Oh, look! Another quarter!

Last Fall, we had a trail work day and ride on the new mountain bike trails at Pace Bend Park. Near the end of the ride, Leif, the trail steward who was taking pictures, told us that he was going down to the "jump" at the end of the trail to take pictures. Never one to disappoint a photographer, I decided to try to "jump." I overachieved (from the photographer's point of view, not my own) when I landed on my front wheel and hit the ground hard, with my (thankfully helmeted) head.

Here's the photo that Leif got:
When Leif posted that photo to a local mountain bike forum, someone added the caption, "Oh, look! A quarter!"

So, fast forward to last week.

My first off-road night ride was last summer, with my friend Greg.

Oops. I guess we're making a slight detour...

As we were riding, I told him that I wasn't sure I wanted to do Severe Consequences (a trail with a bit of a scary steep, rooty descent) at night. The trail is not named for that descent, but for a sheer drop-off on the outside of one of the hairpin turns on the trail. I've never noticed the drop-off, but I'm told it's about 30 feet or so. The descent is one of those that is really fun, once you're at the bottom (and still on your bike), but, as I said before, scary.

A little bit later, we turned right, onto Severe Consequences.

"Um, Greg," I said, "I think this is Severe Consequences.

"Well, you said you weren't sure, so I made your decision for you," he replied.

I had no problem going down it that night, or on my next night ride out there.

Now, we're back to last Wednesday night when I was trying out my new awesome headlights, riding behind Michael and Iain. On this night, I had no qualms about going down Severe Consequences, so, of course, I endoed like I've never endoed before. Halfway down the descent, my front wheel stopped, but the rest of me didn't. I landed on the right side of my head and my right shoulder (why do I always fall to the right?). Michael was able to witness it, and said that it was quite spectacular. He and Iain quickly ran over to where I was, telling me to not move. My first words were, "Oh, look! Another quarter!"

The fall was fast and hard! It felt harder than my fall at Pace Bend last year, but my bell didn't get rung as badly.

My shoulder, however, was another question.

And that question was, "What does a broken shoulder feel like?"

After sitting for a few minutes, I was able to get up and ride the rest of the way out, to the parking lot, then home. There wasn't much pain when I was on the handlebars, but it hurt a bit to lift my bike. I could lift my right arm straight above my head, like I have to go to the bathroom, and swing it out from my side to about 20-30 degrees above horizontal, without too much pain. I didn't feel any strange bumps or hear any moving parts.

Later that night, I got ahold of Stanton, one of my teammates, and asked him about it. He thought that it was just a minor shoulder separation. John, another teammate, came by the next morning to look at it, and came to the same conclusion, so I didn't bother going to see a doctor.

It's been improving day by day, so I think I'll be alright. I hope to get back on the road bike this weekend, weather permitting.