A friend of mine suffered a fractured ankle while hiking alone. I recently bumped into him and managed to gain the details. While hiking a rugged, high mountain trail not far from Helena, he chanced upon what he thought might be red jasper stone. Tumbled and polished, red jasper can be stunning to behold. Naturally, he filled his backpack with specimens to take home.
Hiking
back down the trail proved tricky, especially with a backpack full of stones.
At some point, his footing failed him. In the quick version of this, he
crumpled down, folding his ankle back in an ugly, impossible way. After
gathering himself together and attempting to resume his descent, he quickly
realized he could not go on; his ankle was angry and utterly failing him. To
his credit, he was carrying an emergency satellite phone, which he used to
contact help. After something near a half-dozen hours, a rescue team reached my
friend and worked him back down the mountain.
As a
rock collector, I asked the next logical question: “So, were you able to save
any of the rocks?”
My
friend smiled. “No,” he responded.
—Mitchell Hegman
Photo: Amazon
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