Mountain Bike Bill, The Dirt on the Dirt

Tag: Carnage

WANTED: New MTB Model/Beer Sherpa

Avid Southern California Mountain Biker/Website Owner seeks Mountain Bike Photography Model/Beer Sherpa.

This is two-three month temporary position with the potential for migration to a full-time position.

Applicant must possess ability to ride technical trails in backwoods remote enviroments.

Must have a loose interpetion on the follow terms:�
– Lost
– “Almost There”
– “Minor Flesh Wound”
– “A Little Hike-A-Bike”
– “Perfect Cycling Trail”

Must have sound interpersonal communications skills required for dealing with rangers, land managers,  locals and hot trail chicks.   Must possess a diverse knowledge and deep appreciation of North American Microbrews.  Applicant must also possess ability and means to procur such libations. (Even in Utah)   Possessing a sense of humor on the suttle differences between an epic and a death march is a plus.

Send resume, pictures of your female riding friends and six of your favorite  microbrews to the following address:

MountainBikeBill.com
4E01 Intense Rules Trail
Notarealplace, CA 92081

If the brews and pictures pan out you will be promptly contacted by a member of the MountainBikeBill staff. 🙂

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 Joking aside, I got some really bummer information today.  One of my closest riding buds with whom I have done countless rides and numerous trips had a nasty crash over the Thanksgiving weekend.  There are probably more pictures of Bill, AKA MrMountainHop online, on my site than anybody else. 

The place was Soquel Demonstration Forest near Santa Cruz.   The place is a awesome place to ride and challenge yourself.   Bill has some folks in San Jose so he rides this place often enough.   The scene of the crime was one of the many jumps out there.  I’m not sure which trail it was on yet, but Bill said if landed, it would have been his biggest jump yet.

 

Well the landing did not go well and his wrist took the worst of it.   This does not look good at all.

 

Ouch Ouch Ouch!   At least he is right-handed.   When I last spoke with Bill, he was about to go into surgery to get somethings put back in the proper spot. 

Bill – Heal well my friend, I guess we just have to straight the beer and mexican food for a while!

 

Changing Ride Plans

 So the plan for today was to hit up some Santa Ana Mountains Fireroad Up Singletack down action. One phone call from a total stranger yeseterday afternoon changed those plans. The stranger in question was the manager of a gas station a few miles from house. My oldest son, Will, had gone skating with some of his friends and something had gone wrong. The paramedics had already been called and all the guy would say that he had really hurt his right hand.

When I arrived the local fire department paramedics were already on the scene and had loosely wrapped up his thumb in what had already become a blood soaked cloth.  They advised me that they could save me a lot of money if I drove him to the ER myself, but his hand needed to be looked at right away.

So before long we were at the ER.  At this point I had not seen the wound yet but I was worried as Will said it was sorta numb. When the assessing nurse took of the dressing to get a look it as we were dealing with it was all I could do not to openingly freak out. Parents are meant to see their childrens’ bones. But there it was, back to the first knuckle was flayed open with the nail off to the side and the skin and muscle off to the other side with the bone showing. Our time spent in the waiting room was exactly zero seconds as we were whisked off to X-Ray and then Orthopedtics.  Will was a popular guy as many folks came by for a look. It did not take long for the doctors to make the call to bring in a hand-surgeon. There was going to be a delay in the specialist arriving so in addition to the normal pre-surgery stuff, “Dr. Feelgood” made a visit and gave Will some Morphine. Will was giggly happy for quite sometime before doozing off.

So the hand-surgeon arrives and within an hour Will is in the operating room to have his thumb “repaired”. That term seemed odd to hear as I expected something like sutured or set.  Repaired just seem so serious.

After a long couple of hours, he was out of surgery and off to the recovery room. The surgeon seems to think that it should heal up just fine.  He was kept overnight and released this morning.  He will be back to the the doc again in a few days to see how the healing is going and to see where to go from there.  Geez, you only wish for the best for your kids and it hurts to seem them hurt. Will will be taking a break from Hockey, Biking, Skating Boarding and the Electric Guitar for a bit. School work should be a little interesting as well since he is right-handed.

Of course like father like son there was a video camera on the scene. My bet is that his buddies will soon have it YouTubed.