Crash'n

After his recent crashes, I've been teasing Tanner a bit because I just don't crash on my MTB bike. In fact, I've only taken one hard crash in the last 15 years and that was around 10 years ago in the semi's of a NORBA National 35+ dual slalom (my first and last dual slalom adventure).

Well that all changed today. I took a nice high-speed dismount in American Fork. Glen, Chris Bingham, Tanner and I were having a great time dodging moto's on AF's beautiful trails. (Side note. Not sure when or why the AF single track was opened to motorcycles. Nearly all the trails are now fair game to motorcycles but fortunately not 4-wheelers. The moto guy in me likes the prospect of riding single track on the WRR. However, I'm just not sure AF is the place for this. The trails are already rutted in places and rougher.) Glen and I chased three KTM's off 157 down to South Fork and stayed on their tail the whole way. They were kind of surprised to see us right with them at the bottom.

Unfortunately on that descent, Chris caught a pedal and went down fairly hard. He somehow avoided injury but his frame was cracked. We made our way back to 157 and were getting ready to drop down to our cars at Dutch Hollow. One of the KTM's dropped in before us and Glen said, "come on Daren, let's catch him". A few minutes later, I came around a steep corner very fast, caught a pedal on a big rock and was quickly on my face sliding into some rocks and trees. The trees kept me from launching into a ravine with lots of sharp rocks.

After the initial shock of hitting the ground wore off, I was able to figure out all my limbs were attached and no bones were broken. Glen was quickly back up the trail to see if I was alive. He said it sounded really bad. In the end, I was able to ride away with some scrapes on my face, a scraped, bruised knee and a bruised rib. Considering the speed and the terrain, I'll smile and take it.

The worst part of the deal is Tanner is now giving me crap about crashing instead of the other way around. Hopefully, I won't have another one for a long time.