[pct-l] Had an accident, got a trail name

[maurer at earthlink.net (maurer@earthlink.net)]

Hi all,

 

A couple of weeks ago a post mentioned I had been in a motorcycle 
accident. After 16 days in the hospital I am now home and wanted to drop 
a quick note to the group. On June 28 my 14 yr. old son and I were on my 
Honda Goldwing and were hit head on going 50 MPH by a 78 yr. old driver 
who was driving with a suspended license (for medical reasons). He made 
an illegal left turn against a red light, right into us. Fortunately he 
has full insurance. I rammed into the front this mans' Cadillac and 
fortunately, my son Jackson was throw over the vehicle. Jackson broke 
his left tibia and suffered about 100 stitches to his left knee. He is 
recovering quickly and should be on his feet in August. I was not so 
lucky. My left femur was broken in two places and split up the middle. 
My left tib/fib were also broken in two places - just above my left 
ankle and about 2/3 up my leg. This second tib/fib break drove my bones 
and most of my left calf muscle outside of my lower leg on the left 
side. I also got a hairline break on C6 on my spine and therefore have 
been classified with a broken neck. This break is not serious, however, 
and will heal simply by wearing a collar for 6 weeks. We were airlifted 
to a San Diego trauma center and through the miracle of medicine the 
surgeons decided to rebuild my left leg using titanium rods rather than 
wait for it to heal naturally. I now have a ti rod running down through 
the entire length of both my femur and my tibia. My leg was enormous for 
a long time but the swelling is going down quickly and I'm starting to 
get around on crutches.

Throughout the course of time that has passed I have had a chance to 
understand how blessed the two of us are that we are still here to hike 
another day. It will be a long time before I hit the trail again but I 
am strenuously attacking my physical therapy in an attempt to get back 
to the person I was on June 27th. I had planned a thru-hike of the PCT 
through Oregon starting July 5, and have called each of the resupply 
points and asked them to donate my entire resupply package to the hiker 
box at each respective location.

I wanted to say thanks to the many folks who passed on get well emails 
to me directly and through Glen Van Peski, my partner. I also wanted to 
let you know that as a result of what happened my local hiking buddies 
are now referring to me as "Peg Leg". What an odd way to acquire a trail 
name.

Thanks again for your kind thoughts and while I'm not yet on the trail, 
for now I'm back on the list.

 

 

 

Mike "Peg Leg" Maurer

Gossamer Gear