My Mountain Trail

Foggy, Even for Bolinas Ridge

On Monday, while riding down the mountain from the lookout, I crashed my mountain bike.  There is a gate at the top of the fire road leading down to our house (Railroad Grade) with a small chicane on the side for bike passage.  I had about 30 pounds of binoculars, camera, clothes, books, computer, etc. in my backpack, and underestimated the distance needed to slow down. 

My hot entry into the chicane started out okay, but then my handlebar clipped the post on the left, and my back tire slipped out.  From there, I was all arms, legs, and backpack going everywhere; mostly though, going into the big rock on the right.  While all this was in progress, I was thinking how there hadn’t been a bike accident call on the emergency radio all day.  Just as I thought I would hit my head, I even thought “Maybe I will get a ride in a helicopter” since they always launch a helicopter for head injury bike crashes. 

Turns out I didn’t hit my head and I could even stand up.  Though I had abrasions, contusions, and a severe injury to me ego, I seemed to be okay.  The bike wasn’t even damaged (sorry for taking so long to tell you).  So, I got back on and painfully, slowly rode my way down to the Throckmorton fire station to drop off the lookout key.  They hadn’t had a single call all day and I was happy they hadn’t had to come up and rescue me.  That just wouldn’t have looked good for the lookouts.

Anway, that made Tuesday a day off from exercise.  Yesterday I briefly thought about riding to work, but was still pretty sore and it was windy, cold, and very foggy.  I decided I would ride when I got home from work when the fog had cleared and it was a warm, sunny evening. 

No dice though.  As you can see, the fog stuck to Bolinas Ridge for the day (it is usually clear by 11 a.m.) and I got to ride in the wet and cold after all.  I was still a bit sore, but actually felt pretty good by the end of the ride.  I even had thoughts about OKFree next year — probably still a bit adled from the crash.

These thistles were along Ridgcrest on the Bolinas Ridge.  I’ve been trying to get myself to stop and photograph them for a month or so, and yesterday was the day.  They actually look kind of interesting in the fog.  I’m glad they aren’t in my yard though.

That’s my sad story for the day.  I do have some good news though:  Lori is back on the bike.  She rode on Saturday for the first time and is cleared to start riding and running as her body allows.  She was a bit rusty, and maybe a little scared, but she did great.  Then, on Sunday she got out and rode w/ the Pacific Bicycle team for a couple of hours.  She was very tired after that, but still recovered pretty well.  She is on the road back, for sure.  Here is a picture from our ride on Saturday near Stinson Beach.

It’s better for me to ride behind her like this.  It’s harder to knock her down…  Right after I took this picture she took off and hammered back to the Jeep.  ‘Bout killed me.