Early Season Battle Scars
April 22, 2008 by ojulius
Got in a great mountain bike ride with Sue. Lots of fun in the Horse Gulch/Telegraph Trail system. There were quite a few people out, but still not overly crowded on the trails yet. 
I had a great time out on the trails, except for 2 minor incidents…okay, and I should preface this discussion with the admission of one of my shortcomings. I am a klutz. I trip over things, drop things, and am overall accident-prone. Beginning of the mountain bike season is the worst, and I managed to prove that this has not yet changed…
Battle Scar 1 (and I don’t think this was totally my fault!)
While riding a slight descent at a relatively fast pace, I managed to get a branch in the rear wheel. No rear derailleur damage, thank goodness, but I managed to do a really nice over the bar maneuver that landed me directly on my chin. I’ve got a nice bluish-purple bruise now, and luckily most of it is on the underside of the chin, so you can’t see it well if you are looking at me head-on. This was a fortunate crash, as I’m currently on business travel and was delivered a presentation to a large group of people today. Had I had the unsightly bruise just a little higher up, I would have looked like a battered wife (poor Matt, he gets blamed for my klutziness).
Battle Scar 2
So I picked myself up, and continued on the ride, relatively unshaken after I realized my teeth were still in my head and nothing was broken or bleeding. Sue and I continued on our fun adventure and WHACK! I ran into a tree limb sticking out into the trail. Caught it really well on the right, upper part of my arm. This left a nice flesh wound about 4″ x 3″ in size. At least I’m wearing long sleeves to cover that. 
So, to wrap up a most excellent ride, Matt had dinner for 3 ready to go back at the house! Sue, Sophie and Uma (her furry pals) came over to the house and we had chicken on the grill, baked potatoes, and salad…mmmmmm!!!! What a great after-ride treat!
I’m now in Idaho Falls, ID. That’s all I have to say about that…
Can’t wait to get home!!!
I’m married to a Klutz. I know exactly how that works. I’ve also been around when you did one of your moves (granted, a certain city had a lot to do with that stunt as well).
Glad the flesh wounds weren’t worse then they were. Get the falls out of the way now so you can have fun later.
Ouch! At least you didn’t hit your chin harder - my Mom did that once and had to get stitches.
Luckily you bruised lower so that you didn’t look all scraped up for your presentation!
Ooh, Idaho Falls, sounds ex-ci-ting… *insert sarcasm here*
You da what?
Oh, I had Flagstaff flashbacks like you wouldn’t believe when I first hit the ground. My first check was whether the teeth were still where they were supposed to be.
You da ho, Matt.