Over the Bar Scar Club...

Well I definitely earned my way into the Over the Bar Scar Club on Sunday. It all started out as a nice ride up Lewis Peak. I wasn’t feeling all to well when I started, but overall felt really good. I made it to the top of Lewis Peak in about 1 hour 50 minutes. I’m pretty happy with that. I probably stopped 3 times, I really think I can clean this ride, but I was feeling a little off. So on the way down I had planned on dropping into the divide (I dropped off a few gallons of water there on my way up) and then riding up Ben Lomond. However on the way down I was really not riding well and found that I had no control. I thought that I had slowed down enough to keep from getting hurt, but I was wrong. About 2 miles from the trailhead I went down hard (or over the bars, I really don’t remember). I remember waking up with blood running down my face. Yes I said waking up, I hit my head hard enough to knock me out. I know it couldn’t have been too long since my iPod was only on the next song after the one I remember listening to before I crashed. The blood from above my eyebrow had run into my eye, and I remember everything had a red tinge to it. Since I was by myself and didn’t have a mirror I couldn’t tell how bad it was. I had to pull the pieces of my sunglasses out of the cut in my face, and my helmet was cracked. I have nice trail rash on my leg, and my shoulder is one big pile of rash. I also took a nice chunk out of the palm of my right hand. I jammed both of my wrists pretty good – it hurts to move my thumbs. I’m pretty sure I took a handlebar to my left thigh as I have a nice bruise there, and my left shoulder-blade is sore. I think my shoulder hurts the most. I can’t move it around much, and don’t think I could raise it above my head if I wanted to. Above and to the side of my right eyebrow I have a nice cut. It is funny because it looks like I have stitches in it, but I don’t, just looks like it. I probably should have gotten them, but all I wanted to do was get home. After all I still had 2 miles of trail and a 30 minute drive ahead of me. I cleaned up as good as I could and got my face to stop bleeding (mostly). It was then that I realized my bike was nowhere to be found. It took me a good minute before I realized it was about 30 feet down off the side of the trail in a bush. It took everything I had to get it back up to the trail. The ride down and out was painful; every little rock would hurt my shoulder and wrists, thank goodness I have 5” of travel. As for today, all I can say is thank goodness for Hyrdrocodone. I guess I get to buy a new helmet and sunglasses. That is always fun. I will try to take a picture of my face and shoulder tonight and get them posted.