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07-19-03, 07:26 PM
This past week I took a tour of the Rails to Trails bike trails in Pa. and Maryland. On Monday and Tues. we enjoyed the trail at OhioPyle state park, managed 57 miles on my mtn bike, then on Wed rode the York Heritage Trail in Pa.
Thursday we rode the North Central Trail in Maryland. This trail surface is described as "finely crushed gravel or stone" It's 20 miles in length so we did a loop to give us 40mi. Before lunch we rode 26 mi and did another 14 (7 mi loop) after lunch.
Well, that 7 miles was uphill, it was mostly in the sun and hot. So on the return (downhill) I was having a blast, cruising around 16 mph when all of a sudden my bike stopped and I went flying over the handlebars.
I landed mostly on my left side and I had 2 huge holes in my left arm, I had blood to my wrist, my right leg was so bruised I could barely walk and I had road rash on the top of both thighs. I also have a badly bruised,with road rash, left hip and bruised ribs.
A rider who was following me helped put me back together and then chastised me for "riding to fast and having too much air in my tires" I was wearing a helmet, he was not. But I do thank him for cleaning me up and calming me down.
My SO rode back and walked my bike to the nearest parking lot. While I waited for him to bring the car I sat and cried.
Then I spent about five hours in the emergency room at York, Pa hospital. They X-Rayed my left arm and found a stone embedded under my skin, nothing broken. My arm was irrigated until this stone and a few smaller ones came loose. The stone was about a 1/4" long and about 1/8" wide! The Dr. didn't want to stitch the wounds because he was afraid of infection. He was very understanding of my situation, he was a cyclist!
The only real pain I am suffering is from my left elbow. It's very swollen, red, tender to the touch and I can't raise my arm or straighten it. I've been icing it but so far it's not helping. Monday I will contact my PCP and see what he says.
I was only 3 miles from the car and had 198 miles of riding for the week. I couldn't find any damage to the bike except for a very long and deep ding in the rim of the front wheel.
I can laugh about it now, at least the accident occurred at the end of the week, we were coming home today (Sat).
Kathi
Thursday we rode the North Central Trail in Maryland. This trail surface is described as "finely crushed gravel or stone" It's 20 miles in length so we did a loop to give us 40mi. Before lunch we rode 26 mi and did another 14 (7 mi loop) after lunch.
Well, that 7 miles was uphill, it was mostly in the sun and hot. So on the return (downhill) I was having a blast, cruising around 16 mph when all of a sudden my bike stopped and I went flying over the handlebars.
I landed mostly on my left side and I had 2 huge holes in my left arm, I had blood to my wrist, my right leg was so bruised I could barely walk and I had road rash on the top of both thighs. I also have a badly bruised,with road rash, left hip and bruised ribs.
A rider who was following me helped put me back together and then chastised me for "riding to fast and having too much air in my tires" I was wearing a helmet, he was not. But I do thank him for cleaning me up and calming me down.
My SO rode back and walked my bike to the nearest parking lot. While I waited for him to bring the car I sat and cried.
Then I spent about five hours in the emergency room at York, Pa hospital. They X-Rayed my left arm and found a stone embedded under my skin, nothing broken. My arm was irrigated until this stone and a few smaller ones came loose. The stone was about a 1/4" long and about 1/8" wide! The Dr. didn't want to stitch the wounds because he was afraid of infection. He was very understanding of my situation, he was a cyclist!
The only real pain I am suffering is from my left elbow. It's very swollen, red, tender to the touch and I can't raise my arm or straighten it. I've been icing it but so far it's not helping. Monday I will contact my PCP and see what he says.
I was only 3 miles from the car and had 198 miles of riding for the week. I couldn't find any damage to the bike except for a very long and deep ding in the rim of the front wheel.
I can laugh about it now, at least the accident occurred at the end of the week, we were coming home today (Sat).
Kathi