This past summer I was living with my father in Pocatello, Idaho where I went to highschool. It's definantly a fun place to live with all the awsome outdoor activities available. He lives in the mountains where there are plenty of trails for riding dirt bikes. We own two KTM 105's which are smaller than a normal size bike, but are still really fast. Me and my friends had been riding all summer and we had decided on taking our bikes up to some trails about twenty five minutes from our house.
We pulled up to the parking lot and began to unload them from our truck. I had two of my best friends Justin and Jeff with me that day. It was an extremely hot dry summer afternoon but we were all eager to have some fun. After slipping our helmets on, strapping up our gloves, and locking the truck we hit the trails. We all decided on going to a track that wasn't far away to play around on some jumps and berms.
I was in the lead being fairly confident on how to get there. We were riding in b
asically a desert type atmosphere with sage brush blanketed hills and small patches of juniper trees. The trails were dusty and the faster I went went the cooler the wind felt. After about 10 minutes of cruising we were there. I had been to this track once before and I thought I knew where I was going. I started going fast up a trail on a small hill. I thought it was the same trail I had gone on before and I thought I knew what was on the other side. When I reached the top of the hill in third gear I was ready for a little bit of air and a nice smooth landing. I immediately saw about a seven foot hole! Oh no, it was to late. I slammed on my brakes causing my bike to stop and me to keep going, hitting my knees and flipped over my handle bars. I had gone up the landing ramp of a jump and the hole was from the dirt they used to make it. I flew in the air landed in the pit arms first and did a role. I looked up in time to see my bike about to hit me so put my legs up and kicked it out of the way. I had felt something not normal happen to my left arm as I landed so I looked over. My forearm was facing the opposite way my shoulder was turned. I immediately thought oh shit its broken and started yelling for my friends, who had not seen the accident happen.
Even though my arm was messed up and I should have been feeling pain it didn't hurt at all because of the adrenaline. We were far up in the barren idaho mountains with no help or anyone for that matter around. All that was going threw my mind was how am I going to get out of here. Once Justin and Jeff found me I explained things and we tried coming up with a solution for getting me out. We decided that Justin was going to off road the truck as close as he could and I would walk the rest of the way. As Jeff and myself sat there in the dirt with no shade in the desert I started getting real dehydrated. About forty five minutes later, after I almost blacked out Justin came running up with a Gatorade. After chugging it down we made a sling out of our shirts and began to walk. The pain was excruciating with every step and the beating sun didn't help. This was by far the worst part of my memory. After around a hour we had made it to the car and it would be another hour to the hospital.
Imagine walking into the hospital with a ghetto rigged sling out of shirts, covered in dirt, wearing torn clothes, and just looking completely exhausted, I couldn't help but smile. We had been through a lot. The x-rays came back and the doctor said that I had dislocated my elbow with a fracture as well. My elbow was the size of a grapefruit and I couldn't wait for my elbow to be back in place. I got put to sleep and they had to have two doctors lock my elbow back to normal. What a horrible memory, but one that I learned a valuable lesson from. The lesson being never assume you know whats on the other side of a trail. I promise I won't be neirly as crazy when dirtbiking comes around next summer. It only takes once.
We pulled up to the parking lot and began to unload them from our truck. I had two of my best friends Justin and Jeff with me that day. It was an extremely hot dry summer afternoon but we were all eager to have some fun. After slipping our helmets on, strapping up our gloves, and locking the truck we hit the trails. We all decided on going to a track that wasn't far away to play around on some jumps and berms.
I was in the lead being fairly confident on how to get there. We were riding in b
asically a desert type atmosphere with sage brush blanketed hills and small patches of juniper trees. The trails were dusty and the faster I went went the cooler the wind felt. After about 10 minutes of cruising we were there. I had been to this track once before and I thought I knew where I was going. I started going fast up a trail on a small hill. I thought it was the same trail I had gone on before and I thought I knew what was on the other side. When I reached the top of the hill in third gear I was ready for a little bit of air and a nice smooth landing. I immediately saw about a seven foot hole! Oh no, it was to late. I slammed on my brakes causing my bike to stop and me to keep going, hitting my knees and flipped over my handle bars. I had gone up the landing ramp of a jump and the hole was from the dirt they used to make it. I flew in the air landed in the pit arms first and did a role. I looked up in time to see my bike about to hit me so put my legs up and kicked it out of the way. I had felt something not normal happen to my left arm as I landed so I looked over. My forearm was facing the opposite way my shoulder was turned. I immediately thought oh shit its broken and started yelling for my friends, who had not seen the accident happen.Even though my arm was messed up and I should have been feeling pain it didn't hurt at all because of the adrenaline. We were far up in the barren idaho mountains with no help or anyone for that matter around. All that was going threw my mind was how am I going to get out of here. Once Justin and Jeff found me I explained things and we tried coming up with a solution for getting me out. We decided that Justin was going to off road the truck as close as he could and I would walk the rest of the way. As Jeff and myself sat there in the dirt with no shade in the desert I started getting real dehydrated. About forty five minutes later, after I almost blacked out Justin came running up with a Gatorade. After chugging it down we made a sling out of our shirts and began to walk. The pain was excruciating with every step and the beating sun didn't help. This was by far the worst part of my memory. After around a hour we had made it to the car and it would be another hour to the hospital.
Imagine walking into the hospital with a ghetto rigged sling out of shirts, covered in dirt, wearing torn clothes, and just looking completely exhausted, I couldn't help but smile. We had been through a lot. The x-rays came back and the doctor said that I had dislocated my elbow with a fracture as well. My elbow was the size of a grapefruit and I couldn't wait for my elbow to be back in place. I got put to sleep and they had to have two doctors lock my elbow back to normal. What a horrible memory, but one that I learned a valuable lesson from. The lesson being never assume you know whats on the other side of a trail. I promise I won't be neirly as crazy when dirtbiking comes around next summer. It only takes once.
