Toecutter
What would DoG do?
My return trip from WFO was not without incident.
And before the ribbing and gigging starts about my perceived "better than and infallible" attitude, I'll add that it was all my fault. However, the fault of mine was probably do to a lack of nocturnal desert riding work. It was only my second time, the first being on my way to Park City. I figured that it would be much cooler to make the run once the sun set, and since Skyway was so accommodating in arranging shipment for my Solteks, and even loaned me his own set of prototype brackets, I had no reason to be afraid of the dark.
The intent of my post is to share my experience, so that others may avoid making the same mistake, thus creating a safer experience for us all.
Anyway, at about 4 a.m. Sunday morning, approximately 90 miles East of Tonopah, NV on Hwy 6, I lost my ability to claim that I've never killed anything but bugs with my bike.
I had a rather bizarre experience with a rather large jackrabbit. They were thick as flies out there, along with two deer, three antelope, two coyotes, and a half dozen wild horses that I saw near the road.
My first fatal mistake was to not respect the rabbits for the potential they carried for destruction. The second was to not take precautions for what happened to me. That's where the inexperience came in. Maybe all you "real" endurance riders out there already know this, and many others as well, but I learned the hard way.
[SIZE=14pt]When running in areas where critter strikes are a possibility, and you're not busy shifting or braking, get the arches of your feet off the pegs and the balls on them. [/SIZE]
I was running "slightly faster than the flow of traffic".
The rabbit jumped up from the roadside and quartered at me from the right, much like a dog chasing a car does. Since it was "only a rabbit", I wasn't too worried about the possibility of hitting one, and got complacent around them. Apparently, it managed to duck under the back of the front tire and jumped up on the far side, where the front half of my foot caught it and folded back under the peg with the rabbit. For an instant, that rabbit fully understood the meaning of the term "Toecutter", as the blood evidence on my boot would later indicate.
That part hurt like ten mother fuckers, with my foot feeling like it spontaneously combusted, and pain that traveled all the way to my left hip. I just knew there were gonna be broken bones involved, and scenarios of all the hassle that recovery would add to my life just ran through my head like a hamster on a wheel for the next hour or so. By the time I reached Tonopah, only the foot and knee still hurt, and it was time to check if it would carry any weight. It did, and I could walk fairly well.
Long story short, the X-rays showed no broken bones, Yeay! ER Doc's note says at least two more days of rest & ice, then we'll see what my private MD says.
Which means my foot bones must be stronger than metal, because my peg, which was behind my bent-under foot, didn't fare so well.
And before the ribbing and gigging starts about my perceived "better than and infallible" attitude, I'll add that it was all my fault. However, the fault of mine was probably do to a lack of nocturnal desert riding work. It was only my second time, the first being on my way to Park City. I figured that it would be much cooler to make the run once the sun set, and since Skyway was so accommodating in arranging shipment for my Solteks, and even loaned me his own set of prototype brackets, I had no reason to be afraid of the dark.
The intent of my post is to share my experience, so that others may avoid making the same mistake, thus creating a safer experience for us all.
Anyway, at about 4 a.m. Sunday morning, approximately 90 miles East of Tonopah, NV on Hwy 6, I lost my ability to claim that I've never killed anything but bugs with my bike.
I had a rather bizarre experience with a rather large jackrabbit. They were thick as flies out there, along with two deer, three antelope, two coyotes, and a half dozen wild horses that I saw near the road.
My first fatal mistake was to not respect the rabbits for the potential they carried for destruction. The second was to not take precautions for what happened to me. That's where the inexperience came in. Maybe all you "real" endurance riders out there already know this, and many others as well, but I learned the hard way.
[SIZE=14pt]When running in areas where critter strikes are a possibility, and you're not busy shifting or braking, get the arches of your feet off the pegs and the balls on them. [/SIZE]
I was running "slightly faster than the flow of traffic".
The rabbit jumped up from the roadside and quartered at me from the right, much like a dog chasing a car does. Since it was "only a rabbit", I wasn't too worried about the possibility of hitting one, and got complacent around them. Apparently, it managed to duck under the back of the front tire and jumped up on the far side, where the front half of my foot caught it and folded back under the peg with the rabbit. For an instant, that rabbit fully understood the meaning of the term "Toecutter", as the blood evidence on my boot would later indicate.
That part hurt like ten mother fuckers, with my foot feeling like it spontaneously combusted, and pain that traveled all the way to my left hip. I just knew there were gonna be broken bones involved, and scenarios of all the hassle that recovery would add to my life just ran through my head like a hamster on a wheel for the next hour or so. By the time I reached Tonopah, only the foot and knee still hurt, and it was time to check if it would carry any weight. It did, and I could walk fairly well.
Long story short, the X-rays showed no broken bones, Yeay! ER Doc's note says at least two more days of rest & ice, then we'll see what my private MD says.
Which means my foot bones must be stronger than metal, because my peg, which was behind my bent-under foot, didn't fare so well.
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