PROVO —The worst part was waiting to fall.
Rebecca Mae Parish was hanging to a rock face in the Escalante canyons of southern Utah last Wednesday when she realized she had nowhere to go but down — and fast.
Parish had been hiking alone when she decided to explore an isolated ridge above a trail near the Escalante River.
The 26-year-old Provo mother of two arrived at a drop-off, and instead of following the trail back down, she decided to descend the cliff.
About half way down she became trapped and started shaking with the realization that she would fall.
Parish's strength eventually gave out, and she fell about 15 feet, her left leg crunching beneath her.
Her foot dangled like a tassel from her leg, which was broken in two places. Parish began hopping back to her campsite, motivated by the thought of her children.
She knew from the camp log-in that the other campers in the area had already left, and she hadn't seen anyone on her trip. She would have to hop on one leg for more than 3 miles to the trail head, where she had parked her car.
"I didn't think about giving up because I was so full of adrenaline," Parish told the Deseret News. "I was pretty clear-headed. I knew I needed to find water and a crutch."
With a stick as a crutch, Parish reached her campsite and fell asleep. In the morning she packed the pockets of her shredded jeans with a flashlight, a tin of sardines and an old address book and started the agonizing trip to the trail head.
She had hiked about a quarter mile when she came to the Escalante River for the second time. From hiking in, Parish knew the river crossed the trail eight times. Halfway across the river, she slipped.
She felt a cold ache crawling up her back, and for the first time thought she might die. She crawled to the river bank and began screaming in frustration.
"I was just screaming for screaming's sake, I didn't care if anybody heard me."
Dave Johnson, a youth leader for a Broomfield, Colo., United Methodist Church group, was on a day hike with a group of teens when he heard the scream. Johnson and his group ran to find Parish, wet and shaking but out of the river and standing.
Johnson and eight high school and college students carried Parish back to their camp, where they made a stretcher from a backpack frame, two logs, a few strips of duct tape and shoelaces.
The group carried Parish for eight hours through bleak canyons dotted with cactuses and snow patches before arriving at the trail head where the church van was parked.
Johnson took Parish to a hospital in Cedar City, where she underwent an operation for her broken leg.
Johnson and others slept in the van so they could say goodbye to Parish the next day.
Since Parish arrived in Provo on Friday, she has had three television news crews in her home and calls from countless newspapers in Colorado and Utah.
But Parish, who is recovering from both the operation and the whirlwind of publicity, insists she isn't a hero.
"They are the real heroes," Parish said of Johnson and his group Wednesday shortly after appearing on ABC's Good Morning America. "They are my angels."
Contributing: The Associated Press
E-MAIL: jhyde@desnews.com