Since it was a long weekend, a few of us decided to take a Sunday ride. The consensus was to head north as it tends to be cooler up that way. We took the long way up to Espanola, from there its was on to Abiquiu for lunch. We stopped off at Bodie’s, the green chili cheese burgers there are awesome.
Our motley crew, this would be an all pavement ride. So most of us went on to hwy 64
The ride was stunning and we all had blast riding up that road. 64 is one of my favorite rides in the summer right behind the Mora to Black lake to Angel fire loop.
The next day I headed out to ride some Single Track with CJ, David & Drew. I was having a blast and cooking right along until I had my first wipe out. After that it kind of went down hill. It’s a recurring theme for me these days in the dirt. I do great until I have a spill. In this case I hit super hard, on my right shoulder. I wasn’t able to feel my arm for a couple of minutes. I was afraid that I had dislocated it again. That was so awful that I NEVER want to have to go through it again. I tried to move it, after CJ helped get the bike off me. I was face down with my right leg twisted under the bike. Another theme this day for me. I had a total of 6 falls and I ended up stuck under the bike 4 times. It was starting to tick me off, or maybe that was the pain in my right shoulder???
After the fifth tip over, CJ decided that he was done for the day and too tired to ride the single track back to the trucks. I decided to go with him. We hit the jump off for some two track that ran along the road, I asked him if he wanted to try that out. He opted to stay on the main road, as he didn’t want to work that hard or crash again. Thinking the road was the easier and safer way to get back….
Yeah. Right. That didn’t work out so well for either of us. It was much worse for me. We hit a section of the road that was about 12 inches deep with a fine powder. CJ hit it first, and I saw him cross over the road to the side I was on. I got a brief glimpse of him struggling to keep the bike upright. Then all I could see was dust. I hit the powder about that time, I caught sight of him again coming back in front of me. So I tried to move again. This time, I hit a sizable rut in the road that was buried under the fine powder/slit. I went down and slide for about 4 feet in that mess. By the time the dust settled enough that I could see CJ. He was off his bike and walking toward me. I had him stop and take a picture of this mess. I didn’t that anyone would believe us otherwise.
It’s hard to tell that the bike is red and white or that I’m wearing blue and white. I felt like pigpen from the Charlie Brown comics. Dust just bellowed off me with every movement for about a half hour. It was gross and took me forever to get the dirt down to the point where I could breath with the helmet on and not be taking in more dust than air.
Behind me in the dust you can see his path cross in front of mine, and than come back directly in front of me again. After that I didn’t feel so bad about him having to lift the bike off me again… LOL.
Earlier in the day I had bumped my arm into a cactus, it’s taken forever to get all the spines out. Not sure that I still have. Found this one the next day.
I also bent the hand guard again, this time I am pretty sure that I did it with my left leg. I had a bruise that was the same shape as the hand guard…. hum.