Mental pain week...turns physical

So....this week really sucked. We had major problems with our email server in which I had to fix (and I'm not an Exchange admin)...So I ended up working almost 60 hours in the last 4 days, so I was able to take today off. The weather was perfect - mid 60s and no humidity. Add the rain from the day before to the mix (no sandy spots!) and you couldn't have had a better day.

Ryan and I met at around 1pm at Boyette and headed out. We decided that we were going to do some of the trails we don't normally do just for some variety. We took the fire road in and took the creek crossing side (we always turn left and go up Loch Ness and around). The creek level was pretty low (and we could see the concrete pavers under the water) so we forded it. It should be noted that this crossing can be really really bad or nearly dry. From here we hung a left and headed down Inner Loch Ness (I personally cleaned and trimmed this trail last week, so I had to ride it). We could already tell it was a bit slick out here - the pine needles and leaves were still wet from yesterdays rains. From here we took the West Meadow Trail to Randy's trail, to Spider Berm. From Spider Berm we went over to Golf Cart where we both almost went off the side of the trail (Nevegal tires will go where ever you point them, including right over the edge of the trail!!). Thankfully at this point neither of us actually did. After Spider Berm we headed over to Pandemonium to SideWinder. At this point we decided we wanted to go ride Garry's loop, so we took the shortcut via the fire roads.

And then I found the PAIN TRAIN.

Up until this point, the ride had been fantastic. We rolled up and took a look at the drop in (about 15 feet down, at a fairly steep angle). I moved back a few feet to drop in and didnt like the approach. I rode around a bit to get the angle right and then I caught a branch in my rear derailler. At this point I should have known to just skip it. I didn't.

From what I can tell, I dropped in and somewhere about 8-10 feet down I found myself too close to the wall of limestone and a small tree on the right side of the trail (probably because I didnt want to go off the left side which puts you into an alligator infested lake) at any rate my shoulder either found the tree or the limestone, as did my knees and sections of my right arm. Ryan made his way down to see if I was ok. After regaining my witts and making sure nothing felt broken we both looked at my bike. Something seemed amiss. It appears that during the fall, that the quick release sheared off. I did find the parts, Ryan carried those back up and I brought the bike up.

We were able to get the quick release to hold enough tension to let me ride the bike back out of the park (just a leasurely 4 miles back!).

Ironically I was familiar with the fire roads because just last week we rode these in trucks when we were doing trail maintenance.

After I got home, I cleaned up and put ice on my knee and bacitricin on the scrapes...

Shoulder:




Arm:

Right leg:

Ride Stats and Maps:

Started: Nov 5, 2010 12:55:09 PM
Ride Time: 1:11:47
Stopped Time: 47:16
Distance: 10.84 miles
Average: 9.06 miles/h
Fastest Speed: 14.54 miles/h
Climb: 34 feet
Calories: 578


View Larger Map