Tuesday, Jan. 16, 2007 • Napa man thankful to be alive after quad accident in Lassen County

Publisher’s note: This story by Jim Fitch originally appeared in the Tuesday, Jan. 16, edition of the Lassen County Times.

Last October, I went on a hunting trip in Northern California, just as I’ve always done for the past 35 years.

Me and my hunting buddies Mike Black and Mark Simone had hunted one morning (Tuesday, Oct. 17, 2006) and returned to camp for lunch.

Later that day about 3 p.m., I decided to go out for an evening hunt. No one wanted to join me so I set out alone.

My first mistake was I forgot my cell phone and didn’t tell either of them where I was going. As I was leaving camp Mike yelled out, do you have your walkie-talkie with you? I replied yes and went on my way.

When I got about three miles from camp on a dirt road, I turned off the road and went about another one-half to three-quarters of a mile. I felt the terrain was getting a little steep for the four-wheel ATV I was riding. While in the process of turning around the ATV started to roll over.  I fell off and landed on my stomach.

The ATV fell on top of me then continued rolling down the hill six to seven times. I laid there for a moment and my first thought was I would have to walk all the way back to camp.  I didn’t realize how serious I was hurt until I felt the excruciating pain in attempting to get up.  I surmised I had broken my left hip.

After lying there a few minutes assessing the situation I decided I had to get to my rifle to fire signal shots. The rifle was 30 feet away down the hill about half way between me and the quad. Upon reaching my rifle I continued dragging myself and rifle to the quad. Because of the extreme pain it took over an hour to go the 60 feet.

My rifle during the roll-over had broken in half at the pistol grip. When I tried to put a shell in the chamber, I found the scope or the mounts were bent not allowing the bolt to go high enough to chamber a shell.

Knowing the scope was no good to me anyway I grabbed a rock and broke the scope off.  I then fired three signal shots. I then thought anyone hearing the shots will just think someone is shooting at a deer. I decided before I fired anymore of my 19 shells I would wait until after dark when the sound would travel further.

Walkie-talkie
It was now 5 p.m., and it didn’t get dark until 7:30 p.m. or so.  I then got out my walkie-talkie and tried to reach Mike or Mark who were on channel 12, but to no avail.

Over the many years of hunting this area I had become friends with a group from Redding. They were on channel 5 and camped about 2-1/2 miles southeast of my position where Mike and Mark were about 3-1/2 miles to the northeast of my position.

I switched to channel 5 and tried to reach Tom, his girlfriend Shannon, or Fred and his wife Victoria, but again nothing.  The problem was a high ridge between me and both campsites that interfered with reception.

I knew Mike and Mark would probably not miss me until dark. I then started evaluating everything. I had a nice warm double coat, gloves, 10 disposable eight-hour pocket warmers, three candy bars and one full roll of toilet paper, however no water.

A couple of days earlier while visiting some local area friends they told me they have never seen so many mountain lions as this year. So, this was another concern of mine while laying there.

Around 8 p.m., I fired three more signal shots. Then in order to conserve my ammo, I would only fire one every half hour or so. When I got down to two shells I decided to save them for lions.

I knew my buddies would go for help and I was very confident they would find me the next day. During the night I would continually talk in a very loud voice as if I were having a conversation with someone in an attempt to ward off any lions from stumbling upon my position.

I knew my walkie-talkie batteries would drain faster in cold weather so I turned it off and put it in my inside shirt pocket to keep it warm, only bringing it out every hour to make a few requests for help.

From my position I could see a small town about 12 miles to the west.  When I would see some headlights coming in my direction I would reach up and flash SOS with the quad’s brake lights, but to no avail.

I tried to make myself comfortable for the long night for as long as I didn’t move there was no pain. I ate one candy bar at midnight another at 3 a.m. and the last one at 6 a.m.

Around 7 a.m., I tried calling on my walkie-talkie again with no response.

I decided to go through all the channels to see if I could hear anyone.  When I came around to channel 4 I could hear a man and woman talking.

I interrupted them with my pleas for help. They told me to call 911. I replied that I had no cell phone with me only a walkie-talkie. I gave them my location and Mike and Mark’s cell phone numbers.

They asked me where I was located. I told them and repeated how serious I was hurt and pleaded for their assistance. Then they would not answer me again, and they never called anyone.

Later that morning, about 8:30 a.m., I could hear a helicopter coming. I started waving as it went by and fired a shot in the air, but got no response. I was on a small ridge that was sparsely treed and very open with only two short seven-foot pine trees, one on each side of me.

I decided I should mark my spot better. I got out the roll of toilet paper and made about 10, 8-foot strips and threw them out around me like the spokes of a wheel pointing at me.

It took about 15 painful minutes to pull myself up on my good leg using the quad as support. I was then able to reach the small pine and pull it over and tie some lengths of paper to it. When I let go the paper flipped over the top of the tree just right.

I also draped four or five lengths of paper over the quad. Then I tried starting a signal fire. I gathered some twigs as far as I could reach, wadded up some paper and set it all in the brown grass on the uphill side of me. I didn’t want to start it on the downhill side for fear I would not be able to get out of the way fast enough.

After five or six attempts I could only get the grass to burn no more than one or two inches. It had rained a few days earlier and I guess the dry grass soaked up some moisture.

I could see a dry bush about 3 feet high about 20 feet from me. I rolled up some paper around a rock and twisted both ends. I lit one end and couldn’t have tossed it better. It went up in the air and right down the middle of the bush, but only burned a few leaves. I tried this five or six more times with no success.

Later I heard the helicopter coming back and started waving frantically.  They went over me at a high rate of speed. I then fired my last shot but they just kept going. Immediately I thought how stupid that was, for there was probably no way they would be able to hear the shot anyway and now I have no bullets left.

It was now about noon and I was getting thirsty laying there with the sun bearing down on me. As hot as I was, I didn’t want to take my double coat off for fear I wouldn’t be able to get it back on when it cooled down later.  As a last resort I thought maybe I could get the quad started and drive my way out as painful as I knew it would be.  After no success, I was starting to feel a little hopeless.

I got my hunting knife out because that’s all I had left except for rocks to defend myself. I thought after all I had been through in my 60 years, I never thought I would go out this way.

While laying there I started thinking what Mike and Mark must be going through. They must be worried sick. They probably had notified my family by now, and I’m sure they’re going crazy with worry.

Last words?
 I thought about writing some last words but there was nothing to write with or on.

Unfortunately, the ground was too rocky to write in the dirt. No way to tell my wife or family how much I loved her or them.

It was now about 5 p.m., and after numerous attempts to reach someone on the walkie talkie, things were looking very grim. No food, no water, no shells left and the battery light on the walkie talkie was beginning to flash.

I turned it off and waited till about dark and tried again. I called a few times on channel 12.

Then on a second attempt on channel 5, I heard Fred’s wife Victoria answer back, “Is that you Jim?”

It was like a voice from heaven! Victoria got Fred on the line, and I started talking them to my location. Then my batteries finally went dead.

I started to panic and yelled out for help. Fortunately, by then they were close enough to hear my yells and I was able to holler to get them to my position.  Fred and Victoria brought with them a blanket and water and made me as comfortable as possible. They called the search and rescue team and my hunting buddies.

Mike, Mark and the rescue team reached me about 11 p.m. that night. Along with them was my brother Rod who had driven up from Napa with my brother-in-law Don Mitchell to aid in the search effort.

It took over an hour for them to carry me down the hill on a gurney to the waiting helicopter. I was then air lifted to a Redding hospital.

Upon reaching the hospital, while taking me off the helicopter, to my surprise and pleasure, who was there but my nephews Jeff and Jason Mitchell to greet me.

The next day I was operated on and had a left hip replacement. Following a six-day hospital stay, I returned to Napa, where I am still undergoing therapy, but my doctor says I’m well on the road to a full recovery.

Later I heard the rescue team had sectioned off the area into about 10 grids and was systematically searching one grid at a time. They were not going to search the grid I was in for another two days. So, I was very fortunate and lucky to get help when I did.

I’m extremely thankful to my family and friends for all their prayers. I heard that several of them were on bended knee praying at the same time my last call was intercepted. I’m absolutely sure that they helped to facilitate my being found.