- Dec 3, 2004
- 322
- 0
Arrived on Friday right @ 4:00 pm as planned. No evidence of rain in the area of the Tomahawk system. Camp was set and hit the trail @ 5:00 pm; rode the B loop cut off (24 miles) - felt great, was riding well and fast. Messed around on the CCC trail and headed back to camp to fix diner. Friday evening a light rain began to fall and continued until early morning. Woke up Saturday to mid 40's temps with freshly soaked ground - things are looking promising. After devouring a campside breakfast geared up and headed out on C loop;The trail was perfect no hint of dust and droplets of rain falling down from the canopy, I wasn't riding as well as the night before - things just weren't "clicking" and then it happened......... 10 miles out on a nothing piece of trail on a non descript downhill, I put a wheel wrong, had to much weight on the front and headed for a small group of trees (all 4-5" diameter) while tank slapping in 3rd gear. I was sure to hit ALL of them but managed to get by all but the last........ A bright white flash, lots of blurred colors and when I opened my eyes I was face down in leaves/debree and in a lot of pain with the bike on top of my legs. It took 2-3 minutes just to get to my knees, another 5 to get to my feet and another 20 or so before I could walk. My shoulder hurt terribly and my upper back worse - I'm not sure if the back pain was induced by the shoulder being shoved back or the severe whiplash of my head hitting the ground. My buddy Mike was right behind me and described the crash as "spectacular" and while he witnessed it was sure I had broken bones. No bones but I did have a severly bruised left shoulder, bruised left hip, bruised right inner thigh, bruised right abdomen, severly tweaked back and in hind sight - a mild concusion. (cracked my helmet from goggle opening to visor mount on one side) Once remounted on the bike we continued on to the next intersection and took road back to the campground. I took six tylenol, layed down and tried to make myself as comfortable as possible. Once the tylenol took hold and the nausea subsided I had some lunch. My back hurt really bad still, I had my buddy apply pressure to it periodically and finally felt/heard a "pop" (possibly a dislocated rib?) whatever it was it felt better, or should I say hurt less. Rather than sit around in pain at the camp sight we went for a ride. Did all of B loop (44 miles) - I think this is my new favorite trail, there are a lot of nice bike sections in there!!! I was pretty timid for a while and still kind of woosey but had moments where I could put together good periods of riding - as the day wore on the periods just decrease in the length of time I could sustain them, injury must take a lot of endurance out of a person. Still, I felt better riding than sitting as I think it helped keep things loose and blood flowing. Finished off B and headed back to camp for diner. Sat night was very uncomfortable but I did sleep well and woke up feeling a lot better than when I went to sleep. After breakfast we broke down camp and headed out to tackle the C loop. This trail unfortunately is just another quad trail now, while out Sunday moring I counted at least 10 saplings knocked down by quads just this weekend - there are spots you could get a Jeep through - rode all of C loop (42 miles) packed up and headed for home. It was a great weekend for riding - 120 miles of trail with another 10-15 of 2 track (I counted 18 bikes at Webber Lk campground) Sorry no fellow MTRs could make it, looking forward to a crash free TF.
Trevor
Trevor
Last edited: