Image: This shot was taken about 20 minutes after the crash. My "war paint" had already dried on my face. Credit: Brian Cannon.Well, upon being back in country less than 24 hours, I decided to go mountain biking down in Sedona. It was the last chance I was going to have to go for a spin with one of my good buddies, Brian Cannon. He and his fiance, Ellie, were moving to Oregon the next week.
Oddly enough, I'm sitting in my kitchen right before Brian was to arrive to pick me up, and I thought to myself, "I'm really beat, I should probably bag on mountain biking in Sedona."
Well, I didn't and less than 15 minutes into the ride, I had my biggest crash on a mountain bike. I went down a hill that I had successfully cleaned at least three times in the past. This time, I hit rock, my front tire seized and I went over the bars. My face broke my fall. I must admit, it didn't feel too good.
My buddy Dustin was also with us. He is an EMT and he rushed to me, picked me up, and leaned me up against a rock. And he began to look me over. My face was covered in blood, I had rather large diggers on both knees and I had a rather large gash on my right collar bone.
After the impact, I was in pretty good pain for about one to two minutes, then I stood up and proclaimed, "I'm okay." I then closed my mouth to exhale out of my nose. When I did that, I blew blood bubbles through the gash underneath my nose. Both Dusty and Brian looked and me and said, "NO! You're not alright."
Well, this meant I was going to the hospital for stitches. It took 13 under the nose to sew me up.
I felt really bad that I blew the MTB trip for my buddies. But we all realize that when we do these sorts of activities, we're at risk of getting hurt. In so doing, we all recognize that we are there for each other, and that if one of us gets hurt we do everything we can to get that person back to safety. My buddies really took care me on this day. I really appreciate everything they did for me.
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