While chucking through the Canadian wonderland, the vast openness of the terrain is mind boggling. While it's probably not the appropriate time to discuss the accident, there were some very big wins worth discussing.
1) It was very fortuitous that the first vehicle to find us, was gentlemen from the Road Building Apprentice school. They had very good knowledge of the local area, and were able to radio back to base camp to call for an ambulance.
2) The Canadians are very genuine. While they were clearly heading home for the day, two trucks of 7-8 men stayed until the ambulance arrived. They also found a piece of 2X6X8 to load the hippopotamus of a bike into their truck to haul it to town. If you've never got a fully loaded GS into a pickup bed on a single piece of wood, you are probably not an adrenaline junkie. However with 8 guys on her, she has no choice but to consent. They strapped her down like she was a 20-ton dozer. She would ride well down the wash-board road while driving like mad men.
3) The rider was wearing a flip up helmet. This was a huge advantage as the it allows the person to have some breathing room without the need for us to remove his helmet and risk future spinal injury. The other interesting thing, is that it is quite easy to keep a disoriented person from rising by just placing a finger or two on top of their helmet. Apparently, they can't figure out why their head won't go vertical and they stop struggling to rise.
4) As we all start booking towards town, we nearly get into a head-on collision with the Royal Candian Mounted Partol (RCMP). This would have been the response to the SPOT SOS. The SPOT call center in the US notifies Montreal RCMP. Montreal then is able to locate the RCMP closest to the accident. They were only about 20 mins behind the radio call-in for the ambulance. It's really remarkable considering the information web that needs to occur. Of course, it would have been another 1 hour before they would have been able to get an ambulance, but such is the life in the bush.
5) After gathering very cursory information, the RCMP decides to haul-ass back to town and vanishes ahead of us. They will finish their accident report at the hospital. I thought it was very kind of them to file a report at seeing how the only personal property damage was that of the bike, no less to meet us back in town.
6) The rider had done something very ingenious. He had photocopied his registration, insurance and business card and clear taped them to the lid of his top case. The only information missing was his birthdate.
All said, the emergency broadcast system is working just fine I'd say. It looks like we've got the human and bike sorted to return to the US via truck.
1) It was very fortuitous that the first vehicle to find us, was gentlemen from the Road Building Apprentice school. They had very good knowledge of the local area, and were able to radio back to base camp to call for an ambulance.
2) The Canadians are very genuine. While they were clearly heading home for the day, two trucks of 7-8 men stayed until the ambulance arrived. They also found a piece of 2X6X8 to load the hippopotamus of a bike into their truck to haul it to town. If you've never got a fully loaded GS into a pickup bed on a single piece of wood, you are probably not an adrenaline junkie. However with 8 guys on her, she has no choice but to consent. They strapped her down like she was a 20-ton dozer. She would ride well down the wash-board road while driving like mad men.
3) The rider was wearing a flip up helmet. This was a huge advantage as the it allows the person to have some breathing room without the need for us to remove his helmet and risk future spinal injury. The other interesting thing, is that it is quite easy to keep a disoriented person from rising by just placing a finger or two on top of their helmet. Apparently, they can't figure out why their head won't go vertical and they stop struggling to rise.
4) As we all start booking towards town, we nearly get into a head-on collision with the Royal Candian Mounted Partol (RCMP). This would have been the response to the SPOT SOS. The SPOT call center in the US notifies Montreal RCMP. Montreal then is able to locate the RCMP closest to the accident. They were only about 20 mins behind the radio call-in for the ambulance. It's really remarkable considering the information web that needs to occur. Of course, it would have been another 1 hour before they would have been able to get an ambulance, but such is the life in the bush.
5) After gathering very cursory information, the RCMP decides to haul-ass back to town and vanishes ahead of us. They will finish their accident report at the hospital. I thought it was very kind of them to file a report at seeing how the only personal property damage was that of the bike, no less to meet us back in town.
6) The rider had done something very ingenious. He had photocopied his registration, insurance and business card and clear taped them to the lid of his top case. The only information missing was his birthdate.
All said, the emergency broadcast system is working just fine I'd say. It looks like we've got the human and bike sorted to return to the US via truck.