Yesterday started off as a beautiful day with sunny, clear weather and a slight breeze. I packed up my bike and departed between 9:30 and 10am from Jeff & Kimberlee's home. My route was going to take me eastward through the Columbia River Gorge to The Dalles, then southward in order to loop back past Mt. Hood and then across the Columbia to come back on the Washington side of the river.
I arrived in Troutdale and exited to take the historic highway 30 route. This was a lot slower and more scenic than the interstate, which was fine with me. I rode along for a while before arriving at Crown Point, which had a magnificent view of the river valley. There was a cool looking building there at Crown Point which was hexagonal, or octagonal in structure that served as the visitor's center for the park. The next stop was the first of many waterfalls - Latourell Falls. These falls were in a really beautiful setting which allowed one to see the different layers of volcanic basalt that makes up most of the terrain in the gorge. Much like the grain in wood, you can see different alignments of it that correspond with different eras of geological activity. As I hiked around these falls, I followed the trail toward the river and came out near a really old, dilapidated looking house. I never saw the biopic about the crazy hoarders of the Kennedy Family, but this house reminded me of the photos I had seen when that story had been advertised. It looked like a strong gust of wind would cave it in.
I stopped next at Wahkeena Falls and took a few photos. Rather than go for another hike, I saddled back up and headed for Multnomah Falls which is apparently the second-highest continually running waterfall in the continental U.S. Multnomah falls was pretty big, that's for sure. When I caught my first glimpse of them, I could see a bridge in front of them that visitors could stand on for a closer, better look. It also helps give scale for the falls when viewing them from a distance. I hiked up the short trail to the bridge to snap a few photos and then went down to the gift shop to see if there was anything worth buying or if it was just the usual touristy crap. I bought a postcard.
I then headed eastward toward the Dalles getting on highway 84 for a while, then back onto the historic highway at Mosier. 6 miles east of Mosier was where everything went awry. I was heading toward a left handed turn at about 35 miles an hour when I saw something move out of the corner of my left eye. In the next instant, Bambi's stupid mom was right in front of my bike. I had about enough time to shout an expletive before I heard the loud BANG and I collided with her. The handlebars whipped back and forth momentarily and the bike went down on its left side. I felt my left knee and the toe of my left boot slam into the tarmac and began to slide with the bike. I vaguely remember more profanities uttered as I began to tumble several times before coming to a stop. I was lying on my back with my legs dangling over a short embankment. I sat up and gravity started working against me, so rather than try to fight it, I slid about 10 feet down the bank to the driveway that was there and started to hobble back toward my bike. It was pretty hot out there, and I was sweating like a hog, panting as I hiked to my broken steed. To make things worse, the wheels were uphill of the seat and handlebars, making picking it up even more difficult. Fortunately a man was driving down the road and stopped to help me lift the bike and move it to the side of the road. Picking it up, I could see that the left side of the radiator had been compromised and the left footpeg had broken off completely. The mirrors were tweaked and scraped and the front fender had been broken off ahead of the forks. There were (are) bits of fur here and there in the cracks on the plastics verifying the impact with the deer. One of the residents named Gwynn (who's driveway I had slid down to) was arriving home and offered to take me to her home so I could call for assistance since I had no cell reception out there.
In the house it was thankfully cooler with fans blowing and a large, cold glass of water was offered to me. Their big, dopey black labs seemed happy to have a guest as I patted their heads and made some calls to Kimberlee to see if she could come out and pick me up. About 10 minutes after the calls were made, I was sitting on the couch watching Bonanza (ironic, since I was thinking about it several days prior) when the adrenaline dump hit me. Tunnel vision, ears ringing like cymbals and very lightheaded. I tried to check my radial pulse and carotid pulse without much success. Gwynn's brother Ed had a pretty concerned look on his face and asked "Are you sure you don't want me to call an ambulance?" Deciding I shouldn't try to be a hero, I suggested that he did. Of course, by the time the fire medic showed up I was feeling pretty lucid and even more so when the paramedics arrived. My vitals were good at that point and they asked what hurt and I indicated my left knee thinking that I had an abrasion there. Fortunately, my pants had zippers along the outside of each leg to make dressing over clothes easier. When they exposed my knee, I realized I had a bit more than an abrasion as I saw the 1.5 to 2 inch hole medial to my kneecap. The decision was made - it was off to the hospital for me.
On the ride to the hospital, I was able to see Mt Adams out of the back of the ambulance and wished that I had been able to complete my ride out to Mt Hood and see the surrounding countryside. After arrival at the hospital, I was whisked off to X-ray and commented on how jealous our Rad Techs would have been at the setup they had. Fortunately, nothing was broken - just a lot of soft tissue trauma and eventual bruising to be had. My physician was a cool guy who was originally from the Czech Republic and had moved to Canada when he was in high school. He too, is not a fan of deer, as one had jumped out in front of him on his bicycle in the not-too-distant past. After many irrigations of the wound, he debrided it and stitched it back together, placed a dressing and I was on my way. I was very pleased with the care I received at Hood River hospital, and would easily recommend them to anyone passing through there that needs care.
After several more hours, Jeff arrived with a truck and some lumber for ramps so that we could load the bike and bring it back to Portland. Now begins the process of healing and deciding what to do with the bike. My insurer thinks that it may be a total, but unfortunately they won't likely be able to assess it until Tuesday or Wednesday of next week. Looks like I'll be having a pretty mellow next few days here while I recouperate and wait to see what the next step is. I'm in the process of uploading photos from yesterday to the picasa site, save the ones I took of my knee in the E.R. They asked that I not post them online for privacy reasons, so I'll have to show them to people in person when I get back.
More later...
No comments:
Post a Comment