Outlaw Motor Sports owner Randy James has been riding snowmobiles for about 40 years and in all that time, has never had an injury serious enough to land him in the hospital. 

All of that changed in early Feb., 2011 in the mountains above Halfway after a serious accident left his right shoulder severely out of joint and his arm dangling. James ended up in the hospital at about 7 p.m. that evening, 5 1/2 hours after the accident. Doctor Boyd worked on me for about 30 minutes to get it back in, he said.

James, his son Cody, shop mechanic Andrew Plumsky and friend Dustin Rushton spent the day in the roadless area near Sugarloaf Reservoir. The group had been riding up steep hills seeing whose machine could make it the highest, an activity called high-marking.

I went way up the shoot and when I turned to get back down, thats when I saw the big rock exposed, Randy said.

The sled came down on the boulder and James was thrown into the air. This is going to be bad, he remembers thinking while airborne. He hit the ground and severely dislocated his right shoulder.

The snowmobile wasnt damaged and kept going down the hill after the crash picking up speed. Cody was down below and he jumped on it and saved it from the trees, James remembers. The snowmobile was going about 30 mph when Cody jumped on. It hit him in the chest hard enough to set off his (avalanche) beacon, said James. 

The crew had to ride about 30 miles out of the area back to the Salt Creek Summit parking lot. Cody rode ahead and scouted the route trying to stay on the level areas. 

Cody guided me out, and it was slow going. I couldnt bring my arm into my body and it was just dangling, James recalled. I just kept going to my happy place and picking out the next spot on the trail ahead. He was limited to using only his left arm on the trek back and luckily his snowmobile has a left-hand throttle.

Because of the slow pace, one of the brand-new snowmobiles developed a leak in a line and caught fire. James said he was frantically scooping snow onto the burning sled with his left hand. We put the fire out and there was no major damage, he noted.

The accident occurred near the Clear Creek Cabin, which was built by the Wallowa County Gamblers Snowmobile Club. The cabins are open for anyone to use. Thats why the cabins are out there, for warmth, for shelter and for accidents its a good place to lay-up, said James, a member of the Gamblers Snowmobile Club.