Ok so I hung a new set yesterday around noon, was planning on hunting it that evening. Went home took a shower and headed there , get all duded up and started making my way to the stand.
Now this is probably one of the best looking spots for a stand I have uesd all year, lots of scrapes, rubs and droppings all around. There is a fork in the tree about 23 feet up so that is where my stand set.
Now I go up, or so I thought. I got up to the height of my stand and went to tie my pull up rope to my stand. Next thing I know I hear a crack and I am feeling branches slapping the back of my head. I think oh wow, I am bout to die. Now let me tell you in a 20 ft. freefall you have lots of time to think about the situation, I remember thinking, wow shouldve used my linemans belt, wow should have put another step there instead of trying to use tha small branch. Anyways I hit the ground and I can remember two things about it, my backpack was full of clothes and that really stopped my fall the most, the other thing was the pop of my foot as I landed on it vertically. I open my eyes and thank the good Lord that he let me live through it. Next thing I call my wife and just let her know I fell and that I thought I was fine. Now comes the dumbest part of my entire evening. I climb back up the tree, I guess the adrenaline hid the pain and I honestly thought I was plumb ok. I get up the tree and about 3 min later, my boot seems to feel awful tight. I take it off and see lots of bruising and swelling. Oh dang, I thought, I am 23 feet up and not really feeling like getting down. I call my wife and tell her I probably ought to go get my foot checked out. I somehow weasel my way back down the tree and start crawling and one legged hops for about 750 yrds to my pickup. That was probably the longest part of the whole ordeal. I get back go home and change, (not wanting to contaminate my hutning clothes at the hospital, LOL) my wife hauls me in. Doc looks at it and says it doesnt look good asked me about the situation and I told him what happened, he said its probably broke now we need to find out how bad. Do a few x-rays and wait. He comes back looks at me in disbelief and says "Son you have the strongest bones I have ever seen" I somehow was blessed enough to not break one bone. He said I stretched everything out really bad but no broken bones. I thanked God again and got out with a little pain killer a good wrap job and some crutches. I sit here now with less than 1 month of deer season left, 2 buck tags and I dont know how long it will take before I can get around good.
The point of this thread is to encourage you buys to please take every precaution that you can, it happens fast and I am just fortunate enough to be able to even be here still. Please please please guys be careful.
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I live for this stuff.
I am glad you are relatively okay. Thats scary stuff. If it was Canadian, you probably didn't miss much being as warm and windy as we are right now. I came in at 8:15 this am as it was already 50 degrees and blowing.
But with a new front blowing in tomorrow and theforecast to be cold for several days afterward, and you being out for Christmas break........well you being laid up stinks, but like you said it could have been a LOT worse. Hoping for a fast recovery.
Another tip
Don't remove your boot until your where you want to be. It's tempting to see the damage but it's keeping things in check.
There a sport called "tree climbing" google it. They use some quality rigging.
"climbed back up" that's dedication. Reminds me of me. Get a chainsaw and cut that tree down so all the other trees will know who's boss and not dare try and buck you off again!
You are so, so lucky to come away from this unscathed so to speak. I just heard this morning on a hunting show that 1 in 3 treestand hunters will experience a fall of some type.
Please dont do as I did.
that's dedication. Reminds me of me. 
