Boyd Smiley’s impromptu detour on his motorcycle over the dirt paths near 75th Street turned into a rescue operation on Sunday, July 30.  He found Katy Ibsen lying by her bike off the side of the path, bloodied from road rash and barely conscious.
 
Katy, a junior at Fairview High School, had been doing a timed ride in preparation for a cross-country bike race.
 
“I can’t remember exactly what happened, but I know there were ruts in the trail,” Katy said.  “I think I hit a bump, and somehow hit my head on the handlebar of my bike.  I was knocked unconscious.” Her family has concluded that she was probably unconscious between 10 and 15 minutes.
 
Katy isn’t sure how long she lay in the field, well hidden from passing traffic by the weeds.  Luckily for her, Boyd, who had been visiting his parents in Heatherwood, decided on his way to buy gas to try out his motorcycle on the dirt hills he’d ridden his bike on as a kid.      
 
Boyd immediately called 911 on his cell phone.  Trained as a lifeguard, he was concerned that Katy might have a neck or spinal cord injury.  Because she was sitting up by then, he used a “head and chin splint,” supporting her head with his hands until help  arrived. 
 
Another man showed up to help.  Katy slowly regained consciousness, and she was able to give her rescuers her home phone number.  Boyd phoned her parents, Ron and Linda Ibsen, who rushed to the scene. 
 
Katy was taken by ambulance to Boulder Community Hospital where she underwent numerous tests.  Other than the concussion and extensive road rash, there were no other injuries. She has since fully recovered. 

The Ibsen’s asked Boyd’s name, and later realized that although they had never met him, they knew who he was.  Boyd was an Eagle Scout in Troop 377, which is the same troop that Katy’s brother Chris earned his Eagle in a few years later.  
 
Boyd, who grew up in Heatherwood, now works for United Airlines and lives in Louisville.  He received his original First Aid training through the scout program.    
 
Chris Ibsen is now going through Basic Cadet Training at the Air Force Academy.  When he got the message about his sister’s accident through another Troop 377 Eagle Scout, First Class Cadet JAD Ditlow, Chris wrote to Katy, “When JAD told me that Boyd had found you I knew that you were in good hands.  I would trust Boyd with my life and so would JAD.”  
 
When asked if she planned to ride her bike again, Katy said, “Yes, but I think I’m going to go out and buy a bike helmet.”