon and maybe they wouldn't even have been able to land that close.
I have had Wilderness First Aid training (much more in depth than regular FA classes) and I am positive I couldn't have done it without that training. I encourage everyone to take that course. Priceless. Hopefully I will never ever have to use it again!!
I do have questions though for those that have experienced this. We were not able to get cell signal in the canyon and two people went uphill in opposite directions to call 911 (successful, but time wasted to climb up the hill and left me alone with patient). We were SO close to houses too, so I really was surprised (stressed!!!) Regardless, they made it in time, but there was also a big delay in describing where we were located. One biker mentioned (and I was under a lot of stress, taking care of my friend so my memory may be wrong) that he tried to "sent a pin" or send a "ping" (???) to 911 and they said 911 can't accept texts or emails. I think he was trying to give a GPS location. I ride alone sometimes and considered getting the Spot or something similar, but I haven't done much research on it. Does anyone have that and would it have been effective to give them our location? I knew exactly where we were but due to the stress, I could NOT recall the street names, and again that is why I am SO thankful for everyone who helped with calling and communicating with 911 while I tried to get him to respond, etc.
Ultimately, he is expected to recover but it would really have been nice to see those firefighters a lot sooner. I don't know that I have ever been so happy and relieved to see a bunch of strangers in yellow coats before
Thank you Anaheim Fire and Police and I did manage to get Officer Robert Lopez' name as he ran in the mile or so to help.
I have had Wilderness First Aid training (much more in depth than regular FA classes) and I am positive I couldn't have done it without that training. I encourage everyone to take that course. Priceless. Hopefully I will never ever have to use it again!!
I do have questions though for those that have experienced this. We were not able to get cell signal in the canyon and two people went uphill in opposite directions to call 911 (successful, but time wasted to climb up the hill and left me alone with patient). We were SO close to houses too, so I really was surprised (stressed!!!) Regardless, they made it in time, but there was also a big delay in describing where we were located. One biker mentioned (and I was under a lot of stress, taking care of my friend so my memory may be wrong) that he tried to "sent a pin" or send a "ping" (???) to 911 and they said 911 can't accept texts or emails. I think he was trying to give a GPS location. I ride alone sometimes and considered getting the Spot or something similar, but I haven't done much research on it. Does anyone have that and would it have been effective to give them our location? I knew exactly where we were but due to the stress, I could NOT recall the street names, and again that is why I am SO thankful for everyone who helped with calling and communicating with 911 while I tried to get him to respond, etc.
Ultimately, he is expected to recover but it would really have been nice to see those firefighters a lot sooner. I don't know that I have ever been so happy and relieved to see a bunch of strangers in yellow coats before