My First Bike Crash

I took a good long ride with my old work colleague today. We went out to my..used to be..favorite trail. The one that runs right along in front of the house and property we want to buy.

..hmm better start at the beginning. We started with lunch at a little local place called Maggie's Buns in Forest Grove. It is a really cool, real food kind of deli and bakery. I had a cup of fish chowder (another one of those used to hate and now love food items). It went down beautifully. I definitely recommend a cup of soup before a ride. I have had trouble on each of my previous rides after eating toast, oatmeal and even a yogurt...things just stuck above my stoma and would not go through.

After we drove up to the trail head and began our preparations for the ride. Because I had to work in the morning I wore my black stretch pants and a black mini dress thingy I have with an orange t-shirt underneath. I also wore my boots. When we got to the trail head parking I had to pee in the worst way and although in the summer there is a porta potty..in the Winter..no. I quickly sprinted over to a group of trees, pulled my commando stretch pants down (you do know your supposed to go commando when you wear bike pants right?) and had my first outside cop a squat pee in more than 15 years. Guess what?? It is totally easy when you are not fat anymore!!! I did a wall sit thing against the tree and the pee didn't get on my clothing or shoes at all!!!

I then went back to the car put on my bike shorts over my stretch pants (warmth for my legs), a balaclava (bank robber hat), my orange tshirt, a thermal underwear shirt and a big old red windbreaker with padding that has a big pouch for a front pocket. I then added my gloves and helmet and we were off.

The first 1/2 of the trail is a gentle incline for about 10 miles or so. I climbed away even though I have not been in a my bike in a couple of months. I got a bit winded a couple of times and had to get off once to give my jelly filled legs a break. Henry (my colleague) readjusted my seat as he thought it had dropped again after he readjusted it for me last time. It makes a HUGE different to have a properly adjusted seat!!

I decided to turn around after we hit the top of the trail as I wasn't sure I could make it back up the other side if we carried on. we turned around and started talking gears and pedaling and speed as we coasted down the hill we had just climbed. About a mile on i rounded a corner that was kind of blind and I was worried I would run into people coming up (it is a busy trail and was busy today). I veered to the right to avoid a pine cone on the trail and came just a little to close to the edge..it sloped away at an angle. The front wheel of my bike went to the right and I went to the left. I have three numb fingers on my right hand. an oozing bleeding thing on my right thumb, Two bruised knees, road rash covered left elbow and a big bump above my left eyebrow with a little scab. Oh and a pair of crooked glasses.

After I laid down on the ground for a bit mentally checking whether I had a concussion or had broken any bones i rolled up and Henry said...well get back on then I am not carrying you back to the car and we have a long way to go. I then moaned about the pain for a while. It then got cold and we both moaned about the cold. My three numb fingers began multiplying in the frigid wind. My crookedy glasses were fogging up and i was dripping blood from my thumb on my handlebars as I held on. I of course went really slow....and carefully went around further pine cones and oncoming people...we made it back to within sight of the car and both of us put on the gas a little. Before we could get to our parking lot we had one more wooden bridge to cross and guess what happened ....This time Henry's bike slipped across the bridge and i crashed into him landing back down on my knees (he swears it was his head that took my fall).

I came directly home, showered and laid on the couch until dinner...

Then guess what...because i had thrown my clothes all over the floor in my pain and hurry to shower we got a knock on the door. A couple wanted to look at the house. They did and as I type are making an offer on the thing (even though Graces room was a tip and my biking clothes were left in a heap on the floor)..Crazy eh?

xxxooo