Phoenix Pastor Survives After Crushed By 1,500-Pound Boulder While Hiking

By Anna Gallegos

November 11, 2020

What started as a hike for charity turned into a nightmare for a Phoenix pastor.

The 800-mile hike along the Arizona Trail started off fine for Luke Barnett and his 20-year-old daughter Annalee. They started on September 27 and hoped to complete the trek in 40 days by hiking 20 miles a day.

The father-daughter team was on the hike to raise money for the Short Creek Dream Center, a group home in Utah that offers addiction help and other social services, so they chronicled their adventure.

They were nearly a month and 500 miles into the hike when disaster happened. Luke and Annalee were hiking through an arroyo when an 1,500 pound boulder was dislodged. The pastor at Dream City Church was able to push his daughter out of the way but the boulder rolled over him, AZ Family reported.

A video shared by Luke on his Instagram after the accident shows him awake and talking, but in obvious pain and with a bloody hand. It was only later that Luke discovered that the boulder broke three of his ribs, his forearm, his femur, and his hip.

View this post on Instagram

The adventure of our life turned out to be the miracle of our life. During our 800 mile hike a 1500+ lb Boulder dislodged from the hillside rolling over me. At the time we didn’t know exactly what was wrong but a day later we are discovered that I have three broken ribs, A broken forearm, a broken hip, a broken femur, and 40 stitches in my right hand. No head or spine injuries praise the Lord. God is really up to something big and the enemy hates it. Thank you for all your prayers and support. And as Arnold Schwarzenegger says, I’ll be back!

A post shared by Luke Barnett (@pastorlukebarnett) on Oct 25, 2020 at 6:05pm PDT

Annalee was able to stabilize and make her father comfortable before emergency services were able to reach them via helicopter.

"I remember saying to her right before the chopper picked me up, 'This hike has to go on. We can't stop. You're going to have to finish this thing all by yourself,'" Luke told Annalee.

While Luke was in the hospital recovering from his injuries, Annalee finished the journey for both of them.

Photo: Getty Images