Yesterday I bid adieu to living comforts.

I visited the BLM office and read about this desert environment and a little history. The exposed rocks tell a history of earth’s development. way too much to absorb.

Paid $8.00 for admission to an animal of the world museum. It was animals of the world, my mistake hoping that it would be about local desert life.

Drove back to Hurricane. Visited Over the Edge shop where Slower than Snot works. He was there. He rode 11 laps of the 25 hour race solo, 2nd place was 6 mins behind him; first place single speed. He said about 80 racers raced. Met Quentin, the owner of the shop. He knows Dean from Sedona. He is a Turner dealer, no Spot DW in med size.

Bought LA Confidential for same price to rent. Adding to my library.

Camped @ JEM TH. Slept in sleeping bag on floor. Not too bad. Slept well being “outside” again. Figure to drive back to ST George & buy a car camping sleeping bag which will be bigger and have cotton “sheeting” instead of backpacking mummy, nylon sleeping bag. Possible strategy: camp @ a popular place, snag a rider to lower my bed, and then catch somebody else to raise it the next day.  Rider stopped this AM asking for chain lube which I shared. He lowered & raised my bed for me to retrieve my stash.

Injury is still painful causing me to eat pain pills. Going to run out before pain gone. I suspect i damaged my kidney but not bled out when i fell @ Beacon back in Spokane. Scab will form over the tear and the blood will be reabsorbed. Not supposed to strain which will “pick” @ the forming scab. If I pee blood then i have ripped the wound open again. So far no blood.

Sitting here in great riding weather out @ JEM TH. Hard not to ride but I am healing and I do not have a bike. Discipline.

Follow up urologist dr this afternoon and he is happy w/ my healing. The ‘crits are trending upward @ 38, normal for me would be 41, means that the more new blood is being created than lost. He wanted to physically see me for his appraisal. I passed. He told me that in 3 weeks the wound will be about 70% healed. The wound is a laceration which “scabs” over similar to a skin cut. Abrupt force applied to wound might “pick open” the scab and rebleeding will occur. 8-10 weeks is compete healing. In 2 weeks when I do ride I must get off the bike in control. I didn’t set out to fall on Little Creek, I did not see any issues with my route. How to be careful when i am already a Lifestyle Rider walking when I need to. Learned that weight lifting amount also applies. My bed probably weighs more than 30 pounds max limit which means that it will be Thermorest & sleeping bag for a while. I need to make friends where I camp to lift the bed.

Sent my fork back to PUSH for them to solve the leaking problem. It leaked at 247 miles after service. This time PUSH corrected my shipping address to Hurricane instead of my Seattle mailing address. Last time I sent it in they returned it to the Seattle address instead of Spokane. Works out again as I am grounded again for healing from an injury.

Yanks won the series.

Just hanging around Jubilee house. Sat in sun yesterday for 2 hours in mid 70s. This is all desert. If h2o wasn’t stolen from some place this place wouldn’t exist. Newer buildings have native settings & plants. Colors are desert. That’s for the medical buildings near my stay.

Tomorrow I head out. I will be staying locally until my new helmet arrives from back east from virtual store. I smacked the left side of my helmet and am replacing it because of the fall and it is 2 years old.

Local grocery store, maybe a chain, is Harmons. It has a chef prepared prepared food section. Like what Whole Foods chain  was dubbed “Whole Check” has. Good food and I don’t pay for atmosphere or services. About 2 blocks from here. That’s dinner tonight.

Temps will drop back to normal upper 60s. Still sunny. Hard to beat for convalescing.

Rick & I rode Guacamole & Rockville Bench then Gooseberry in perhaps 50 mph winds, and Little Creek in excellent S Utah weather.

Cut to chase: I had a hard crash on Little Creek; front wheel trap threw me over the left handlebar if it was still there, i landed hard on the rock on my left thigh, left arm, and left side of my head. My Spot stopped partially over the cliff. I laid splattered on the rock checking for damage. My shoulder hurt first and thoughts of damaged rotator cuff &/ or collar bone flashed. I moved my arm and everything worked correctly. My thigh was just horribly bruised, and my head hurts. The trail was right on the edge of the mesa and was turning to the left. the bike went right and fortunately i fell to the left onto the mesa side. the bike was 2 lambs tails from a plummet off the edge. We rode another 30  mins back to TH. I managed to ride most of the remaining tech stuff w/ my left leg protesting spinning. At the TH I opened my ride concluding beer and took 2 sips. I needed to pee. The first stream of pee was blood red, not the yellow i expected. I hollered to rick that we had to go. I dumped the beer. Rick had driven to the TH from our camp out near the highway to save my driving on the rough road. I loaded my bike & gear back in my van and drove quickly for me back into Hurricane to an instant care clinic outside of town. i saw the dr. He diagnosed an infection and prescribed an antibiotic as treatment for the bloody urine. The clinic lacked x-ray or CAT scan to look inside my body. Nausea overcame me while still in the exam room. i started sweating like profusely and the pain jumped up to 100 on a pain scale of 1 to 10. The dr admitted something more was going on and I needed to go to the hospital in ST George about 20 miles away. No way was I able to drive myself.  He called an ambulance. I was strapped in and driven to the hospital emergency room. The pain was extreme. I was sent for a CAT scan and veinous iodine injection. results showed that I had lacerated my left kidney and I had bled internally about 1 unit of blood. the bleeding was causing the pain. I was given dilaudid  which lessened the pain. A urologist was consulted. I was admitted to Dixie regional medical center. the urologist visited the next day, Sunday, and offered his treatment: the kidney was lacerated, my crits level indicated that I was no longer bleeding. His treatment is to ground me for 3 weeks for the wound to heal. I have a blood draw on Wed to check the crit level to assure no bleeding and a followup exam on Thurs. Blood loss can be determined by crit level.

I spent 2 nights in the hospital and received wonderful care in a private room. I took 2 showers, their cost will be more than the normal $5.00. Saline solution was plumbed into me along w/ pain meds. I stretched the time intervals between the pain relief.

Crash site:

So, I am hanging here in ST George for several days. I am staying in Jubilee house which is like a motel but operated by the hospital. I have a very comfortable room for $25 a night for a week. I am restricted to lifting less 20 pounds so i can not lift my bed in the van. I will have to sleep on the van floor until I can lift the weight.

Today I have an orthopedic exam for my shoulder as I suspect damage. Got to go for that appointment.

My repaired fork is leaking again which needs repairing, this down time will meet that need.

More later about the actual rides which were good technical slow speed rides.