Yellowknife (June 04/03) - It might be the beginning of a long, boring summer for Ted Kidston, but at least he will be around to endure it.

Yellowknife motorcycle enthusiast Ted Kidston is recovering at Stanton Territorial Hospital after he had a run-in with a deer near Jasper, Alta., May 24. - Mike W. Bryant/NNSL photo

The Yellowknife resident suffered three broken ribs, a broken ankle, collar bone, tailbone, and a collapsed lung when he crashed his motorcycle on a highway near Jasper, Alta., while trying to avoid a deer.

Kidston's close call came on May 24 while motorcycle with his wife, daughter and her boyfriend as they were making their way on a Western Canadian tour that began in Yellowknife but was cut short in Alberta.

Nearing Jasper, Kidston came across a deer smack in the middle of the road. He swerved to avoid it but wound up in the ditch.

"I tried to avoid him and a few little complications arose from that," said Kidston from his room at the University of Alberta Hospital.

"He's running free, he's still out there with Bambi."

Kidston was hoping he could just coast his motorcycle to safety into the ditch. He thought he was home and free until his front tire hit a rock which sent him and his bike flying.

"I picked a spot to go for but there was one rock big enough to tear the handlebars out of my hands," said Kidston.

"Otherwise I would've had no problem with it."

The rest of his travelling companions were about 10 minutes behind him when the accident occurred. They waited anxiously for at least an hour before an ambulance arrived.

Unable to breath, Kidston wondered if he was dying.

"My lungs were starting to fill up and it was getting harder and harder to breathe," said Kidston.

He was taken to Jasper before being quickly re-routed to University of Alberta Hospital in Edmonton, all the while worried how his family was coping during their lonely, five-hour drive to the city to be with him.

Kidston, however, pulled through and last weekend was flown back to Yellowknife and Stanton Territorial Hospital last weekend to begin the long road back to recovery.

He is unsure when he'll be up and moving again but one this for sure, said Kidston, he will ride again.

"Definitely, no doubt about that," said Kidston.