Everything Jake Wegner knows about the first two weeks of August he’s learned secondhand.

It was hot on Sunday, Aug. 2, when Wegner and three friends -- Taylor Rave, Justin Butler and Cam Duivbig -- decided to go tubing down Rapid Creek. They drove to the Falling Rock area of Dark Canyon just west of town, parked and started climbing down the steep slopes to the water far below.

That was when Wegner lost his footing. That was when he struck his head on a rock, knocking himself out. That was when he went tumbling down the side of the hill, finally plunging off a 25-foot cliff to the bottom of the canyon, more than 100 feet below where he first slipped.

He doesn’t recall a thing.

“I don’t even remember what I did that weekend,” he said recently.

His friends won’t ever forget it. Rave scrambled down to Wegner’s side while Butler and Duivbig went for help. With no cell phone reception, they had to drive back to town to call 911. (Wegner had wanted to take his car keys, but Butler persuaded him to leave the keys under a rock.)

“He just kind of went head over heels,” Rave said, telling how he was initially afraid he might find Wegner dead at the bottom of the slope. Instead, “When I finally looked over the cliff, I heard him snoring.”

Wegner did talk to him but slipped in and out of consciousness as they waited about 45 minutes for help to arrive, Rave said.

Rescue crews used inner tubes to float Wegner down the creek to a spot where he could be loaded into an ambulance, then taken to Johnson Siding. From there, he was flown by helicopter to Rapid City Regional Hospital.

Wegner’s parents, Peggy and Danny, will never forget having a sheriff’s deputy knock on their door that afternoon to say there had been an accident.

“We were just scared to death. We didn’t know what to expect,” Peggy said. “They were telling us to call in all the family.”

As it turned out, Wegner had broken bones in his neck and back and had fractured a shoulder blade, arm, hand, thumb and several toes.

“There wasn’t one spot on him that wasn’t like road-rashed,” his mom said. “He was just scratched to heck.”

Jake had also fractured his skull, causing some bleeding on the brain.

“Every day, he had a CT scan. Every day,” Peggy said. “They watched that bleed for two weeks.”

The day after Wegner’s fall, doctors did surgery to repair a compound fracture to his left arm. He was so bruised and swollen he was unrecognizable, his mom said.

Meanwhile, the Red Cross arranged to have Jake’s older brother, Ryan, flown in from Hawaii, where he is stationed with the military and was awaiting deployment to Iraq. A younger brother, Adam, 16, still lives at home.

Wegner was unconscious for days. Then, one night, as his brothers were telling him good night, he sat up and pulled out the tubes in his arms. His mom is convinced he heard his brothers’ voices and thought, ‘What’s going on?’

He was confused for awhile.

“One of the times I woke up in the hospital, I thought that I was 21,” he said. “I thought I missed my 21st birthday.”

“And for the longest time, he thought he was in Deadwood,” his mom said, smiling at the memories. It’s “funny now.”

Wegner’s friends were optimistic.

After reaching the hospital, “We kind of figured if he’d made it this far, he’d pull through,” Rave said. “He’s a pretty tough kid.”

Wegner’s wasn’t the first accident at Falling Rock, which is on Black Hills National Forest land off S.D. Highway 44. An 8-year-old boy died there in 2005 after falling 150 feet off a cliff. Hikers also died in 2006, 2002, 2001 and 1992, all after falling off cliffs. Others have suffered serious injuries.

In light of that history, Wegner was lucky. He went home in a neck brace two weeks after the accident. He is slowly healing. He has physical therapy twice a week to strengthen and straighten his arm, which is held together with a metal plate.

He still takes pain pills for aches in his neck and back.

 “Standing is the worst part,” Wegner said. “I can’t stand for very long. It’s going to be hard to find a job.”

Before the accident Wegner was working construction. A 2008 Stevens High School graduate, he attended Western Dakota Technical Institute last spring and had enrolled in business management classes there this fall.

After the accident, he decided to take this semester off to give himself time to recuperate. He is covered under his parents’ insurance through December, but his medical bills are stacking up.

Peggy’s friends were anxious to help. “A lot of people said, ‘Let us know if we can do something to help,’” said Shelly Carlson, one of several who has organized a fundraiser for Jake on Nov. 21 (see related story).

At first, Peggy had a hard time accepting the idea of a fundraiser. But she ultimately agreed to it, saying: “It’s for him. It’s not for us.”

She is amazed at the support they’ve received since the accident. “We live in a really great community,” she said.

Jake still has a ways to go. He can’t drive yet (“Me and my buddies are his taxi cab, pretty much,” Rave said). Doctors say Wegner can’t skateboard, snowboard or play contact sports for six months, either.

But he’s alive, and that’s what counts.

“He’s kind of a miracle boy I think,” Carlson said.

Contact Heidi Bell Gease at 394-8419 or heidi.bell@rapidcityjournal.com