iRide

Went to Glamis this weekend for Thanksgiving as we always do. Had a blast until yesterday afternoon when I rolled/flipped my quad about 3 miles away from camp at the end of a 25 mile ride.

I don’t remember a whole lot about the crash. There was 11 vehicles (quads and sand cars) in my group and about 20 people. We stopped for lunch at the turn-around (Duner’s Diner) and then stopped for a regroup after only a mile or two on the way back. The regroup is the last thing I remember until right before I crashed. According to the people I was riding with, I crashed a good 20 minutes after the regroup, so I’ve lost that much in memory.

Anyway, the last thing I remember was going off course straight into a small bush that sat at the top of a little berm–all in wide-open 4th gear, about 50 mph we were figuring. I remember thinking “OH CRAP” and then hitting the berm and going airborn. I remember thinking “tuck and roll” while in the air and then the next thing I remember was a bunch of people standing around me asking me if I was OK.

They say I was unconscious for about a minute. There was about 20′ of untouched sand after the berm, then a huge impact crater from my quad–so I flew about 20′ before I hit. They told me in air, the quad’s rear end started to come up and then it tilted to the left. The right front tire hit first and sent me off to the right and the quad off to the left (thank God for that). They say I did a few cartwheels and landed on my stomach, then rolled onto my back and sat up, then flopped back down–none of which I remember. The guy who was in a sand car riding behind me said it looked like I went into a buggy rut and got tossed a little to the left–at just the wrong moment, then hit the bush/berm.

They transferred me to a sand car and took me back to camp where we had an R.N. in our camp group. I felt like I was really drunk even though I had no alcohol in me. My right pupil wouldn’t dialate and they rushed me over to the Ranger’s station where the medics backboarded and C-Spine collared me and I got the lights and sirens ride to Brawley Hospital’s ER. I don’t remember much about the ride as I kept blacking out. Tonya rode along and told me that’s how it went.

At the hospital they cut my riding jersey off and at one point I had 4 people working on me. They CT-Scanned me and took some shoulder X-Rays. I was on the backboard for what seemed like an eternity. After all the test results came back negative (WHOO-HOO!!) they got me off the backboard but left the collar on. I had Tonya snap a cell phone pic then. We were at the ER for about 5 hours and not much of that was spent waiting around actually.

Final injury tally:
-Severe concussion
-Dislocated right shoulder
-Sprained neck
-Sprained back
-Pulled muscles in back
-Bruised ribs

I feel pretty lucky, considering I was going about 50 mph when I crashed. I’m not going to get dramatic and say my helmet saved my life, but it definitley helped the situation. Just another reason to always wear one, whether your bike has a motor or not.

I’m at home now and incredibly sore. I will be taking at least a week off from riding (duh) and hope to be back and at it soon. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

I found some pics over on MTBR of the Lake Hodges fire devastation and realized I have pics of most of the same areas taken over the last couple years.

What follows will be before/after.

All burn pics were taken and posted by user TerminatorZ on MTBR.

Before:

After:

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So sad to see. I hope it comes back soon. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…

So as I’m sure you’ve heard, San Diego was hit by yet another firestorm last week. It devastated a huge portion of the county including lot’s of trails. A good friend of mine–Mark, lost his house to the fire in Rancho Bernardo.

The Fire in Rancho Bernardo totally destroyed the Lake Hodges trails. The fire up here in Fallbrook toasted about 90% of the trails here. I had to work lot’s of overtime at work and with that and the air quality, I didn’t ride all week. So, considering that Fallbrook and Hodges is where I got in a lot of my rides, it’s going to be a lot harder to get in rides over the next months.

Today J, Ben, Mark and I got out to Lake Calaveras for our first dirt riding since the fires. It was a fun time. Ben and Mark had never ridden there before. I let Mark borrow my Trek HT since his bike burned up and I was forced to ride my 42 pound Haro (more on why I didn’t role the Yeti in a bit). It was hard, but good times. Here’s a group shot. San Diego STR REPRESENT!!

Now, on to why I didn’t ride the Yeti today: it broke. About a week and a half ago I was wiping down the bike getting ready for a ride and I saw this huge crack that goes almost all the way around the weld on the seat tube just above the chainstay pivots. Fortunatley Yeti stands behind their product and it is covered under warranty. It actually got shipped back to Yeti yesterday. I hope to have my new frame late next week.

I have been able to get in a few road rides lately. Ben and I have done a couple and I’ve ridden around town a bit. It’s actually more fun than I thought it would be. I’m also trying to talk J into getting one so he can don the ghey apparel too. Here’s a couple pics of the finished product.

I’ll post up pics of the Fallbrook and Hodges devastation soon. Until then, seek your bliss.

Ride lots…