Part 1: Flowing The Trail

Last Saturday Little Cam and I went for a ride at Buffalo Creek. I am fortunate to live right smack in the middle of some of the best mountain biking terrain anywhere. I picked some flowing single track along the Colorado Trail.


Little Cam is a pretty bike.

Here are a couple of videos made by somebody else but this is exactly where I was riding Little Cam.

The terrain is quite varied from dense forest to burn areas. This segment is fun and fast. Since the trail rolls it is a good idea to keep momentum.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
doaEPGzGHH0&feature=relmfu

The guy that made the video says the burn in this area was 130 years ago. The burn was actually in 1994.
www.youtube.com/watch?v=
-T55pmwcRRA&feature=endscreen

The guy in the video is doing mountain bike touring and is kind of poking along. These trails are pretty darn fast. According to my Garmin, Little Cam was sailing along some of these segments at 21.8 mph! The trail through the burn area is a narrow groove. By riding the outside of the curves, you can take advantage of the terrain and use the trail side as a mini berm. But you have to crank the bike over pretty hard. This is really, really, fun.

Part 2: Picked a Bad Line

Little Cam and me were zipping along. We come around a curve riding the berm. As we fly through the curve, the berm becomes a small steeply cut ditch. The bottom of the ditch is filled with baby head rocks, which cause Little Cam's tires to kick out. Me and Little Cam are at one heck of a steep lean at this point. We are literally rockin' and rollin'. I am not the least bit concerned. The bike feels good. Then the front wheel glances off a big stationary rock. This glancing blow causes Little Cam's front wheel to wedge into the ditch. Little Cam goes from 14.8 mph to 0 mph in 1/100th of a second. Not good! I know exactly how fast we were going because the subsequent collision with terra firma clobbered my Garmin and stopped the Garmin cold at the instant of impact !

Part 3: Buck Brush

Little Cam and I parted company. Little Cam continues down the trail sans rider. Once Little Cam realizes I am no longer on board, he gently falls on some soft grass to wait for me. He suffers not a scratch! As I fall through space and time sans bike, I am expecting to lose a little hide. My choice of fun has a few consequences. Unfortunately, I landed face first in a buck brush!


Buck brush is a small tough woody shrub. Deer crop the ends of the branches that grow a course flower that resembles a brown woody cauliflower. As a result of the deer feeding on buck brush, the branches resemble sharp sticks. I have, in the past, fallen into yucca plants and prickly pear cactus. Falling into cactus is mere child's play compared to falling into buck brush!

Part 4: "Horribly Wounded, not Mortally Wounded!"

After I hit the buck brush, I thought, "What the heck?" A human being automatically closes their eyes when anticipating a blow. I have no idea what I hit. Fortunately I just glanced off the buck brush. All I felt was some tugging on my face. After the fall I got to my hands and knees. I opened my eyes. The whole world was blurry. I realized my glasses were missing!

Not good!

I need to be able to see to find my glasses and I need my glasses to see. I feel around in the grass. After an eternity I find a lens! I hold the lens over one eye and continue my search. I come upon a pair of twisted frames. The nose piece is gone! I pop my lens into the frames and put the mangled glasses on my equally mangled face. After another eternity I find my other lens. I now have a complete, albeit twisted, pair of glasses.

Where is my bike?

I spot Little Cam down the trail about 40 feet. I am pretty concerned that the bike could be broken. I am a few miles from the car and I don't want to carry the bike. I was pleasantly surprised to find the bike in perfect condition. The chain had just slipped off the crank ring, which is very easy to fix.

I got back and the bike an beat a hasty retreat to the car. I called my wife on my cell phone. I got her voice mail, "Hi Honey, I fell off my bike and I am horribly wounded." She called me right back. She asked, "Did you say you are mortally wounded?" I answered, "I don't think I am mortally wounded. I am horribly wounded." She chuckled, "Is that all? So what else is new? Do you need to go to the emergency room?" I answer, "Nope, I got a good first aid kit."


This is my uber back country first aid kit. The kit is 5" x 7" x 3" and holds a lot of stuff.


The kit is nicely packaged. I augmented the kit with several BZK "Stingless" wipes. I used these wipes to clean pebbles, dirt, wood and grass out of my facial cuts. I also put in the kit a full tube of triple antibiotic ointment. The tiny ointment packets that come with most portable first aid kits are not enough.


I have been accident prone my whole life. Mostly because I am not a cautious person by nature. My mantra is: Faster, Farther, Higher! As a result, I am an expert at self treatment. I have 12 first aid kits. I have two mini-kits I carry with me on runs and bike rides. My wife used to think I was OCD when it came to first aid kits. Now she thinks I don't have nearly enough!

Part 5: Just Looks Bad but it Doesn't Hurt

When the brakes on Ultra Stumpy locked-up on Bergen Peak and hammered me into razor sharp rocks, the pain was incredible! This time, my close encounter with local vegetation looked but but did not hurt much.


See, I am a happy guy.


Here is a close up. I think I came out of this pretty well. My self-administered first aid did the trick. I also iced my wounds when I got home.


I banged my elbow a little.


This bruise on my thigh was caused when Little Cam's handle bar end slammed hard to the left as a result of the front wheel getting wedged in the ditch.


My right leg got a little chewed-up. I also twisted my neck a bit. I have been to the chiropractor twice. I am good to go now.

I am heading out early tomorrow for another ride. I will take it a bit slower. I am going to hit up Flying J, which is very easy and completely predictable.

Thanks for reading my blog.