Weekend

Shoulder, chest, and back are progressing pretty well. I've been both fired up and really hesitant to get out on the KTM but finally forced myself to head out yesterday. There are a couple of types of rides I can do around here: North desert riding, which is open and seemingly more mellow, though the "mellowness" seems to attract speed and that makes it just as dangerous as technical riding. The other option is the canyon riding, the closest to me are Billings Canyon and Bangs Canyon (and all the connecting riding between and around them). In my mind I prefer the technical riding on the dirt bike, which is odd because on a mountain bike I prefer more flowing and fast single track (fascinating stuff, I know). Anyway, I decided to venture out to the tech trails and figured if I wore enough protective gear, I'd be fine. So, in my little storm trooper outfit, I hit Third Flats and rode to Horse Mesa and then beyond that heading south (not sure of the names of it).

About mid-ride. Perfect day.

After about 90 minutes I felt like turning around (not knowing what the range really is on a tank of gas yet). I'm not sure whether it's all the years of road riding on motorcycles or watching an unhealthy amount of enduro and supercross racing lately but this ride was clicking for me. I was cruising over fairly technical (for me) terrain at 25-30mph and felt smooth and in control, even hitting a couple little jumps here and there.

Climbing back up from the Colorado River is a fairly steep rutted jeep "road" with rock ledges and steps. So, with visions of Graham Jarvis scaling 10 foot rock walls, I thought I'd try to jump up onto one of the bigger ledges near the top of the climb. I should add in that the power of the 450 is immense, like a giant, hairy monster. A sharp twist of the throttle and the bike leaped out from under me, popped up onto the top of the ledge on the back wheel, which caused me to further grab more handful of throttle and the bike and I wheelied like a rocket askew towards the cliff wall on my left. The front wheel hit a boulder and the whole bike (and I) did a back flip onto the side of the wall, in the process, knocking loose a boulder the size of a lazyboy chair. I finally popped off the bike and it came down on me upside down with the boulder stopping its movement as it slid to meet my arm and side.

Frankly, I was half amused, half in pain (knee that got whacked), and half worried about the bike (yeah, three halves - it was a big crash). After dancing around for a minute and inspecting my knee cap, I got the bike back upright - the smell of spilling gas all over the place - the sounds of the steaming radiator clicking - and the heavy silence of the remote canyon. It was a little surreal for a minute. Usually, I would jump up and start doing whatever activity I was doing before the mishap but thought better of it with the motor bike under me (I've crashed on the road at 50mph and was too shaken to ride safely right afterwards, so I learned my lesson way back then). So I took a few minutes to settle down, looked, amusingly, at the giant boulder now resting in the middle of the trail, looked over the damage (just a bunch of scratches on the plastic parts - fender, radiator shroud, etc.), took a few deep breaths, and started back on home.

Just some scrapes on the biceps (the only thing without body armor) and a little knot on the knee.

I was pretty fortunate, really. It could've been a lot worse (like I could've easily shot off to the right instead of left, which would've sent me over the cliff and down about 50+ft). Lesson learned and no worse for wear. I'm sure there are people who are like, "Man, you're an idiot, getting hurt on your MTB and now pushing it on your dirt bike." And they may be a little correct. But I've never lived cautiously and feel that I have more fun and learn more from pushing things to the tipping point (and over sometimes). It's like learning anything: practice the things you can't do and not the ones you can easily do. Hopefully, I'll live through to make the things I can't do into the things I can. :-)