16 July 2019, Tuesday

We are up before 6 am today. As per our usual routine O starts breakfast while I pack up the inside of our Nemo tent. The other hikers are beginning to stir as well. Just as we are getting ready to hoist packs, three older guys come puffing into camp from the opposite direction. They’ve been on the trail since 4:30 am so that they can cross Goose Creek at low tide. They are quite relieved to see they are still within the window for crossing. O comments to two Canadian guys camped with us that when we went to bed last night the tide was out, and this morning, the tide is still out. One of the Canadians says he thinks these Bay of Fundy people take things to extremes in their description of their tides! We west bound hikers provide trail info to the men heading eastward and then we are on our way.

The trail westward from Goose Creek remains rugged and steep, but we cover ground a bit more easily. I am carrying both food bags now. O’s pack is lighter, but still substantial. His knees are feeling better. We have occasional vistas across the Bay of Fundy as we hike the ridgeline. The two Canadians whom we met at the Goose Creek site pass us as we begin our steep descent down to Brandy Brook. I am ahead of O as we pick our way downward. All of a sudden my left foot slips sideways on the damp pine needles and with the added weight of my pack, I feel my ankle turn inward and snap as I go down.

As O catches up to me I inform him that it looks like I’ll be the one needing rescue on this trip. O starts redistributing pack contents so he can get food and shelter down to the brook. We can still see the bright red shirts of the two Canadians down below as they take a break by the stream. We blow a few blasts on our whistles. They look up but do not see us. I tell O I am going to “scooch” the rest of the way down the ravine. If I cannot get cell reception there I want to catch the two men before they leave so they can get help once they have a cell signal.

I am almost at the brook by the time I get their attention. One of them (who has a cast on his wrist following recent tendon surgery) helps me across the slippery stream bed to a comfortable log. His hiking partner stays with me while the one with the cast scrambles back up the ravine to help O with the packs. This way, he says, he can claim to have hiked more of the trail than his friend. The hikers had heard our whistles, but thought the sound was a strange bird!

I prop my injured leg on the log. When O arrives with my pack and first aid kit I wrap my ankle in an ace bandage and somehow manage to get my boot back on. Now I turn on my phone. There is 1 dot of Bell LTE service. I call 911 and get Nova Scotia as expected. It is difficult explaining where I am and what happened as the call keeps breaking up. The 911 operator manages to get back to me after losing the call and then patches me through to New Brunswick. I explain my location and situation again. We are able to give precise GPS coordinates using our two Garmin devices. The 911 operator has also gotten a good fix on my cell phone. We are assured help is on the way. The rescue team is going to try coming in by boat. The two Canadians, now confident we will be found, wish us luck and proceed with their hike. 

O and I break out some snacks and our small binoculars to enjoy our last hours in the woods. We note several more attempts by emergency services to reach us by phone, but the cell signal has become too spotty, even if O tries to climb higher on the ridge. About an hour to an hour and a half after my 911 call we hear a shout from downstream. Captain Joel Wanamaker of the Sussex Volunteer Fire Company has made his way upstream to us. He reports that the trek up the stream is treacherous, with slippery boulders, sheer cliff walls and a 15 foot waterfall. I wonder how he made it upstream with his uniform looking so immaculate. O says it’s because he’s Canadian! The captain will not risk taking me down that way. He returns downstream to let his crew know we are found and soon returns with Chris, a paramedic. Chris asks the usual medical questions in the setting of an ankle injury. As I can wiggle my toes and have sensation in them, he does not want to take off my boot. He rigs up an additional “air cast” using O’s sit-upon.

Now Joel and Chris debate the best way out. It is almost 2 km of rugged trail to get to a semblance of a road. They are reluctant to try that option. They call the Nova Scotia station to request a helicopter for evacuation. After waiting a bit more than an hour they get a “negative” on the helicopter. There has been a plane crash in Labrador and the helicopters are assisting in recovery and rescue. The only way out will be the rugged trail. Chris and Captain Joel again make their way downstream, this time carrying our heavy packs out. (My pack looks pretty small on Chris’ broad back.)

In another 45 minutes or so Joel returns, this time with Greg, a volunteer with search and rescue. Greg rigs up a cardboard splint and uses the sit upon as a cushion. He has me try a few steps, but the going would be excruciatingly slow. Greg decides the best bet is to piggyback me out. He is incredibly strong – carrying me up and down over roots and rocks. I am much heavier than a backpack! We move along in short stints. When we come to particularly steep downward sections or dangerous narrow sections of the trail, I assist by scooching along on my bottom until the going is a bit safer. Then it’s back onto Greg’s back for another carry.

We finally meet up with Chris and a team coming along the trail from the opposite direction. Near the end of this carry we have some beautiful views of Martin’s Head, a spit of land with a hill at the end reaching out into the Bay of Fundy. Unfortunately, it’s not a very convenient time for photos. In a few more minutes we reach the Argo, a small ATV with tractor treads. I am loaded into the back on a bench seat. O climbs in behind. Up front there is only room for the driver, Chris. Greg and Joel walk along behind as we grind our way along a track in the woods. O holds my injured leg across his knee so it won’t get slammed on the Argo floor during the extremely rough ride. We do our best to hold on and not get ejected from the vehicle. Greg and Joel seem to be happy to walk!

Soon we reach a 4 wheel drive pick-up truck. I ride in the front seat. O rides in back. This conveys us out along an ATV road to a better gravel road where two more paramedics are waiting with an ambulance. It is now about 6 pm. The ambulance crew has been waiting there since 10:30 or 11 this morning! We bid farewell to Greg, Joel and Chris and offer profuse thanks. Christie, one of the paramedics, rides in the back of the ambulance with me, checking vital signs and pointing out the sights of back country New Brunswick. We share chuckles comparing New Brunswick roads to Pennsylvania roads. I try to photograph my New Brunswick splint, but I’m not sure how blurry it will be as we are bouncing along. Christie makes the decision to go directly to Saint John Regional Hospital rather than stopping at Sussex ER as she is fairly certain they will transfer me to Saint John anyway for definitive care. We arrive at the ER by about 7:30. Christie apparently makes a good case to the charge nurse that I should by seen immediately rather than having to brave the waiting room. I guess she is convincing. I am taken directly to bay 10. An orthopedist sees me almost immediately. I am sent for x-rays and practically as soon as I am back in the ER the orthopedist returns. I have indeed fractured my fibula. I will have a plaster cast applied in the ER and return to ortho clinic on Monday to get a fiberglass cast. No weight bearing for two weeks, after which I should be able to get a walking boot. So much for our hiking plans!

The nurses at the ER load me in one wheel chair and our backpacks in another and transport us to the front entrance. They give us the name of a pharmacy that is still open so we can stop to purchase crutches. The crutches cost $32 Canadian, $24 US. Crutches in hand, the taxi driver takes us to Holiday Inn Express and Suites. They have one room left for the night due to a cancellation. We get their special discounted hospital rate because of my injury. So here we are, back in Saint John. I am learning to hobble along with my crutches and managing to get still-damp plaster on almost everything. O showers. I can’t due to the plaster and the no weight bearing restriction. We both tumble into bed exhausted.