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Posted by Mike Baxter on July 1, 2008, 3:45 pm
I wish i could loan you an ankle as easily as I can loan you a bike.
So, what kind of activities can a gimpy one-legged WoodsChick do to
sustain 6 weeks+ off bikes?
Mike Baxter
On Tue, 1 Jul 2008 11:28:34 -0700 (PDT), WoodsChick
>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-
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