August 8, 2004
Thinking that the next two weeks would be filled with non-cycling activities, Jason and I decided to go do something a little different on Sunday -- downhill mountain biking at the Keystone ski resort.
You pay a bunch of money, they give you a lift pass, and the ski lift takes you and your bike to the top of the mountain. No cycling to go up gives you plenty of time for the extra-fun downhills. The trails aren't on the ski trails usually, but wind through the trees. Some trails are gnarly and steep, with tons of rocks, ledges, roots, even up-in-the-air bridges and crazy man-made drops. I had a good day of riding with only one serious slide out, which created the scrape and bruise on my right knee. I managed to avoid certain death a few times with skilled riding. :)
On the final run of the day (it's always the last run, right?), I was feeling good and we took one of the hardest trails on the mountain. This trail (Paid in Full), although open to users, is still under construction. We came up to a very loose and sketchy section which I had walked on previous runs, but decided to ride this time.
Low and behold, I started sliding out while doing sort of a front-wheel wheelie, couldn't get the rear end to come down, and endoed onto my face. The bike landed on top of me and kinda pinned me down. Jason was within shouting distance and came to free me from the bicycle.
Apparently my chin hit a rock or root or something, because a very deep but short cut opened on the underside of my chin. Jason cleaned and closed it with some serious first aid skills and some Steri-Strips. Oh yeah, and I added a scrape on my cheek, some skin irritation on my left pectoral, and started the old elbow wound bleeding again.
My bike came out of the whole experience ok -- I think my body
cushioned the blow. :-)
