SEATTLE -- For the past three summers 73-year-old Jim Nee has hiked more than 300 miles a year along the Pacific Crest trail that stretches from Mexico to Canada, hoping to eventually hike all 2,600 miles of the trail. It was during one of his hikes near North Bend last week when Nee lost his footing and almost lost his life.

“I was hiking along fine and I was looking at the trail when suddenly the trail dropped out from under me,” Nee told KIRO 7. “I was tumbling head over heel down the slope … there were rocks in amongst the shrubs and as the shrubs collapsed I would hit the rocks. I’d go kapow, kapow, kapow.”

Nee fell about 200 feet down the slope and ended up breaking his leg and his back, and severely injuring his head and hands.

He crawled back up towards the trail for hours until he finally saw someone coming towards him.

Nee asked the man, “Can you help me? The guy, it was a guy, said, ‘No I’m on a special trek!’ I said, ‘C’mon I’m hurt, I need some help!’ and he said, ‘Oh, oh, I didn’t know that!’ Turns out he’s a little hard of hearing.”

Matt Thyer guided rescuers to the cliff he and Nee were on using his cell phone and even built a fire to keep Knee warm while they waited.

“When I encountered Jim, the two of us were really alone on the cliff and we spent a couple of hours there getting to know each other,” Thyer said.

Rescuers were eventually able to get to Nee and Thyer and took Nee to the hospital to treat his injuries. Jim said he wanted to thank Thyer for saving him and he hopes they will be able to spend more time together, under better circumstances. He also said he wants to hike the rest of the trail with Thyer next year.