NC man breaks leg in Utah desert, crawls 5 miles and survives

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By Megan Dombroski on 09/25/2011 03:09 PM

From Times-News Online:

A North Carolina man crawled four days across the Utah desert after breaking his leg on a solo hike, inspired by a Hollywood movie about a man who cut off his own arm to save himself after being trapped by a boulder in the same canyon.

Amos Wayne Richards, 64, of Concord, N.C., is now recovering at home.

Canyonlands National Park rangers found Richards four days after he fell 10 feet in Little Blue John Canyon on Sept. 8. Along with the leg injury, he dislocated his shoulder but was able to work it back into place.

""It took me about 3 or 4 minutes to work my shoulder and get it back in place and once I got it back in place, I stood up and realized my ankle hurt a little bit," Richards told WBTV in Charlotte.

Without cell phone service and only two protein bars to eat, Richards began crawling back to his car across the rocky terrain. He filled his water bottles with rain as he painstakingly retraced his steps, eventually dragging himself almost five miles.Read the full article

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