On an unseasonably beautiful day in November, two days after Thanksgiving as a matter of fact, I took off with a group of friends to go ride dirt bikes (dirt bikes in my vernacular is motorcycle dirt bikes, not the pedal variety, although in my dark past I've been known to pedal a bike or two... but I digress) at Uwharrie National Forest here in North Carolina.
The plan was to meet at my friends house where he would load the motorcycles into his truck and trailer, and we would drive the 2'ish hours out to Uwharrie and ride around for several hours, then turn around and come home. A simple plan.
The part that wasn't so simple was getting myself, my motorcycle, my gear, a change of clothes and shoes (for dinner afterward if we wanted to stop on the way home, some establishments may frown on full muddy motocross gear being worn into their establishment), and my Camelback hydration system all over to my friends house early in the morning. I may have forgotten to mention that although the afternoon was going to be a beautiful 60 degrees, the morning was nowhere over 30 degrees, so not freezing to death was another challenge I had to overcome as I set off at O'Dark Thirty. Luckily my dirt motorcycle is a dual sport, meaning that it is street legal and can be ridden on the road, unluckily I don't have a truck or trailer so there was no other option than to put everything in backpacks and head out in the cold on the motorcycle.
I arrive at my friends house, everything is loaded up and I meet the two other guys (soon to be 3 as we were to stop and pick up one more person on the way) and we head off on our way, for the uneventful first act of the days events.
Fast forward now, we have arrived at Uwharrie, we find a place to park and make "camp" at a trailhead, and we head off riding for the day.
The riding at Uwharrie is great. The trails are all double-track (meaning they can accommodate jeeps and such, since Uwharrie is primarily an off-road park for 4 wheel vehicles, but motorcycles and ATV's and UTV's are very common). The only bad part of the trails is that they are littered liberally with rocks jutting out all over the place. Not a big deal, however it makes line selection a challenge (in a good way) and keeps you on your toes to keep the front wheel off of the loose ones. We all have a lot of fun, and eventually we break for lunch, then head out again for another "lap" of the trails.
This is where things for me went... pear shaped. I don't think I was trying to ride above the skill level of my motorcycle, but at some point while I was going over the lip of a very gentle jump, the back end of the motorcycle bucked up, and got me very off balance. By the time I was heading down the back face of the jump, there was no saving it and I was hanging half off the motorcycle, heading for a collision course with the ground. I glanced toward my landing area as this was all very much happening in slow motion at this point, and saw rock. A large one. I think I knew that what was going to happen next would be bad because I was yelling "fuuuuuuuuuuuck" as I was hitting the ground, and then there was impact. And silence. And pain.
Almost as soon as the silence happened it was over, and I could hear again, and the motorcycle was still running, I tried to move my right arm to get to the kill switch but it was in excruciating pain, so I kicked my foot at the switch until I hit it and the motorcycle turned off. Now there was true silence. I heard in the distance the engines of my friends motorcycle engines (they were riding in front of me as I didn't want to slow them down, I just wanted to ride my own ride and not try to get in above my head in unfamiliar territory... coincidence that it happened anyhow?) but they were far off in the distance and now it was getting silent. Actual.
I tried moving my right arm again, but the feedback it gave me told me that something was seriously wrong. When I tried to prop myself up off the ground with it, it gave way like it wasn't even there. The pain also gave me indication that I had rearranged my arm in a not so beneficial way. When I finally got my helmet and gloves off (a genuine challenge with only one arm and hand), I began cradling my right arm and it had the squishy, everything is not connected the way it should be kind of feeling in the elbow. At this point I also tried calling out "I'M HURT!" just in case anyone was within ear-shot, but I knew that all I needed to do was sit tight, and the cavalry would be back to get me. I don't know where I get my calm demeanor from, but I knew in my gut that now was not a time to panic. I needed to get myself at least to the edge of the trail so I wasn't an obstacle for other people to run over.
After what was maybe 5 minutes I begin to hear a motorcycle coming, and I knew that I was about to be discovered, and this comforted me in a way that now seems quite odd. I mean, here I am, arm in pieces, in the middle of Uwharrie Forest, 2 hours from home, and the simple act of having company, having been discovered, is bringing me comfort... Nevermind the mountains of logistical hurdles that need to be overcome just getting me and all my shit off of the trail.... But I digress again.
The first who arrived on the scene was one of my group, and he assessed me and helped me get comfortable on the edge of the trail while he went to get the rest of the guys. I'm not sure how long he was gone, or if he left at all. I don't recall losing consciousness, or passing out from the pain, but it seems like within an instant there were a lot of people around me. As it turns out, my group had run across another group going the opposite direction, and they needed help getting a UTV off of its roof. When they finished getting it turned over and they realized I hadn't caught up, they all came back to get me. This turned out to be a huge benefit.
One of the first faces talking told me she was a PA (physicians assistant?) and that she was going to check me for other injuries. She asked if I had hit my head, if it hurt anywhere else, if I felt dizzy etc. They inspected my helmet and saw that there wasn't a single ground hit on it, which confirmed my thought that my head never touched the ground. After they found no other serious injuries, they helped me sit up, and they fashioned a bit of a sling for me from someones jacket. The decision was made that this was serious enough that it warranted a hospital visit, so the next thing I knew, they were loading me into a Jeep that had appeared seemingly out of nowhere (side note: I had actually always wanted to go for a trail-ride in a Jeep, it was just unfortunate that I had to mangle my arm in order for that to happen. It was not a very smooth ride though, and I really was just trying to concentrate on keeping my arm stabilized, so I guess I really didn't get to enjoy the ride that much. Maybe another day?), and one of the guys from the UTV group was going to ride my motorcycle to the trail head, and my group was going to go get the truck, and bring it to that area and we would get everything loaded and hit the road for a hospital.
After we reached the trail head and my group set off for the truck, the PA began calling local hospitals to ask if they had orthopedic on staff. This bit of forethought really saved me from wasting a bunch of time, because as I learned from her, if the hospital didn't have orthopedic on staff, they would just put me in an ambulance and truck me somewhere that did.... and that wouldn't be a cheap ride. What she found out was the closest hospital with orthopedic on staff was 1 hour and 30 minutes away. I did the math in my head and decided I would rather travel the 2 hours back toward home, and use a local hospital.
All of what happens next can wait until another chapter, but all I really wanted to mention, the main reason for writing this post, is that there were 4 strangers that day who stopped what they were doing, took time out of their leisure on a beautiful Saturday in November, to help pick me up off of a dirty trail in Uwharrie Forest and get me back on my way, and for that I'm amazed and thankful. It's easy to lose faith in humanity when you scour the bottom of the internet barrel, but when you get people out in the fresh air and get to see them face to face, they help remind me that we all are mostly good and want to do good. So to those people I say thanks, and thank you all for reading.
Stay tuned for the next part.