I’ve been reading Bill Bryson’s A Walk in the Woods and thought I’d commune with him, sorta, by riding the mountain bike along the Appalachian Trial along South Mountain ridgetops.
It’s been really dry lately, so I figured the familiar path would be packed solid. Just the perfect stuff for biking thru the woods.
I shoulda listened to the weather report. It started to rain. Not heavy stuff, but enough to get a little mud along the Trail. No big deal, right?
It often happens that a fallen tree or other woody stemmed critter will block the trail. Unless it’s over 5″ in diameter, it’s not something to worry about. So when I encountered the 3″ scrub serviceberry across my path, I proceeded to traverse it.
Bad mistake. I did not check out the dirt on the near side. It had settled from the recent dry spell. Hikers’ boots packed it down some more. And then the rain softened up the surface so that the back tire sank in it right as my front gear sprocket was about to sail over the small log.
What happened would have been funny had it not happened to me.
My front wheel went over the obstacle well enough but as the back tire sank in a bit, the gear sprocket caught on the log. That drove the front wheel down and the back wheel up. Fast.
Although I knew what was about to happen, there wasn’t a whole lot I could do about it except think “shit.”
Bam!
I was laying on my back with the bike sideways on top of me.
It hurt. And still hurts.
Don’t know how I’m going to explain this one to Herself but the guys down at the bike shop will get a good laugh out of it. And a nice fat check from me for repairing the damage to the bike.
