hit by a car

September 4, 2002



Riding home from work/school during rush hour traffic along Folsom (in the bike lane), far ahead of me I see a guy pull out of a gas station parking lot and out across two lanes of stopped traffic (that common maneuver where you block traffic until you can turn into the opposite flow of traffic), and think "I hate it when people do that."

Sure enough, as I'm passing by the stupid Grand Cherokee while in the bike lane, he decides to gas it in reverse back into the parking lot and hits me. I guess I flew a few feet, scraped up my right leg a bit and did something to my heel that makes it painful to walk. Overall, I got off pretty damn lucky, especially considering I'm a stubborn idiot who commutes without a helmet.
:(

Can't say my beautiful Bianchi Milano cruiser did as well -- his wheels appear to be badly out of true, and my pannier (and vegetables from the garden) all got badly smashed. But, the kid who hit me will gladly pay for repairs.

Gunnison and Kenosha

August 7-8 & 10, 2002

Gunnison, CO - 8/7-8/02

On the Hartman Rocks trail system, Jason and I got caught in a hail storm while trying to barrel downhill back to the car. The hail was little, but moving so fast that it actually bruised parts of our thighs. Extremely painful, like tons of large needle pricks.

Next day on the same trails, I doubted myself going over some rocks, couldn't get out of the pedals fast enough, and manged to tangle myself up in the bike so that my face slammed into the end of the handlebar. Thus, an ugly bruise under the left eye and a bit of scraped skin on the right arm.

Colorado Trail, near Kenosha Pass - 8/10/02

Had a great day riding up to Georgia Pass with some riding buddies, and did well technically all day. Decided to ride (instead of walk) across a plank footbridge, doubted myself halfway across, and tried to put my left foot down into thin air. Instead I fell ~3 feet into the creek and twisted my ankle, which proceeded to swell to awful proprotions as I biked out the remaining 4 miles of trail. It was a good day anyway, since the xray said it was only a sprain. :-)

trees & dirtpaste

While trying to navigate the bike between two very small trees to either side of the trail, I managed to nick the handlebar on the lefthand tree ... bike headed downhill, I kept going straight ahead.

Managed to imbed a small rock under my skin on the right elbow, and split open a large wound which needed stitches ... but of course my crappy health insurance doesn't cover injuries that happen on a weekend. Arrrrgghh...

rock magnet in my hip

Took a couple solid diggers on the same day, puncturing my hipbone area with a rock and landing on my hands hard enough to bruise the palms. Right knee isn't working so well.

Bonus picture - bruise from the puncture wound, please kindly ignore my gut.