On August 10, 2019, Brok Hansmeyer's life was forever changed.
What started as an afternoon of fun on the trail, quickly turned ugly. But if not for cutting edge technology, there's a chance it would've been deadly. The Duluth Realtor was off the clock and planned to hit the trails. He was hoping to have what he called a "bachelor night". "I was going to go for a long bike ride, come home, eat some pizza and some chips, have a beer."
No stranger to mountain biking, Brok decided to take a ride on an unfamiliar trail within the Mission Creek Trail System. No more than 15-minutes into his ride, Brok crashed his bike and found himself in a nightmare situation. When he spoke with emergency responders, they showed him their iPad with coordinates to Brok. He was located on a black diamond trail, called Flyover Country. The coordinates showing up on the iPad through an app.
"A system was introduced to us called Avenza," said Chief Deputy Scott Kleive with the Duluth Fire Department.