2016 Ausable Canoe Marathon

OSCODA — After nearly 14 and a half hours, the finish came down to a spring and a one-second split, as Christopher Proulx of Shawinigan, Ontario and Ryan Halstead of Grayling narrowly beat Andrew Triebold of Grayling and Jacob DuBouis of Houston, Texas to the line to win the 69th annual AuSable River Canoe Marathon Sunday morning.

Watch Out Pylon! wrote:Are people from Grayling like the sherpas of this canoe race? There seems to be a guy from Grayling on the winning team almost every year.

Like a moment in the hard-charging AuSable River Canoe Marathon, life changed in an instant for paddler Mathieu St. Pierre in a Quebec forest in February.

A young Canadian forestry worker, St. Pierre was involved in a logging accident around 7 a.m. on Feb. 19. At the time, St. Pierre was cutting down a partially rotted tree.

"A branch came down, knocked him out and the tree fell on him," said Ryan Halstead, a Grayling paddler who raced in the last two AuSable River Canoe Marathons with St. Pierre.

In the accident, St. Pierre suffered damage to his diaphragm, a punctured lung, his T-12 vertebra exploded and his spinal cord was damaged.  He also had fractures to the ribs, damage to his aorta and he had pelvic fractures.

St. Pierre was rushed to the Montreal Trauma Center for medical care. He was put under a medically induced coma and placed on a ventilator to assist with breathing. Over the next two days, St. Pierre went through several surgeries. After coming out of the coma, St. Pierre began to breathe on his own. On Feb. 22, doctors informed him that he would never walk again.

Now, St. Pierre is recovering in a rehabilitation hospital, preparing for life using a wheelchair, handicapped accessible vehicles and a handicapped accessible home.

Despite the unknown future, St. Pierre has hopes of getting back in a canoe someday.