Author: Mike
Hassur
Fun ride yesterday with Scott, John, and Kurt. We met in Wilkeson, unloaded our
cyclocross/mountain bikes, and headed up the trail to Carbonado and beyond. Scott and I had done this ride last year, and
it had been one mud hole after another.
Since we haven’t had much rain of late, Scott theorized that we wouldn’t
encounter nearly as many of those obstacles.
He was right. I believe that we
made it from Wilkeson to Cabonado (on the trail) without having any
problems.
After Carbonado, things got
more interesting. I was lagging behind
when I heard Kurt yell and saw some feet up in the air. He was passing through a small mud hole, hit
a submerged rock, and went over his handlebars into the mire – no injuries,
just wet gloves. We pressed on stopping
here and there to climb over big logs in the trail or to detour around some of
the bigger mud holes that must make a permanent home on this trail. Before long we had made our way to the
Fairfax Bridge. We passed under the
bridge and headed toward the ghost town of Fairfax. On the way to Fairfax, we passed the old stone
structure that was used for dynamite storage during the region’s coal mining
heyday (approximately 100 years ago). After a brief stop, we
continued on the trail to its conclusion about a mile or two past Fairfax.
On the "outward bound" portion of our ride, I managed to fall twice (couldn’t get my
foot out of the cleat when things got squirrely – I’ve got to get some mountain
biking cleats and pedals. Luckily, the
landing was soft on both occasions. John
fell a time or two as well – again no serious damage to body or bike.
After reaching the end of the trail, we headed back. Going back always seems easier for some
reason. Kurt was bombing along somewhere
ahead of us; while Scott, John, and I just cruised along. It was beautiful and fun. Then, on one of the smooth sections of the
trail between The Fairfax Bridge and Carbonado, I managed to find a rough spot
which jerked my wheel to the right. The
next thing I knew, I was laying in the bushes on the right side of the trail on
top of my bike. When I raised my left
leg to disentangle myself from the bike and get up, the bike sort of rose up
with my leg, and I realized that the left pedal had impaled my leg and stuck in
it. The pedal came out of the wound as I
continued to raise my leg and so did a fair amount of blood – great! Scott and John were both right there offering
any support that I might need; but the wound didn’t seem to interfere with my
ability to stand or ride my bike.
Surprisingly, the wound – which was pretty impressive looking – didn’t
really hurt much (the same cannot be said for the stinging that I experience in
both legs (from the nettles that I fell in when I crashed). I got back on my bike, and we took off. Since I was wounded, we went out to the main
road (where we found Kurt waiting for us) and took it from Carbonado down to
Wilkeson to our cars.
This was a really fun ride. Great guys, the sun came out during the ride,
the sky was blue, and the trail was beautiful.
As for my leg; I went home, took a quick shower, and went to the Group
Health Urgent Care in Tacoma where a PA friend of mine (George) sewed me
up. I was worried that this mishap might
interfere with a planned surfing trip to Santa Cruz week after next, but George
thought I would probably be pretty well healed by then. Keep your fingers crossed – cowabunga!!
To see all of the photos associated with this ride click on the following link: https://picasaweb.google.com/103821724300588557330 .
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