Whistler, ah, Whistler

Our second annual downhill mountain biking trip to Whistler was great, it truly was. I would have preferred to omit the injuries, but sometimes the biking gods require their dues.

A number of crashes spread over 3 days led to this fine collection, including:
* sliding off the end of a wooden feature
* slipping out in deep mud a couple times
* jumping off a box and casing the landing (again, due to mud)
* being an utter chicken shit on some table tops and just falling out of the sky (did that, oh, 3 times?)

Mostly, I was doubting myself and didn't go fast enough, so I got hurt. Oh well, at least I had a good time doing it and I know for next time - when it comes to downhilling, slow kills, speed is your friend.

Crack bruise photographer Nicole Feldl captured a couple of these beauties in the field, as you know a photograph never does justice so imagine them even more colorful.

crashing my cruiser

To further justify my klutzy nature, let me tell you about crashing my cruiser bike. I was riding to work along Harvard Lane (that Broadway access road north of Table Mesa), a section of road that has a lot of pot holes and uneven parts. I commute on a Bianchi Milano cruiser (aka tank) with open-top panniers hanging off the sides of the rear wheel. Coasting downhill at a good speed, I hear some papers flapping around in my pannier. Not wanting my papers to blow away, and also unwilling to stop, I leaned back with my right hand to stuff them back in the bag. Next thing I know, I'm flying over the handlebars, directly into asphalt, hands first - must have either hit a pothole, or some small part of my brain thought it was a good time to hit the front brake, or both. Then the really heavy bike lands on top of me, the punk! Luckily some nice road bikers stopped to help by pulling the bike off of me and helping me find all the stuff that fell out of my oh-so-convenient open top panniers.

Along with that bruised ego, I ended up with several missing sections of skin on my elbows, wrists, and palms, a bruised right palm, bruises under my left upper arm and all over the front of both thighs, and a bruised pelvic bone. I even scraped off part of my old ACL surgery scar (that felt strange). Well, what else you gonna do but go to work? The fine ladies at the NOAA Health Clinic cleaned me up, covered me in bandages, and sent me off to my desk.

All those separate, small-ish wounds provided a good time to experiment with different healing methods. Bandaids + antibiotic ointment are ok, but the best stuff I've found so far are biooculsive dressings, just this sheet of clear plastic that you put over the wound and leave it there until it falls off. Wound healing at its best and easiest, gets The Bruise Report seal of approval!

more tumbling

No body diagrams for this posting, because I came out of the crash pretty much unscathed, a scratch on a leg. I know, you're thinking "this is The Bruise Report, so where are the bruises?". Sorry, not this time, but...

This wreck took place near the bottom of the Teocalli Ridge trail in Crested Butte. I was bombing the downhill on a section of trail that crosses a hillside, and lost the front wheel in a soft shoulder. I came off the bike and started tumbling downhill. I seriously felt like Wesley in The Princess Bride, end over end over end. Manged to get the arms out and stop where you see me standing. The picture was taken by Nicole Gordon, who is standing on the trail, we estimate I rolled about 30 feet away from the trail. Sweet!

head-plant sommersault

We spent the 4th of July holiday weekend riding in Durango. Although neither Jason nor I had the legs for it, we went for big rides with lots of miles. Saturday's ride was doing the last segment of the Colorado Trail, from Kennebec Pass back down to the Junction Creek trailhead. Although we shuttled most of the uphill (using Junction Creek Road), there was still plenty of high-altitude climbing to tire us out, including that brutal climb up to the Kennebec Pass summit.

Anyway, it's toward the end of the day and we're almost done, I'm getting a bit spacy from exhaustion. I'm bombing a straight, open, fast downhill section of the CT (not far from the Dry Fork intersection = on that section of reclaimed road) and keeping up with Jason, which means I'm moving at a good clip. I think I hit a loose rock. All of the sudden I'm flying straight ahead through the air and my bike is headed off downhill to the right. Going 15-20 mph, I landed on my head and flipped again before coming to rest on my left side maybe 10' past the bike and 20' past the offending rock.

I cracked my helmet in 3 places!!! I've dented helmets, but never cracked one. Best part, my head is fine, just a sore spot on the forehead and a desire for a neck massage. Wow, if that's not a case for a quality brain bucket, I don't know what will convince you. Oh yeah, bruised knee and scraped shoulder from the second time I hit the ground but using my shoulder and leg instead of my head.