My Big Boot RR (Or: I'm Getting Too Old For This Crap...)

As some of you may know, I was lucky enough to score an invitation to
the Big Boot Trail Ride this year. It used to be a 2-day enduro up
until the early 90's, the kind of enduro that would be lucky to have 5
finishers, but now it is an invitation-only 2-day ride and is one of
the BRC's biggest fundraisers. Anyway, it pays to post ride reports
with lots of photos on other websites, as this is how I earned my
invite<G>

We pulled into the staging area at 4pm Friday. The Far West Motorcycle
Club has a good working relationship with Green Diamond Resource
Management Co and it would be their land that we would be riding on.
It was still an active logging area, but the place had the eerie feel
of a long-abandoned community, what with empty and long-forgotten
buildings and old logging equipment lying about. We camped along a
dirt road in fresh-mown grass that backed up to trees. The smell was
heavenly, and the birds sang constantly. I had no idea what to expect
as far as camping accommodations, and I am very picky about my spots,
so I was pleasantly surprised. It was sunny and warm, too; quite
unusual for that area of the coast north of Eureka.

We hit sign-up, got our numbers and free T-shirts, were told where to
report for the free BBQ Saturday night, and feasted our eyes on all
the swag being raffled off on Saturday. Got the bikes ready to go, had
dinner and hit the sack in preparation for some of the best riding of
our lives. Not so fast... A giant Class A motorhome had pulled up near
sign-up earlier in the day and had installed a huge drop-down awning
on their rig. I thought it was kinda anti-social. That is, until the
booming music started rattling our windows at almost the exact moment
we went to bed. Turns out the awning was doubling as a movie screen
for Crusty-like riding flicks (with attendant crappy music) for the
evening. I grabbed the ear plugs and we tried to forget about it...but
it wasn't easy.

Riders meeting was at 7am, with the trail opening shortly thereafter.
I saw a few people I knew, including Wade and Kathy Tuma whom I'd met
in ID through Bill Dart. Ben and Eric Bostrom's dad was there camping
right next to us, and I saw a gal I'd met at one of the Oregon Enduro
schools about 6 or 7 years ago. Turns out the 2 of us would be
spending some quality time together later in the day<G>

Eric and I were pretty much ready to go at 6am so all we had to do was
throw on our backpacks and helmets and we were gone. The first part of
the trail was super-tight and flowy through tall grass and I wondered
if it would all be like this. If so, I was really glad to be on the
GasGas<G> We went through a sort of tech inspection thing where they
checked for trials tires (every 18" rear wheel required a trials tire
or no ride) and spark arresters, and then it was on to the real stuff.
Wow...Baxter was right when he said I'd absolutely love it there, and
that the Pampera was the bike to be on. The trail was so damn tight!
You could see where bikes had overshot the turns and had to three-
point it. There were lots of big 4-strokes there, and I was really
glad I wasn't on any of `em. In fact, the first bike I passed was a
Husky 510. Even though the trails were tight, there was a really nice
flow about them. There were tiny sections of transfer, really short
sections of road, and times where the twisty trail would inexplicably
run arrow-straight for about a mile. The scenery was awesome, too.
Traction for days, no ruts, no whoops, just beautiful loamy potting
soil dirt. The entire full length of the trail would be like this...at
least, that's what Eric said afterwards. I set a pace that I could
live with all day, and Eric was happy to follow. We would stop at the
road crossings every now and again and marvel at our good fortune.
Heh...

We caught up to another rider a little bit into the ride and just as
we caught up to him we saw a rider down. She was being helped by her
partner so I told her to hang in there as I passed her by. She looked
an awful lot like the gal I did the enduro school with. Turns out it
was her. We passed the rider in front of us (Wade Tuma) and continued
on our way. A few miles later we came to a long uphill. There were
little breaks in the uphill, including one fairly good-sized water
bar. I slowed down a little bit (I was on the Pamp, ok? I wasn't going
that fast to begin with...) and blipped over the edge of the bar. As
soon as I landed, I *knew* my left ankle was broken...and possibly my
right one as well. I came to a stop, but when I put my left foot out
it wouldn't bear my weight so I fell over. Eric was right behind me
and saw me land, and there were 3 club members standing alongside the
trail that saw me land, too. None of them could believe that I could
possibly break my ankle in that situation. I tried to wait it out,
hoping that maybe it was just stinging from impact and that I'd be ok
in a few minutes. It was not to be. My right ankle started behaving,
though, so that was good news. I sent Eric on his way and the club
members stopped traffic so I could ride back down the hill. They
escorted me back to camp, even riding alongside and shifting up for me
when I was unable to do it myself. It was probably 10 miles or so back
to camp.

I wanted to wait for Eric to finish the ride so he could take me to
the hospital, but the NMP guy came to check out my ankle and suggested
very strongly that I go right away. He had to cut my boot off, even
though I tried valiantly to save it. It just wasn't going to happen.
He even had to cut off my sock. Turns out Kyra, the gal that I had
recognized earlier, was already loaded up in a truck on the way to the
hospital so I went with her. We caused a stir in the Mad River
Community Hospital, that's for sure. They were calling us the Danger
Twins and folks were coming from other departments to see the dirt-
riding chicks in the ER. She ended up breaking one bone in her right
ankle (the smaller of the 2...the fibula?) and I hit the grand prize
with multiple fractures of 3 bones in my left. Basically the big bone
is shattered on the bottom. They kept using words like "serious"
"significant" and "traumatic" and they wanted to transfer me to the
hospital in Eureka for immediate surgery but I opted for returning
home and letting Berkeley Ortho (my home away from home for awhile
there) take care of me.

It was a long night and an even longer day the next day. They gave me
Vicodin which makes me puke...as if having a broken ankle isn't bad
enough. Eric found some Ultram that was left over from my last ACL
job, so that made things a little better, but I still was surprised at
the level of pain I was experiencing. I consider myself to be fairly
tough, but this was totally kicking my ass. Anyway, I puked all the
way home Sunday afternoon and was totally miserable.

Monday morning comes around and I make an appointment with the ankle
guy at Berkeley Ortho. He took one look at my x-rays and said he was
out of his league. He said I needed a trauma surgeon. He found me one
right away (head honcho of the ortho department at Alta Bates) and I
am going to get patched up at 6pm tonight. The guy wrote me a `scrip
for Percocet and now things don't seem so bad. I got some decent sleep
last night, and imagine that will be the case for the next 6 weeks
while I am off work.

I'm disappointed beyond words. I missed out on some of the best riding
I'll ever get the opportunity to experience (although I have a free
pass for next year, and was told I was more than welcome to come ride
with them any time) I'm missing out on a killer DS ride next weekend,
and of course I'm not going to be riding the Clearwater come the end
of July. I thought maybe I could do the careful streetbike thing like
I did in `05 at Yankee Fork, but no weightbearing for 4-6 weeks put
the screws to that idea. I'm not looking forward to missing 6 more
weeks of work, either. I just want this year to be over.

Can't say enough about the Far West Motorcycle Club personnel. They
were very pleasant, very accommodating and very helpful. They all came
by several times making sure I was ok and not in need of anything.
Very nice folks, and I'm looking forward to riding with them again
next year.

As for Eric, on Saturday he finished the first 2 loops in time to earn
a shot at the 3rd loop and he took advantage of it. He finished the
1st day with slightly over 100 miles. They didn't offer the 3rd loop
on Sunday but he got his money's worth with 80 more miles. He said
every one of `em was perfect, too <G>

Tami-

Posted by SloCalSpode on July 1, 2008, 2:53 pm

Please tell me this is some (OLD) post that got lost in
cyberspace for the last few years!!!!!
Damn Tami, I am so sorry to hear about your latest injury.
Crapp this is going to screw up a full summer of riding for
you.
I wish you the best for a FULL & SPEEDY recovery.
And I was looking forward to trying to talk you guys into
meeting up with Bets and I @ the MotoGP races in a
couple weeks too.....Damn.
Get well soooooonnnnn PLEASE!!!!
Take care, Jeff...... Fellow castigenerian...spode.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
WoodsChick wrote:

> As some of you may know,<SNIP>

> Tami-

Posted by oldfart on July 1, 2008, 2:56 pm

Sorry to hear you are wounded again Tami. Here's hoping you heal again
fast so you can send us more ride reports. What kind of boot was that
that got cut off? OF

Posted by Tiago Rocha on July 1, 2008, 3:12 pm

Heal fast Tami! Hope your pain goes away fast!

next time bring the bubble wrap! :-)

-- Tiago

Posted by john on July 1, 2008, 3:29 pm

ouch

"WoodsChick" <T

> As some of you may know, I was lucky enough to score an invitation to

> the Big Boot Trail Ride this year. It used to be a 2-day enduro up

> until the early 90's, the kind of enduro that would be lucky to have 5

> finishers, but now it is an invitation-only 2-day ride and is one of

> the BRC's biggest fundraisers. Anyway, it pays to post ride reports

> with lots of photos on other websites, as this is how I earned my

> invite<G>

> Tami-

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