Toils R US Trail

It was my first time in Gus Fruth Park.

With the family in CA, I had the entire morning to ride. I remember laying in bed having a hard time deciding whether I should sleep any extra couple of hours, or go ride...I should have gone back to sleep.

Half way down the hill, I fell (damn clips). I picked myself up, looked down and noticed my finger was pointed sideways, the wrong way like some sick broken twig. I PULLED MY FINGER OUT OF JOINT! My hand was out in front of me and but it was pointing back up at me accusingly: "You should have stayed in bed".

Next, I read somewhere (this was probably completely wrong but it seemed good at the time) that:

1. One should try to yank the appendage back into socket immediately before the pain hits.
2. Putting a appendage back into joint is more painful that dislocating it in the first place.

I pulled and yanked and cursed until I heard "pop". More cursing.

Stuck half down the hill I was committed to finish my ride until I look down and noticed that thing had come out again. I kid you not. My finger had poped out of socket again just in spite. Actutlly, I also read that dislocation occurr pretty easily after the first.

At this point I was done. I walked the bike back up the hill, went home and went back to sleep. That's when the pain started.

CIMG3145

CIMG3145
Originally uploaded by cramsay.

This is a post on Flickr. I'm investigating how to automatically tie pictures, blogs, motion based profiles and locations all within a GPX file.

Scare Goats

I finally took the plunge (literally) and bought cycle shoes and clips. I looked over at my riding buddy, Allan at the head of the trail and, said: “Here goes”…and fell over. I didn’t even get onto the trail. I just plopped over like one of those scare goats you see at the zoo. BTW, scare goats’ legs seize up when danger is near. They can’t move, so they topple over onto the ground. Obviously, at this point the predator animal starts laughing so hysterically at this absurd behavior, that they forget that they where there to attack and eat the goat so they merely move on looking for food that will actually try to defend itself. See them here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_3Utmj4RPU.

While I was falling, I remember the salesperson at the cycle shop tell me that with clips I’ll learn how to “anticipate the fall”. Well…I didn’t see it coming. Nor did I anticipate it the next 20 times, either. Once we actually made it onto the trail, I fell…a lot.

At one turn, some joggers (they like to call themselves runners) came around the corner and startled me. When normally I would nod, jig around them while pulling a wheelie while looking cool in my cool clothes- with clips, I fell down. Surprise. They surrounded me as joggers will do when they find a defenseless, downed biker. I’m lying on the ground still on the bike AND STILL COULDN”T GET MY SHOES OUT OF THE CLIPS!
Picture this: I am on the ground with both feet still in the pedals shaking my legs back and forth like a…well, like a scare goat.