Our ride this weekend started at the Bear Valley store and climbed up to the Silvertip campground. From there we went east a bit on a paved path to Slick Rock trail and eventually cut behind lake alpine. The trail behind Lake Alpine is really challenging in either direction with a lot of rocky challenges. If you are going east as we were you have to be insanely good at technical climbing to ride some of the sections. Fred was on his A-game getting up some really impressive grunts, me? I did Ok, but even on my best days I’d have been walking.

Cap Horn Trail comes in at the campground at the east end of Lake Alpine and most people either shuttle it or pedal up the road and ride down it. We chose to climb it. The climb up to Cape Horn is strenuous, even more so on the trail and there are a few challenging climbs where it’s steep and a bit loose. We took it easy and slow pedaled up to to Cape and took a munchy break near the lookout.

From the lookout there is an optional extension to add about 1.5 miles to the top. I don’t care for the extension but if you are interested they can tell you how to find it at the bike shop.

Heading down from Cape Horn is a fast challenging downhill. It’s not quite a black diamond trail but if you take it at speed it’s close. Maximum grin factor on the downhill. Even beginning riders can enjoy Cape Horn Trail but for stronger riders it’s a blazing fast grin-fest.

From the bottom of Cape Horn we cut across to Alpine Trail. At this point I was blown up. I haven’t been riding enough lately so I was just done and even the small climbs I pushed. Alpine seems like it’s uphill in both directions but it’s a fun section of trail with lots of challenging rocky spots.

We finished the ride by climbing to Lower Ring Trail, Ring is a fast black diamond downhill with lots of rocky technical bits. In spite of my state of exhaustion I was grinning from ear to ear when we hit Powerline. After that it’s a short little spin over to the slabs which is a great finish for an awesome day of riding.

Overall… an amazing day of riding in a beautiful place. While you are in Bear Valley consider stopping by the bike shop, they are very active in maintaining the trails and you can usually get a lot of good trail advice and maps.

The Contact Form works again also so let me know if there are any problems.

Second trip, right after Christmas was a bit of house shopping. We’re seriously looking at getting a place in Oregon. Haven’t quite knocked out all the details but we’re trying to get as much cash together as we can to make a go at it. For now it’s likely to be a summer home or maybe even just a summer campsite ;) I did manage to get a nice ride in with Fiona on the Eugene bike trails which are very nice, comparable to the ones in Redding or Sacramento. Eugene is apparently a very bike friendly town which is quite encouraging. Finally on the last day up there I managed to wing a ride with the Disciples of Dirt and Randy from MBO on Larrison Creek trail. The weather report said rain most of the day but we were almost completely rain free. Overall a great trip, hopefully we’ll be able to get a bid in on one of the properties shortly.

My struggle with post recovery weight gain continues, I’m still about 15 pounds heavier than prior to my injury in June. All the travel and Christmas sort of bumped me back a bit but I’ve been riding more since getting back and while far from perfect my eating has been better. Hopefully come spring things will pick up.

My winter ride tip for everyone: If you can’t go where you want to ride, ride where you are.

I haven’t been able to get out much to ride so I’ve been doing a lot of local riding from the house. My suggestion is simple, find local close in routes you can hit on a moments notice. When you get bored jump on the bike.

Usually Ogre only enters a couple races a year at the most.  His primary race is the Coolest 24 hour race.  It’s a cancer fundraiser held on a trail system fairly close to home.  The promoter of this race puts on several others and  offered an entry in the Boggs 24 hour.  Ogre chose to enter in the solo 24 hour category, a first for him, having raced in the past on teams.  I would be the team support, making sure he ate, slept, hydrated at the base camp.  He would suffer through the riding.  His plan was to ride like an adventure racer, push himself, but not over-do-it and to take breaks to recover as needed.  I was more concerned that he maintain his eating regiment as this had been a problem in past races.

We arrived at Boggs and found some friends that were also racing.  Collette was going to race the 8 hour option and then become team support while Al and several other guys were joining Ogre in the 24 hour race.

The race started at noon.  Weather was just about perfect for racing, not too hot or too cold.  The trails were a little too loose and dusty, but not impossible.   Everyone came in from their first lap looking good.  This was going to be an exciting 24 hours.  I helped everyone get what they needed at camp and back out onto the course, then settled into wait for the next lap.

While I waited for Ogre to return to the start/finish line for lap 2, I heard the dreaded news that a rider had crashed in the race.  I was already a little antsy because he was running behind on his second lap.  I decided either he had stopped to help the rider down or had slowed down.   A friend, Tim, who was watching the race with me echoed these same thoughts.  Then it just hit me, “No, that’s Ogre down.”  I was convinced that I was just over reacting. He was always careful and a strong rider.  It wouldn’t be him.  Then one after another racer came in with more news.  Several people who knew me and Ogre relayed that my fears were real.  He had gone down about a mile from the end of the lap.  He was in good spirits, but wasn’t able to move.  They had heard he had broke his leg or hip.  The promoter had already started sending out a team to help.   I headed back to start breaking down and packing up camp.  I needed to do something and if Ogre was hurt where he couldn’t get himself out, it meant the race was done.  Tim helped me get the camp taken care of while we waited for news.  He recommended that I drive down to the heliport and wait for the ambulance.  The guys from the race would be taking Ogre there and then he’d be transferred to the ambulance or helicopter for transport to a local hospital.

A painfully long wait later, the ambulance arrived and joined me in waiting for Ogre to be brought down.  What was taking so long, I kept wondering.  Turns out that he had to be carried off the trail by four guys with a backboard, loading into the bed of a pick up, and then, slow to minimalize jostling, driven down to where I was waiting.   When he finally showed up, he was obviously hurting, but still in pretty good spirits.  The EMTs checked him over quickly and moved him into the ambulance.   It was now between 4 and 5 pm I think.  After the ambulance left, I headed back to the camp to grab the rest of the gear.  Tim had finished packing everything while I was at the heliport.

As a local, Tim knew where the hospital was and offered to accompany me.  I’m glad I took him up on the offer.  It was 6 pm by the time we got to the hospital and Ogre had just gotten back from being examined and xrays.   The xray technician called me over to show me the pictures on his monitor.  I still vividly hear his description “splinters”.   I had to decide whether they would operate or prep for transport to a hospital at home.  It seemed obvious.  How soon can you get him into surgery?  Well, as chance would have it, they had already called in the doctor for another patient and caught him before he left again.  At nine they rolled him into what was not going to be an easy operation, telling Tim and I where we could wait.  The doctor had estimated the surgery taking about 2- 3 hours.  Just before midnight he came out to tell me that all had gone well and Ogre was on his way to his hospital room.  We found his room and checked to see how he was feeling.  Loopy on the pain medicine it turned out.  The doctor and nurses were all very professional and it was obvious that they dealt with this kind of thing all the time.  Before we left they had him hooked up to a morphine drip and as comfortable as can be in the circumstances.

The next day we headed back to the hospital.  What a way to spend Father’s Day, cooped up in a hospital, recovering from surgery for a broken hip.  I expected to find him lying in bed, still loopy.  He had talked the nurses into letting him roll around in a wheelchair.   So much for lying around.  I think having his laptop and iPod are what helped him not go stir crazy.

Monday the doctor was willing to allow Ogre to check out.  Since he had managed to get himself in and out of bed alone, he didn’t need to stay.  Now for the hard part, a 2+ hour drive home.  I propped pillows under his hip and foot and tried to miss every bump.   It must have been horrible, but he hardly complained.  We had to adapt things around the house so that he could move about.

The weirdest part of the whole thing was having to be calm and tell everyone else what was happening.  Friends had already spread the word that Ogre had been hurt and while he was in surgery, I started fielding phone calls from friends and family.  I wouldn’t want to go through something like this ever again, but having to watch the look of despair on his face when he was told he could ride a bike for at least 6 months and being there just a couple months later when he first pedaled again meant a great deal to me.   It is amazing how much power is in the human will.

KCRA has some pretty decent video footage of the fire and thread on MTBR where a few of the locals have seen the damage a lot more first hand than I have.

Looks like it’s going to be another rough fire year for Norcal.

The other big concern is weaning myself off the pain meds. It feels like right now beyond being tired a lot during the day I’m not seeing a lot of side effects any more. More important, my alertness and focus is nearly back to normal so I can get back to work and some of my non-cycling hobbies.

On Friday Char and I changed out the bandages ourselves. I’m not exactly sure what’s going on with the home health situation but we can certainly do a comparable job to the clown they sent out here before so until I get someone else arranged we’re going to take care of that end of things and just keep an eye out for anything unusual. The staples should be removed on Friday which means the cut should be mostly healed by then.

What is also frustrating is that I seemed more mobile and functional the days right after I left the hospital. I’m not sure why that is. Hopefully, I didn’t over-do it in those days and cause some secondary damage. I had a home health nurse in, but IMO he was completely incompetent.  I don’t much trust his judgment, so I didn’t ask him for any advice. We are working to get a replacement home health service, but my doctor is having trouble finding one that takes our insurance. At this point, I think I’d have been better off staying in the hospital for 2-3 more days.

I gotta say I feel really loved right now. All my friends have been super helpful and even some folks who just randomly follow my blog have been offering support. To those who have offered, THANK YOU. I’m trying to figure out how I can leverage all these offers into getting my house repainted, a chore I’ve been putting off for 3 years but I just don’t see that happening ;)

Anyhow, today seems slightly better than the last couple. Hopefully, it will continue to improve. It looks like no home health for today, so I guess Char and I are going to be changing my bandages tonight.

The second lap was more fun than the first. Folks were spread out and I was rolling at a good pace and chatting with other racers. Nearing the end of the lap, there is a long climb then a really fun section of singletrack. It’s not very challenging, in fact I often recommend it for beginning riders. It’s called Gail’s trail. Primarily just fast, smooth rolling trail with occasional easy to avoid rocks or trees. The only tricky bit about Gail’s trail is the fact that the edges are soft and covered with slippery pine needles. I was cruising down Gail’s at a good clip, really enjoying myself. I’d just passed someone and the fun meter was set to about 8, then my front wheel found those pine needles.

A couple of riders caught up to me almost immediately. I was alert and didn’t feel too bad. One says “Hold on, make sure everything is ok before you try and get up.” The thing is he didn’t have to say it. I knew I couldn’t move… I tried to move my leg, but my body rebelled. Even as my brain sent its little messages to my leg, it refused to cooperate. There was a little pain then but it wasn’t bad, sort of a dull throb, but nothing telling me how bad things were.

My bike was sort of wedged awkwardly between my legs. “Can you move my bike please?”

Someone moved my bike and I tried to work out what I needed to do to get off that blissfully fun/ fast section of trail where riders were showing up by the minute at high speed… I tried some things, scootching a little but my leg had greater wisdom than my brain and it refused to cooperate.

“Are you ok? Should we tell them to send an EMT up?”

Hesitantly, because I’m still thinking I might be able to finish the day. “Yeah, I think the EMT is a good idea.”

Right about then Collette rolled up. I’ve been friends with Collette and her boyfriend Alan for about 7 years now. We don’t ride together often enough, but I consider them really good friends and for this particular race we shared a camp site. Collette has also spent a lot of time as a physician in the emergency room. I don’t recall exactly what she said but she asked me a couple questions and she looked me in the eye and said “You broke your hip.”

For the next 45 minutes, I lay sprawled across the race course, riders rolling up, many of them skidding to a stop. Collette and another campsite buddy Matt waving their arms stopping people from rolling right over the top of me. I’ve been in the mountain biking community long enough that I recognized many of them. Heck, I joked with them. What do you say when someone says “Are you Ok?” when I’m 3MM from pure agony.

The EMT along with Jim Northey, the race promoter show up and they assess the situation. I’m right smack in the middle of a long section of singletrack. It’s too tight to get a quad in safely and there is no way they could walk me out so Jim arranges for a stretcher evac. After a little more waiting, my chariot arrives, a 6’ long piece of plastic, with the other EMT and a couple stretcher bearers… It took them another 45 minutes to an hour to get me to the truck.

A relatively short, bumpy ride down the dirt road in the back of a pickup. I get to the heliport where an ambulance awaits my extraction to the hospital.

The crash was around 2PM. By the time I arrived at the hospital, it was some time around 6:30PM. I want to thank everyone involved in extracting me from the scene. Everyone was professional and tolerant of my tasteless humor and occasional ribbing. The EMT who shared the ride with me also happened to be a mountain biker which I thought was cool.

By the time I was at the hospital, the more or less non-stop jossling had caught up with me. My leg was in pretty constant pain and I could no longer find that magic spot where the pain was minor. The ER doctor arrives shortly after I  do and asks me the same questions I’d answered a dozen times already.

The doctor pokes me a few places “does this hurt bad” and nods. He quickly disassembles the neck and back braces which held me in place as he checks each place for problems. Finally he gets to my hip. I don’t recall what he said but what followed was probably the single most physically painful event I had ever experienced in my life. I don’t think I blacked out…

“You have a broken hip.”

I was about speechless. It seemed a little excessive to me, but I’m not a doctor. “Are you sure it’s broken.” (I wasn’t thinking quite straight then, Ok?)

“Well, I don’t think it would hurt so much if it were anything else. But we’ll know for certain after the X-Ray.”

Some time later, after a few more of those very painful and traumatic moments, I am all X-rayed up and prepped for surgery. I don’t remember much about the surgery other than making a few jokes in the prep room and that one final “*****GAAAAAAAAHHHH!!******” instant of pain which the anesthesia didn’t cover. Then lights out.

When I woke up the difference was nearly miraculous… sure I was in nearly constant pain. My leg also had a few positions which caused me to nearly black out in pain. But somehow I could feel that things were better. The nursing staff were great and really tolerant of what had to be a horrible patient. However by Sunday afternoon I was able to get out of bed and use the little boys room all by myself.

I nearly floored the nursing staff when I got on a walker and managed to hobble down to the nursing station and asked to be pushed outside to enjoy the cool and sun for a bit. The rest of my day was spent pretty baked on a morphine derivative which was quite enjoyable.

Monday morning I got up early and stole a wheelchair. For some reason sleep escaped me. Counter to my normal routine, I was up and active at 5am. My goal was to get out of the hostpital that afternoon or maybe morning so I had the nurse pull my IV and give me a few Percoset. I rolled out the front door to the hospital and enjoyed a brisk sunrise over Clearlake.

... more to come.

No real ride report but perhaps once I’ve been there a few times I’ll put something together. We rode trail 25, about a 15 mile loop. I would suggest if you ride this place you do it soon or wait for another rain, it gets lots of moto traffic and turns to moondust early in the summer.