Let me start of by saying that today was BY FAR the most TERRIFYING day of my LIFE.
Well, year, perhaps.
Alright. So after class and sitting around the house bored I got the bright idea to go hiking. I've been aching to hit the trails again and well, I was having a REALLY shitty morning. Nick was having a bad day so he was annoyed at me and told me not to drive down to base to come see him. I should've disobeyed him.. then none of this would've happened...
Aaron and Mark. Mark is Aaron's friend. They're like brothers. Aaron is in my philosophy class and we've been hanging out and talking a few weeks after the semester started. He was on aim, and so I messaged him asking him if he was busy today. Which he said he wasn't. So I told him what I was planning on doing, and he said he'd be cool with comin' along too. Because he was talking to Mark already and Mark said he too had nothing to do, they both said they'd come. So I picked them up and we headed out to Altadena. I got confused while going there because Nick had called me and the directions to the trail were saved on my phone.
So here's where it all starts. Nick called me, was super annoyed at me, and well - he broke up with me. Sort of. I didn't want to deal with it in front of the others so I asked him if I could call him back. He said that there is no later, just now. Which is why I stayed on the phone with him. Finally he agreed to let me call him back when I could.
We found the road that lead to the trail (freaking NARROW as hell), and parked in the parking lot where we had a brief, but friendly chat with someone from NJ. He was just campin' out in his car and helped Aaron and Mark get a small red soccer ball that was lodged under a car parked near us. I called Nick, and we talked it out and he apologized. He's been havin' a rough week...
So we started on the trail. We got to the waterfall (Millard Canyon Falls), which I wasn't satisfied with. It was beautiful in person - I appreciate nature the way it is - but it wasn't GREAT. The trail to the fall was pretty rough and difficult and we lost the trail a few times, but it was short.
Millard Canyon FallsI wasn't satisfied. I wanted a longer hike. I had read up on this trail a bit and knew there was another trail that lead to a waterfall that fed the falls we were at. We hiked up a steep rocky, loose gravel and dirt, to look for a trail I knew existed, but didn't know where. I wish I had read the directions I had put on my phone... We made it up, found a trail, followed it (the wrong way first - this lead back down. we went back the right way.), looked over the top of the falls (SCARY!) and continued to hike upstream. The path crossed the stream MANY times and once again, it was pretty difficult. The trail could be easily lost if you weren't looking too closely. After a bit, it merges with another more well worn trail. It was still a difficult hike though. We came upon what I believe is Saucer Branch Falls. However, reading up on the description, I do believe it isn't so. Lol.
Well, we sat and played in these three part falls engorged in the rock. It looked completely PERFECT to just slide down the moss covered areas of the flat rock right into the pools of water below them. Like, no joke. It was GREAT. The pool at the bottom though was the deepest. I definitely could've swam around in it! All the others were like maybe up to my knees or my waist. But the last pool... Man.. It was REALLY nice.
Oh! And there were salamanders in the pool! I saw something stick it's head out of the water to get air and I FREAKED (I was talking about 'The Descent' movie and how we were all gonna die and not make it off the mountain.) but I realized it was just a salamander. SOOO CUTEEE! There were like three just hanging around this bush in the water. I have a picture, but it didn't come out so clear so I won't post it up. Anyway, we had our fun and the clock was hitting four so I wanted to get outta there.
The cold water felt REALLY great on our tired feet. But it was so cold it hurt if you stayed in too long.
Anyway, we left and headed back down the trail. We got to the top of Millard Falls and hiked up the side of the rock surface to find the trail back down(the one we had discovered earlier) and I lead the way down. It was very steep. I wish I had a picture to show what kind of terrain we were working with too. It was difficult and scary. I can't put it into words.
This is the moment my heart stopped beating...
He took a path to the right of me and was about maybe an arms length away. I was hanging onto a tree, easing my way down the precarious trail. He slipped... It didn't look like much at first, until he couldn't regain his footing. He went down the mountain, headed straight towards a tree. He tried to grab it, but his fingers slipped and it swung him around and he continued to slide down the trail. He hit the bottom trail, it looked like he was gonna be able to stop and be okay, but there was a rock.. and he lost his balance... tripped over it.. and went down.
He fell hard. He rolled in all sorts of ways. I screamed his name and he seemed to get up after a few seconds of not moving. Mark and I had been laughing thinking it wasn't going to be serious. But as soon as he went down, I knew it was going to be. Well, he got up looking dazed. He was gritting his teeth and dropped down to the fetal position grabbing his head and shaking it. You could tell he was in a LOT of pain. I kept yelling his name. "Aaron! Aaron! Aaron are you alright?! Aaron!" He didn't respond to any of my calls. Mark and I did our best to scramble down the mountain side, but we too lost our footing along the way but were able to regain it before hitting the bottom. I made it down first.
He sat down on a rock next to the stream...
This is the part that annoyed me of my day (besides the police officer). There were TWO GUYS at the bottom sitting on some rocks near the river with a COOLER. While Mark and I were trying to rush down the mountain and help our friend in need, they sat there on the rocks saying, "Whoa man! That was some gnarly fall!" When Mark and I heard this we were really surprised there were other people on the trail. But we were even more shocked, that no one came to his rescue. They just sat there on the rocks commenting on how he fell. That pissed me off.
Anyway, he sat down on a rock next to the stream. His shirt was torn in a few places and he was gritting his teeth. I asked him if he was okay. He said he was but that it just hurt a lot. One major hole got my attention. I told him he had a hole in his shirt on the shoulder and I asked him if he was okay. He said yeah, just in a lot of pain. I told him I wanted to make sure and asked him if I could look at it. He said, "Yeah, could you?" I stretched out the collar on his shirt to look at his shoulder. I had expected something small... It was a gruesome cut. Blood was beginning to pour out of it.
"Shit. Your shoulder's fucked up. Shit. Shit. Shit." He tried to turn his neck to look at it, but his neck was hurting too. Mark made it to my side and asked me how bad it was. He took a look for himself and agreed with me that it might need stitches. I didn't want to call 911 because we weren't exactly sure how bad it was. It wasn't broken, so it's not TOO serious, but it was still pretty gross.
I ran. I ran as fast as I could back down the trail to where we were parked. It was a difficult trail to begin with, and I almost sprained my ankle going on a dead run over all the rocks. I wanted to reach my car as fast as I could because I had packed a large bottle of water. We had brought two bottles along with us on trail, but had finished them right before heading down the mountainside. As I ran, I came across a few cabins above the trail. I started yelling if anyone was there. No response. I kept running. I was so tired... so hot. I just wanted to wade in the stream until I cooled down. But I kept running. I came upon Millard Campground - the end of our trail. I yelled out once more. But no response.
The one family I saw playing earlier must be sleeping. The caretaker? That van looks like it's been parked here for years. I looked at the van. There was a slight hum coming from inside of it. Certainly, someone was inside, no?
I shook my head. I didn't have time for this. I continued to run back down the road towards the parking lot. I got to the parking lot, breathing hard and sweating. I went straight into my car, grabbed my water bottle, slammed the door shut, and ran back up the trail. There were some people standing there looking at me funny, as well as the NJ guy we had spoken to earlier. They didn't bother asking me why I was looking so flustered. I tried running back up the trail, I really did. But the road was so hot, I was wheezing when trying to breathe. My body felt like giving out on me, but I told myself I had to push through for this. I picked up my pace when I could and went running back up the trail.
The water was hot from sitting in my car for a few hours and I didn't know if it would be a good thing or a bad thing. The heat would help with killing some germs, but I knew he would want something cool to drink. I also knew that it was probably best he drank warm water in case he was in shock or whatever the hell it was.
I met them on the trail after a few minutes of jogging.
I made him sit down on a rock next to the water. Mark had helped him take his shirt off earlier and he stood over me as I poured water on his cut. I did the best I could. I rubbed gently over the cut as I poured the hot water over it. He kept grimacing and squirming in pain. I felt so bad. I told him to put his hand in the water, that the coolness might distract him from the pain just a little. He kept squirming away from me... I did the best I could. I looked for a rock in the river that was cool and clean, rinsed it with the hot water, and gently padded the area around the cut that was swelling up pretty badly. Mark filled his empty water bottle up with the stream water and left it in the stream to cool some more.
I looked at the cut. In the center of all the red, I saw a blueish and whiteish tinge. I wasn't sure what I was looking at. I knew it had cut a lot deeper than expected, but it looked like I was looking at his ... I don't know. It looked familiar though. The light blue and the white? I've seen it before. I just couldn't remember where. Thinking about it now, I've seen an operation in my anatomy class where everything was the same color.
Anyway, I told them to pack it up and head down the trail first without me. I had taken my shoes off while trying to treat him and was wading in the water to cool myself down a bit. I didn't even bother drying my feet... well, a little. I put my socks back on and ran back down the trail to meet up with what little ground they gained. I went ahead of them once more to get to the campground. Here, I didn't hesitate. I KNEW there was a steady hum coming from the little motor home thing. I knocked on the window, and there was a rustling from beside me and a voice. I jumped a bit, wasn't expecting that soon of a response. He asked me if I needed any help and I quickly explained what happened, and if he had any sort of antibiotics that I could use to clean the cut with. He said all he had was some peroxide and I was free to use it if I'd like. I asked if I may and he went back to grab me the bottle.
I sat Aaron down at the closest bench when he told me his ankle was starting to act up too. I had checked his torso and under his arms for any cuts while I was washing his cut next to the stream. I had also noticed a small cut behind his ear and some of the skin on his neck rubbed a bit raw. I took of his shoe and his sock to see if there were any cuts around his ankle. There was one, but it wasn't significant. I poured some water on it when the guy came up with the peroxide.
I poured the peroxide on his cut and we all know what happens when you do that. The person squirms in pain and the cut bubbles up all yellow and gross like. I cleaned it three times and dabbed up around the cuts with some toilet paper the caretaker had given me. I gave Mark my keys and told him to get to my car and roll down all the windows to cool it down some before we got there. The guy had instructed me to leave the bottle of peroxide on his hood when I was done, so I sent Aaron on his way while I jogged back and put the bottle on his hood. Some lady came up and asked us if we needed anything. She was coming from the direction of the trail with two dogs, one that was furiously barking at us. We walked back down the trail to the car, Mark didn't know how to work my alarm, he had unlocked the car while pushing the button a couple of times, I ran around the car opening all the doors, and ordered them to get into their seats. I saw the NJ guy peering out his window at us, but there was no time to chat.
"Come on. We need to get you to the hospital." I got into my car, turned my AC on, rolled down the windows, and sped out of the parking lot and back up the road. Once we hit the main road I was speeding maybe 10-15 miles above the speed limit. I passed a van that moved out of it's way for me, when Mark said, "Dude. Cop." And I was like, "GREAT. HE CAN TELL US HOW TO GET TO THE NEAREST HOSPITAL!" I had been on the phone with Nick as soon as we got out of the winding road leading to the trails. In my hurry, I accidentally hung up on him - sorry, Nick. Anyway, the cop guy had been about to pull me over because he had barely turned on his lights when I came to a stop before him. I turned my emergency lights on and started waving him up. (I've read an article on how cops want their "victims" to act when pulled over. Getting out of the car would've seemed like a bit of threat to the guy and he could've pulled a gun at me and made things take even longer.) He moved a few feet forward in his car and he looked extremely confused. He turned off his lights and got out of the car and slowly started walking towards me. I leaned out the window and asked him if he knew how to get to the nearest hospital before he even got to my car.
This is pretty much how it went:
"Is this an emergency?"
"My friend fell off the trail and he's bleeding and might need stitches."
Officer looks around at all the passengers in the car and then at Aaron's shoulder.
"Do you need me to call an ambulance?"
And in my head i'm thinking, shit, that's EXPENSIVE.
"No, I just need to get him to a hospital."
Officer looks around some more than says, "Then it isn't an emergency."
And I'm thinking,
WTF. HE JUST FELL FIFTY FEET AND THAT ISN'T CONSIDERED AN EMERGENCY?Officer continues to look around cooly, while I'm about to break down and start crying.
"Well, you shouldn't be speeding. It isn't an emergency."
I'm thinkin',
WTF?!"Can I see your license?"
And I'm like,
Shit. He's gonna give me a ticket... Aaron better start faking it really hurts if he starts writing me up...So I find my wallet, and hand it to him and he stares there lookin' at it for a bit then says, "You guys aren't from around here are you?"
Mark from the backseat: "No, we're not."
Officer: "Well you have no reason to be speeding. It's not an emergency."
Me: "Okay, well, can you tell me how to get to the nearest hospital?"
Officer: "Well.. it's kind of hard to explain."
Me: "Uh huh?"
Officer: "You just take the 210W and... it's kind of hard to explain..."
Me thinking:
Wow, this guy is an IDIOT. JUST SPIT IT OUT ALREADY!Officer: Well, just take this road all the way down until the 210 West and... It's hard to explain.. Well, you're going to Huntington Hospital."
Me: "Uh huh...?"
Officer: Just follow this road down, get on the 210 west, the 110 for California Ave... It's kinda hard to explain.."
Me thinking:
OMG JUST TELL ME ALREADY!Well, he FINALLY told us, gave me my license back, and we went on our way. We got to the emergency room drop off area, dropped them off, I parked in the parking structure, and jogged down the stairs and ran to the emergency room. They were standing there filling out some forms and yeah. He wasn't allowed to drink or eat anything until the nurse saw him, but I snuck him some water. We were all tired and stressed. He needed it more than Mark and I.
They cleaned him up a bit, while Mark and I were joking around about what happened, and after a bit they called him into a room where they asked him questions. Mark and I sat outside and waited. When we walked back into the hospital he was sitting on a chair outside and we asked him what was up. He replied, "An hour and a half wait."
Anyway, when he told us they didn't think it was too serious but it should get checked out just in case, we left.
Drove them to their friend's house where we almost got into a car accident. Laughed and made jokes about it while the lady, who we thought was a man, kept looking back at us and shaking her head.
And I came home.
Too long of a post, i'm ending it there.
Bye.
Mr. Caterpillar.
