From Deseret News archives:
Alive, happy to be out of that creek
Free Lunch
Last July 27, the Murray truck driver spent 16 hours trapped in frigid water after he slipped while hoping to catch a few fresh trout for dinner. Dean's right foot became wedged beneath an enormous rock, making it impossible to get out of the waist-deep creek.
Although Tanner's Flat campground was nearby, the roar of the water was so loud that nobody could hear the 52-year-old angler's cries for help. When the sun set and the shadows faded into darkness, it would have been easy for Dean to give up hope. But he reached deep and somehow found the strength to stay standing throughout the cold night.
Grateful to spend another Christmas with his wife, Tracy, and their three children, Dean met me for a Free Lunch of tangy ribs and coleslaw at Dave's Famous Bar-B-Que — his favorite lunch spot — to talk about his "night of miracles" in Little Cottonwood Canyon.
"Since this happened to me, I've learned that money is overrated," says Dean, who walks with a slight limp because his crushed foot is still healing from multiple surgeries.
"What really matters most," he says, "is your relationships with others. The gifts of true value are the ones that come from the heart. I thought about that a lot while I was stuck in the water."
Born and raised in Ririe, Idaho, a small farm town named after his great-grandfather, David Ririe, Dean was taught to fly fish by his dad, a gruff man who kicked off his muddy farm boots every Sunday and played soft hymns at the piano.
Clive Ririe died in 2002, a few months after Dean fell asleep behind the wheel and was in a serious car accident outside Elko, Nev.
"I was in a coma for six weeks and almost didn't make it," he says. "I was lucky to pull through, to be able to spend some more time with my family and my dad. So to be put into a life or death situation again, I couldn't believe it. The thing that got me through in the canyon was an overwhelming presence of family. The feeling of being loved and cared for was with me most of the night."
Dean knows that his biggest mistake was not telling his family where he going to fish that evening. By the time his wife and son had checked out his other favorite fishing spots and called police, the sun was rising. At 9:30 a.m., his lips were blue and he was entering the final stages of hypothermia when 11-year-old Alex Malin heard a cry for help while gathering firewood.
Two hours later, rescuers finally pulled Dean from the water using special equipment to shift the five-ton boulder off his foot.
"It's a miracle that I'm alive — scientifically, there's really no reason that I should be here," says Dean, who recently went back to work part time, but has to prop up his foot every four hours.
With a loss of income, "it's a leaner Christmas this year, but there are so many other things to be grateful for," he says. "I could have died in that creek, but I have my life and I'm back with my family. Having the latest electronics under the tree can't compare to a gift like that."
Have a story? Let's hear it over lunch. E-mail your name, phone number and what you'd like to talk about to freelunch@desnews.com
