Hey brothers!
Blank here, thought I'd share with you a little story about falling off an ATC (Honda's _banned across the US_ 3-wheelers, made from early 80s to 86).
In the Southern portion of Death Valley, is a special area of sand dunes. They are considered the steepest dunes in North America. A great place for the family and hardcore riders/buggy drivers. There are the aforementioned steep dunes (aka the Big Dunes) as well as an area of small dunes (aka the Little Dunes) separated by a dry lake bed. These dunes are further surrounded by nearly infinite dirt, hills, rocks and hundreds of square miles of rideable terrain.
I've been riding these dunes, both little and big, since I was about 14 years old. That's 26ish years of riding sand dunes. I've fallen or crashed out there more times than I care to count.
Well, this last little trip was no different. After about 20 mins of riding the big dunes, my two buddies decided riding scared and fearing for their lives was enough motivation to take my advice and practice on the little dunes. Ando on his Suzuki DR400Z, Jeff on his Yamaha WR450R, and me on my Honda ATC350. They had paddles on their rear tire, and I had my paddles on--mounted on the stock rims, as I use after-market beadlock-type rims for my knobbies.
Anywho, once we rode over to the little dunes, I just kind of followed those two around while they got used to the two-wheeled bikes in the sand. The same tops exist on both little and big dunes: Witch's Eyes and Razorbacks. You have to know the layout of the dunes, and how to approach and go over the tops.
Well we started getting into a grove, they finally got the hang of it, and our speed increased. Riding approximatley 25-30 mph, I came over a Razorback topped dune aimed for a long sideways descent. The dune itself was maybe 20 feet tall. Because the sun had just risen in the east, the downhill side was covered with shadow, and I couldn't see the steepness of the dune. So I landed just fine, but it was in the small vertical area of the downslope. And my right rear tire started going over. I ducked and rolled to my left (straight down the dune), and instead of rolling downhill and to the right (the direction I had been riding), the trike popped off its left tire, did a mid-air flip and slid down my chest into my lap. The trike weighs about 350 lbs., had momentum + the momentum from the flip--landing squarly on a small pull bar attached to the frame, across my lap.
I was absolutely sure that both my femurs were broken. The pain nearly knocked me out. A searing, needle-pricking explosion of pain rocked through my upper thighs. I couldn't move, couldn't breath for several long minutes, which actually turned out to be about 45 seconds.
Forty minutes later, Ando and Jeff were dragging me through the sand. I was able to bear weight on both legs, but could not move the quad muscles at all--too much pain. I finally got on the bike, and Ando got on ahead of me to kick start the trike. I rode back to camp in first gear, approaching severe shock as I got to camp. Sweating profusely, shivering, teeth chattering, I dropped my riding pants to see what damage there was.
From the back side of my knee, moving up towards my groin via the inside of the thigh and continuing up around the top of the thigh to my left hip was the most god awful 8 inch swath of broken blood vessels and swollen tissue. Middle of the thigh between back and inner side hung a softball size of swollen tissue. The rest of my thigh was just huge. My right thigh had no strength at all when pushing foward with my foot. The bar had landed on the inside of my left thigh across to where my femur ball joint attaches to my right hip.
So, in massive pain, shivering, teeth-chattering, pale as a goose, I sat down, drank three beers to wash down two Aleves, and waited for Ando and Jeff to load up everything in the trailer, hook it up to Ando's truck and haul me back to the Inland Empire.
The accident took place at 8:15 am, and I finally got to the emergency room at a little after 5:00 pm.
On a scale of 1-10, regarding pain, I've had two injuries which reached the 10 mark. In 8th grade, I dislocated my kneecap. Hurt bad, but not nearly as much as when the Doc pushed the cap back into place. I screamed so loudly that the entire ER was so quiet you could hear a pin drop--after my scream anyways. That was definitely a 10. When that trike came down on my lap--that was also a 10. I immediately felt sick to my stomach, began pouring sweat.
Anywho, I'm at home now, and slowly recuperating. The x-rays showed no glaring fractures, and the radiologist should have seen them yesterday. No call from the radiologist, so am assuming there is no break. Just massive swelling and the biggist bruise/contusion you've ever seen. Possibly torn muscle tissue, and damaged ligaments/tendons. But there's not much they can do for that.
So, I had my wife take pictures, and will continue to do so throughout the healing process. And when all is said and done, I'll post the time-lapsed photos for your perusal. Should be mid-next week.
One thing we did determine, if the trike had landed on me just six inches sooner, I would've had a broken neck and/or back. Few more inches down my legs, and I would've had two broken legs, possibly compound fractures. I was very fortunate to have the trike land on my meaty thighs, and no breakage.
Hope you all are doing great!
Waiting to ride again,
blank out
p.s.
Post your most serious injury, and rank it pain-wise from 1-10, and how it happened!
