But while feeling the morning air and cool breeze, and knowing we’d be up over 10,900 feet, I knew it was going to be cold. Also, we are heading up onto the Chief Joseph and Beartooth Highways that have challenging switchbacks, it might be a good idea to be prepared in the event anything goes wrong. Such were my thoughts at the time and I am so fortunate that my thinking head was screwed on for this day.
We rode onto the Chief
Joseph and took a requisite photo at the sign then headed on up into the
beautiful vistas and territory of Chief Joseph
Notice that Sophia is in the grass next to the sign....she likes off-roading!
The Chief T-boned into the
Beartooth where we captured this photo before continuing our climb (notice Pilot Peak in the distance over my right shoulder?).
Shortly after making the
turn onto the ‘Tooth we came upon a rest area where I captured this photo of Pilot Peak
Then we climbed, and
climbed, and climbed, finally reaching the plateau where there is a General
Store. I rode into the parking lot but Buzz
didn’t cuz he won’t ride on gravel and dirt mix. From there we continued on our climb finally
reaching the highest and started a slow descent.
By the way, I asked Buzz to
take the lead on this ride because this is one of the highways he was so
excited to ride. We came to an area
where there was a lake and I couldn’t help but admire the reflections on it and
the mountains, the clear air, the joy of riding.
I brought my attention back
to the road and down shifted with a little added power to begin entering the
blind curve that was coming up. Suddenly,
Buzz was flapping his arm to slow down.
KWAP!
We’re coming around the
blind curve to discover a line of cars at a dead stop. I‘m doing somewhere around 50 mph when I see
this. I panicked….again!
SLAMMED on the brake big
time…..kwap…there’s no room to stop.
Bike is skidding,
Hard skidding
I’m fighting the skid,
keeping Sophia upright and on course
Cars getting closer
Can’t see around the line of
cars if there is oncoming traffic
No room on the shoulder….
Hell I wouldn’t be able to
maneuver that far right
All these things flashing
through my mind
Buzz is in front of me and
I’m closing in on him
KWAP!!
I’m gonna hit him first
before hitting the stopped cars!
I’m gonna DIE!!!
And I did hit Buzz first.....Sophia’s front tire touched
Buzz’s fender just lightly
......Enough to slow the frontBut not the rear tire skidding past my right
SLAM!
The bike dropped on its left
side briefly and then flipped over onto its right.
Wham!
Thunk!
Slamming me into the asphalt
and dragging me into the asphalt gulch and curb
I hit hard on my right side......Right forearm, shoulder,
thigh got real friendly with the asphalt
The bike dragged me about 25 feet
into the gulch, away from the cars
My head hit the road,
pebbles, and the raised asphalt curb.3 times I smacked that curb with my head.
I remember thinking, “I am
so glad that”, THUNK, “I decided to wear” THUNK, “ my helmet” THUNK!!!
Once stopped, I just laid
still collecting my thoughts.
Hmmm, what should I do
first?
I decided to start checking
for pain.
Feeling my extremities,
fingers moved ok, toes wiggled.
Right foot is trapped under
the bike.
Arms are ok....no pain
Opening my eyes I saw Buzz lean over me in
reverse from the top down
I said, “Why are you upside
down?”Buzz claims I said, “Are we having fun yet?”
I told people around me that
I was ok and was going to get up.....Slowly.
But everything was fine, My elbow was stinging and we
found a bleeding skin abrasion from rubbing on the inside lining.
Other than that I was
ok! Nothing was broken!
Wow, that money spent on Calcium tablets sure paid off!
......but I bet I was going to
be very sore in the morning
Yeah, welllll the soreness
started within an hour.
Cars were still not moving so we
up-righted the bike and moved over to the opposite side where more
room was available. Other bikers were there
to help get Sophia up and collect my gear.
We inspected the bike and found minimal damage. The Engine guard and saddlebag guards
protected Sophia and me as well. But the
engine guard was bent back about an inch and was crowding my right foot and
brake. But all was operable. Amazing!
We decided to ride down the
hill to Red Lodge, about 30 miles downhill, and spend the night there instead
of at Great Falls MT
As we rode down the
mountain, Buzz and I observed the bike as it rode and maneuvered the
curves….all seemed to be well. This
kinda reminded me of my Maintenance Test Pilot days in the military, many moons
in the past.
But about 10 miles later I
had to stop. There was a burning
pressure and pain in my right hip. I
didn’t know what it could be because I was sure I didn’t break any bones, but
it was an overwhelming pain worthy of inspection.
We stopped on the side of
the road at a vista point, and dismounted.
I unbuckled and dropped the chaps, then the jeans, then the
underwear. There was a huge lump on my
hip protruding about 3 inches. Not sure
if Buzz said “Ewww” because of the lump or because of my butt hanging out in
the wind. Cars rode by honking! I heard a female voice yell out, “yay
dude!”…..she was probably too young for me.
I told Buzz that I better go
to a hospital and get checked. So we
continued down the hill, on schedule to meet our next disaster!
Just as we entered Red
Lodge’s town line, Buzz and I heard a high pitched squeal and then I heard him
on the radio yelling, “Crap, I’ve got a flat, I’m going down!”. But he kept it upright and got to the side of
the road.
I got Bone Daddy’s Cycle
shop to go out and give Buzz a tow and I went to the hospital….am so glad that
I did go for a checkup.
Dr. Linda Hall was the
attending ER physician, and I was very fortunate she was on duty as well as the
team of nurses there. They all were very
attentive and helpful. X-rays didn’t
show any bone breaks but the left leg and hip had a serious hematoma that was
already causing significant swelling. Dr.
Hall did a thorough examination in view of my being on blood thinners . This included a CAT Scan of the cranium to
ensure the impact of my head on the curb did not cause internal bleeding as the
hemotoma on my leg/hip. The CAT scan
gave us good and bad news. The good new
was that we didn’t have to worry about hemoraging in the brain. That was because of the bad news……no brain
could be found inside the cranium! Wow! Am
I ever lucky!
Buzz got us a room at the
Hotel Pollard and we planned to spend 2 nights there so I could recover enough
to continue our ride to Glacier NP. I
rode the bike the 1 mile to the Hotel and let Buzz park it for me. Then I crashed after downing 800 mg of
Ibuprofen.
The soreness started
already, no need to wait for manana!
It was here and now!IATOFTS! (I am too old for this sh*t!)
Kwap!
C ya’ll mañana,
Gonzo
Twitter: @GonzoCrossUSA
Email: GonzoCrossUSA@gmail.com
Cell: 949-433-0761
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