Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Bull
Do you work there? Wasn't there another incident yesterday?
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Apparently there was.......
Who’s ready for a story? Amberly and I had gone to Elk Island to hang out and explore. We camped out at Astonin Lake Campground Friday night, and planned to be there for Saturday. Saturday morning I went for run on Amisk Wuche Trail, which was pretty close to the campground. After doing a couple loops of the trail, I was running on the main road to get back to the campground when I saw a solo bison grazing in the ditch. I was thinking, “oh cool, a bison” and then he looked up at me and started charging! This guy was huge and as soon as I realized he was coming for me I turned and tried running for a group of trees further down in the ditch to get cover from him. As I turned to run away, I lost my footing and slipped to the ground only a few meters from the trees. As I was trying to get back up and scurry to the trees, still low to the ground on my hands and knees/toes, the bison rammed me with his head on my rear and lifted me up and forward with his horns. All I was thinking was that he was going to stomp me afterwards but I was able to quickly scurry to safety in the trees. The trees were clustered tightly enough together to prevent him from getting me. Once out of immediate danger, I started to assess what injuries I had. My pain was coming from my left butt cheek, and at first I thought it was just pain from impact similar to being punched really hard, but as a pulled my hand away it was covered in blood. As I felt more closely, I could feel the hole caused by his horn and could feel a flap of skin. I was running in compression shorts and a t-shirt, so I didn’t have really anything to stop the bleeding as it started to pool up in my compression shorts. I knew I needed to call for help, but in the process of running away and getting hit, I had lost my phone somewhere in the ditch. The bison was still close and started grazing again in the ditch, and a passing car stopped to take pictures of him. I tried flagging them down and yelling at them and eventually they saw me amongst the trees and realized I needed help. They raced off to the park gate to try and get me help. While I started the wait game, I decided to make my way back into the ditch and look for my phone (at this point the bison had walked maybe a 100m away up the road, so I felt safe to come out). I found my phone and tried calling Amberly, but it went to voicemail twice, as she was still sleeping. I called 911 next and was directed to EMS services and they dispatched an Ambulance from Lamont, about 12km away from where I was. As I was on the line with EMS and waiting for an ambulance, I heard sirens coming from the distance, and a Sheriff’s cruiser came speeding around the corner. The car that went to the front gate for help happened to come across the Sheriff on patrol through the park, so they flagged him down and sent him my way. As he was getting closer, I was flagging him down, and he almost didn’t see me as he went flying past me and then suddenly slammed on his breaks, came to skidding stop and quickly turned around. He was able to get some gauze from his first aid kit and apply pressure to my wound to help stop the bleeding (extremely painful!). Since he was there I was able to disconnect from the EMS dispatcher and as we waited for the paramedics to get there I called Amberly again. She answered this time and I told her I had an accident involving a bison, but because were camping in our rooftop tent, she couldn’t drive over to were I was (Amberly can’t close the tent by herself at 8 months pregnant). The ambulance finally came and got me transferred onto a stretcher and into the ambulance and gave me morphine for the pain. I was able to get the Sheriff to pick Amberly up, and she hitched a ride in the Ambulance back to Lamont Hospital. The doctor said the laceration was over 2 inches deep with a curved entry due to the curved horn. He cleaned it all up and tossed in some stitches to close it all back up. Hopefully I can keep from getting an infection, as I’m sure bison horns aren’t the cleanest of things.
Amberly’s family was able to come to Lamont and assist with getting our Jeep and helping us get home. So thankful for great family who will drop everything to come lend help.
Timeline:
9:06 charged by bison
9:08 flagged car down
9:10 found phone and tried calling Amberly
9:12 called 911
9:20 sheriff arrived on scene
9:22 got ahold of Amberly
9:26 ambulance arrived on scene