The amazing story of Mark Dubois’ broken neck on a 1971 ARTA trip (PDF)

On a Sunday-Monday ARTA trip on August 15-16, 1971, Mark Dubois unknowingly dove into shallow water at Lower Chinese Camp on the Stanislaus River and fractured vertebrae in his neck. This account by boatman Mike Bronson tells an amazing story of how Mark was treated and eventually evacuated during the night and the next morning. All’s well that ends well in this case, fortunately – but it was a close one, as you’ll read!

One of the key people in this story was Jacqueline Smithson, whose experience is recounted here – by a quirk of fate, she and a friend had brought a vehicle to the top of Duck Bar Road and hiked down to Chinese Camp. After Mark’s injury, a guide was able to hike back up in the middle of the night and use the car to get medical help within hours; without the car, it could have been many, many hours before aid could be found.