When your Life flashes before you hanging in a tree

The Day my Life flashed before me hanging from a Tree.

I had managed to slip away from work to burn an extra day of left over vacation time on Monday December 13, 1999. The alarm clocked buzzed at 3:00 AM I hop into my awaiting hunting clothes and out the door I went for a one and a half hour drive to a 245 acre plot of land in Boligee, Alabama where my hunting buddy and I had exclusive rights to hunt. I was to meet up with Eddie, my hunting buddy, at a truck stop at 4:30 AM. Eddie called At 4:15 AM telling me his alarm clock failed to go off and he would not be making it. Disappointed in knowing I would have to hunt by myself I pressed on down the dirt road to where I normally park and the ¾ mile walk down the rail road tracks in the middle of nowhere to a funnel that edges the railroad tracks and a clear cut of hardwoods, cut two years prior. By the time I got to the area I was going to hunt it was getting daylight. I quickly climbed the tree in my old climber to a height of 30 feet in a southern pine secured my safety belt. A light fog was coming off the swamp area meaning the very light breeze was in my favor.  It was around 6:30 AM and I had already counted 6 does, 2 spikes and a 3 point young buck. I knew it was going to be my day or was it? I stood up to stretch my legs and I could see a large body deer was moving in the thicket. I leaned forward to try to get a better look and shifting my weight to one side of the stand caused me to lose balanced and out of the stand I came and with my 255 lbs plus body weight tighten up the safety belt around my chest with such force cracking a rib slamming me up against the tree knocking the breath out of me. I tried to climb back into my stand but all of a sudden it slid down the tree and I was left hanging. I was gasping for air and the nylon Safety Belt was getting tighter around my chest. I was able to wrap my legs around the tree to take a little pressure off of me for 30 seconds or so while I fumbled with the so called quick release that failed to work because the nylon strap had twisted in the release.  I knew screaming for help was fruitless because there were no houses within 2 miles of where I was hunting and I know there would be no hunters where I was. A freight train came through but never slowed down. I started praying "How was I going to get out of this mess?" and "How was my wife was going to pay for my daughter’s college?". Did my wife hear me at 3:00 AM that I loved her? A million things passed through my head in what seemed like 15 minutes. I struggled again to pull myself back up the tree but my strength was going fast. I reached for my pocket knife and it was not there but in my Truck door where I failed to grab it when I was in a hurry. I cried out to God that I didn’t want to die this way please help me and all of a sudden I remembered my folding Saw in my pack and with one arm wrapped around the tree and my legs still wrapped around the tree I unzipped my pack and firmly grasp the folding saw and carefully unfolded the saw and took two swipes at the strap and snapped I was skinning the tree of bark at a fast pace till I hit the ground. I opened my eyes and seen my gun next to me which I had dropped when I fell and realized at that moment I was still alive. I started praying and crying, and thanking the Lord for saving me. I remained sitting on the ground for about an hour until I was able to gain enough strength for the ¾ mile back to the truck. I drove back home and when my Wife came home she saw how black and bruised my chest was and talked me into going to the ER where I found out I had a fracture rib.

I promised my wife at the the Hospital I would never hunt alone again and I would never go back up a tree again without the proper safety equipment like the Hunter Safety System HSS.

Never Never ever wear a Belt like the one picture above.