Dash Biking: A Crash Course

(click here to skip the history and go straight to Big Bear Break Weekend)

(click on pictures to enbiggen)

Never did much riding here at home.  The road out front is at 8% grade with lots of high speed traffic.  Everywhere else (bay) is completely flat.

Learned to Ride Grandma and Grandpa's in Elk Rapids, MI in Aug 2008.  Gentle inclines.

Moab, Utah, Thanksgiving 2012 - Dash's First "Real" Trail Adventure

This was Dash's first non-local trail - an amazingly beautiful place.  (full trip details: Utah 2012)

Big Bear - Turtle Trail

this is the Trail that Dash crashed on (well, we ALL crash on it, but this is where Dash won the Worst Injury title from the group).  We all ride this much, much faster now.

Mammoth Tiny Crash (Tree Bump Dash POV 360-degree camera)

We've said for a while that Dash rides like he hasn't had a big fall, but, in fact, he's had more than one.

Big Bear Weekend - August 2018

Our annual trip with the Baby Bunch (no longer babies).

Friday started normally.

My streak of two consecutive days of having to go get work done on my brakes got extended to three days.  This time, though, I had to go to Riverside to get brake pads.  After a single ride down.  6 hour round trip.

In my absence, Dash only got one additional run in.  Apparently he "dodged a squirrel" on Going Green and wound up down the face of the mountain a bit.  Hurt enough where he didn't ride again that day.  He does tend to fall on the downhill side of a traverse rather than the uphill side.  Blame the chipmunk this time.

Saturday started off well.  We all go a bunch of rides in.  "Dude, you are going fast and rocks are hard". x 1000.

Turtle Trail is a fun one: Intermediate, not particularly technical, but built for speed.  Lots of banked back-to-back switch backs.  Steep.  You can take it really fast.  Positioning and good lines are key.  And speed control.

This was Dash's last run of the day, though he was considering going on Fall Line with me.  It's one of my favorites, a technical single-track through the trees with lots of technical, debris. You take it slow with one brake always on, the other feathering a lot.  You will fall off the bike, but you're going slow.

As usual, Dash was bombing down the hill, like he always does. 

I was behind him.  There are a couple of hard downhills that traverse the ski runs and then kind of half-pipe edge into the trees.  They turn from a traverse downhill to a short uphill and then dive straight down for a short run (speed is picked up quickly) before turning hard to the right and up.  Because of the last turn turns up hard, you tend to want to carry speed into the turn.  Generally, there is enough bank to stay on the trail with the high speed. As can be expected, the track there is rutted and uneven.

We've all done Turtle Trail quite a bit.  Which means you push to do it faster.

This screen capture is from the crest.  It's downhill to where the trail slips out of sight to the right.  You can see a rider where you have to brake hard.  That little gap between the trees to that rider's right is where Dash shot through pretty much fully-laid out horizontally, flying sideways. I was a little closer to him.

Dash had a lot of speed and jammed on the brakes, the tires didn't really catch and he couldn't maintain a hard brake.  He had too much speed and ran out of bank.  The bike rode over the edge and, of course, stopped/rotated. 

This is about where his tires topped the lip.  Note that the bike and trail are banked about 40 degrees. The tree gap he flew to/through is pretty much directly below the rider's left hand. He left the bike pretty much horizontally, amazingly in the only gap between the trees.

 I watched him hit and roll (not tumble) thinking "no sudden stop, a gradual stop, he's probably okay".  I was braking the moment I saw him in trouble, but my speed carried my through the turn to the uphill.  I tossed my bike to the inside of the trail (out of the way) and ran down to him. 

This is the view from the bottom (after the crash)

This as about how I found him.  Maybe, he's fine. He was stumbling uphill saying "I'll never complain about wearing gear again..."

I told him to sit down.

While trees weren't a problem, there's a drainage pipes and a bunch of rocks.

We sat there for about 10 minutes for him to gather his wits.  "What hurts?"  "Everything.  But my arm in particular".  He was cradling it.  "Everything is black and white and I can't see things very far.  I can't see beyond that tree."  "Take it easy. Let's rest, take our time."  Gradually color came back and he described how far out he could see.  "I can see the lake now." 

I sent texts to the group.  Leigh was off by herself (I didn't know this (she didn't have a phone with her)).

His arm hurt.  We weren't sure how bad.  He took great care not to move it.  We knew we weren't riding down, for sure.  After a while we decide we were going to walk down (we were 2/3 of the way up).  Find a fire road.

At this point I took some pictures of the trail and the impact area.

We started walking, but it became clear that Dash's arm was still causing him a LOT of pain.  We weren't going to be able to walk.  "Shall I call the Ski Patrol?  Get a ride?"  Yes.  By the way, he never cried (only a single tear at one point).

After what seemed like 20 minutes, Sergio arrived in a truck.  He examined Dash's arm and said "I put a lot of pressure on it, he didn't seem to be in too much pain. It might be just a bad bruise."

After what seemed like 20 minutes, Sergio arrived in a truck.    He examined Dash's arm and said "I put a lot of pressure on it, he didn't seem to be in too much pain. It might be just a bad bruise."

We get Dash in the truck and his bike on the rack of the truck and I head down on my bike.

Sergio had already said he needed to pick up a second injured rider, but I found him a third.  A guy in his 50s apparently went over his handlebars and was dazed.  I, now an expert, flagged down Sergio and load the new guy and his bike.  The third rider was way down at the bottom.  A merry little band in that truck, I'm sure.

As the truck was unloading at First Aid, Leigh was passing it and was quite surprised to see Dash there, all slinged up.

An evaluation inside suggested that Dash should go get an X-Ray. 

After checking out the Urgent Care at the base of the mount (skip Ambulance Chasing altogether, let them just tumble in the door!), we went to the nearby hospital Emergency Room.

Followed by the Annual Kid Group Shot

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