TWO FOR CANADA 150
A survivor; a builder of 24 Sussex
Steve McConnell Richmond Road near Churchill Avenue, Aug. 3, 2016.
“I was in the paper once before, but for all the wrong reasons to make me famous. I was in a motorcycle accident. I lost a leg and was cut in half. I had spinal fusion, pelvis fusion, neck fusion and a titanium leg. I was in a coma for two weeks, and then in the hospital and rehabilitation centre for about 11 months.
“It happened on June 4, 1994, on the Ride for Dad. I’d just finished the ride. I was riding with Dr. Chow, the Sens’ sports doctor. We had just finished and I said goodbye, and was on my way home, and then he got a call that there was an emergency. I was the emergency.
“There are things that I wish I could still do, but I’m just happy about the things that I CAN still do. I love snowmobiling. A little over 20 years ago I was taking my daughter up to Timmins. She’d started veterinarian school up in New Liskeard. It was around Christmastime and I noticed they got a lot more snow than we do down here. So after we got my daughter lodged, I proceeded to go around, and when we went back two weeks later, I brought my snowmobile with me, and I stayed for three or four days, SkiDooing, after we got my daughter all settled. Just tooling about the area. I met some local people and they showed me paths and trails in and around the area. That was around 1996 or ’97. And they invited me down around the March break and I had some time off, so I went back.
“And I’d go further on the trails and get introduced to more people. So we’d snowmobile to Kapuskasing, probably about 200 clicks, and stay overnight and return the following day. And we’d meet friends out there, and so the next time we’d go further; the next place we went to was Cochrane, just outside of Hearst. And it just progressed. Every time I’d go back, people would introduce me to more friends. And I didn’t know any of these people, except Greg and Alan in Timmins. It just snowballed from there. I’d go back maybe the next month for a long weekend or something. It only takes nine or 10 hours to get from here to there, so that’s no big deal. It’s worth it for Ski-Dooing, since there’s no snow here.
“So it just progressed from there. And when I got to Hearst, I’d meet people who would say, ‘We’ve got friends in Thunder Bay,’ so I’d head to Thunder Bay and stay there for a day or two.
“I was a site supervisor for Krysiak Construction, so after I got hurt, I could take a lot of time in the winter. I have all winter to play, we’ll call it. So I’d go up for 10 weeks.
“The trails are all interlinked. Each township has its own trails, and they’d link up with the next township’s. If there was enough snow, you could Ski-Doo from Almonte to Manitoba.
“So from Hearst we’d maybe go to Lake Temiskaming, and then to Sturgeon Falls, maybe Sudbury, then North Bay and up along the Quebec border — Cobalt, New Liskeard, Haileybury, Timmins.
“I’d stay with people I’d meet along the trail. They’re so friendly. In most places, they say, ‘Just lock up the door when you leave. We have to go. Please come again. When you get to town, call us.’ Extremely friendly.
“This was my 16th year. I left on Jan. 24 and came back in the second week of March. I drove to just outside Kapuskasing, and then snowmobiled to about 25 or 30 minutes from the Manitoba border and turned around and came back. I put on 19,400 kilometres. On my biggest day I’ve done about 300 clicks. But you’re doing 120 m.p.h. — it doesn’t take that long. I’ve got a 900 Indy, and it does get me in and out or trouble. Although I don’t go that fast all the time.
“I haven’t been into Manitoba yet. I don’t like to venture to places I don’t know yet. I did that once and it was a no-no. I got off the trail once, just outside of Cochrane, and my prosthetic leg sunk to the socket. I thought I was going to die. I thought, ‘I can’t get out, I’m by myself. What am I going to do?’ I had to get undressed in -35 C weather, get out of my socket, pull my leg to my snowmobile — crawling — get on it and get my leg into my socket on top of my snowmobile. That was six years ago, and I just said I’m never going to do that again. It was a learning lesson: never get off the trail again.
“But I love the cold. If I couldn’t snowmobile, that’d be almost as bad as not being able to motorcycle ride. I get out there and I’m the same guy I always was. I’m often by myself, I’m relaxed, I’m not thinking about anything in particular. It’s almost worry-free. Nothing work-related, nothing children-related. I’m just thinking, ‘I’m here, I’m having a ball, and that’s it.’ That’s what I love about it. I have three daughters and I tell them, ‘For 10 weeks, don’t call me unless it’s an emergency.’ ”