On to my bought with Crooked Pine. I basicly took a cut'n on this one tonight fella's. Its humiliating I know and wish I could be saying I took the lick'n on spider woman or something but it is what it is.
Round 1: This was supposed to be our warmup now before circling back to the lot. Were doing Crooked Pine from the fire road entrance side and somewhere before you get to the first bridge I hit some limb,branch or I dont know what. I didnt even see it coming till a millisecond before the hit and then it was just a blur but this smacked me on the head, nocked off my glasses and helmet. I just saw a quick flash then scrambled to keep from going down while trying to get my gear back on and straight. But, it did NOT take me down , so Im good im thinking , just a little shaken and surprised where the heck this came from and just slowed pace long enough to regain my bearings and all. Unfortunately though this was making my eyes burn from sweat or something and the rest of the ride my eyes stayed watering and burned. Round 1 goes to Crooked Pine.
Round 2: On our outer loop ride heading the clouds were moving in and it was getting really dark out there in sections under the canopy, then up the midlands switchbacks its starts storming and raining pretty good, well at the top Barret and I decided we werent gonna continue on the full outer loop in this rain and lightening and made a b-line right to head back on Midlands to firebreak. Then we thought we'd take the short cut thru crooked pine one more time in an attempt to get to the lot the quickest route. by this time it was raining and lightning pretty good and my visability was beyond bad between the watering/burning eyes, darkness setting in and the raini hitting the glasses. I'll be darn if it wasnt around the same spot as the first round incident around one of the turns I barely saw one of those vines that do a sidewase U loop hanging out just a little to much but I wasnt able to avoid it and sure enough this thing was right at head height and it looped me right around the neck. Now I wasnt blazing or anything but I had some speed so Im locking my chin low to keep from getting strangled or anything. The way it had me I new there was no way of twisting loose so once I felt it away from under my neck I put everything I had to try and ride thru it hoping it would rip the vine out or something. After about 5 feet it didnt give anymore and took me down off in the bushes in what must of been a sight. That was a sensation I hope not to repeat. Stunned I just laid there in the brush with this vine wrapped around me then heard Barret checking if I was alright and the lightening popping around and just thought I better get off this ground before one of those strike something close to us. The lightening was close, one popped while we were there and startled Barret enough he dropped his bike right out of his hands. Anyway, Round two definately went to Crooked pine too. But, I did take time to curse and move that vine well off the path for any other riders or my next time :).
Stats:
Distance : 19.05
Time: 1:42
Avg Speed: 11.1
Max: 22.8
7 comments:
Nice wounds man. Nothing like teaching yourself to duck the hard way! Sounds like I skipped a good ride before the clouds rolled in.
I decided it was time for a name change for you, you are now the Bushwhacker.
Ya ya, I guess I do end up all over the place constantly hitting the branches and leaves. Better start concentrating more on control, heck you know my speeds and its not like I can blame this on breakneck speeds or anything. Id be borderline dangerous to the whole crew if I was running in the 12+, either that or put myself out of commission :).
Thats the first time I have heard anything like that. My worst wrecks are usually at slow speed and on easy trails where I am not paying attention.
Jim,
Good riding with you as always. Thanks for the laugh out loud blog experience this morning. That is good stuff!
Of course I am not laughing at you, just with you. Similar things have happened to me multiple times. I just don't think 2X in the same day at the same spot.
See ya next Wednesday.
Joe
Hey Jim I have hit everything under the sun, and fallen off alot more. Don't feel bad about the crashes they build character. I don't know why Toby calles me the "Excavator", I should be called "The Crash Test Dummy"
Oh man no, Im not bent out of shape in the least or taking any offense on any cracks that happen to come my way on this. I found the deal quite comical myself and figured everone would get a laugh out the ordeal. Just dont give me to much grief on my duct taped togeter helmet visor :)
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