This was my first real mountain bike ride. I have a K2 Zed hardtail and we provided Emergency communications for the whiskey ride in Prescott, Arizona. The radio ops decided to make me ride when they found out I had a mountain bike. Jim Pierce and I went up to Waypoint 1 to direct the riders from a dirt rode onto trail 48. The first thing we relized is that Waypoint 1 was not directly off the rode like we thought, it was about � mile down. So I jumped on my bike and started riding almost the same time the riders came to are location. I made it about a tenth of a mile before the lead riders caught up to me. I ended up letting the first pack go by me because I could not keep up. After about 20 riders past there was a break and I rode up to the fork at Waypoint 1 That is when we heard a report from net control that a rider with a flat tire was up the trail a mile or so. So after the all the riders had past are location, we began to ride up the trail. The first thing on trail 48 is technical riding up water bars for almost a half-mile. We rode a little over a mile all uphill and got a report that a rider had an injured ankle between Waypoints 1 and 2. Net control decided to send us farther up the trail to find him. By now I was getting a bit slower and when I hit more water bars I did not have momentum to get my back wheel over. I would pop the front wheel up and over but I would get stuck on the back. We ended up hiking are bikes up for a quarter mile or so. After that the trail turned into a flat rocky run with a couple switchbacks. Jim Pierce was getting ahead of me so I began to go faster to catch up. I was riding about 14 mph and made a gradual right hand turn when I saw a large log in front of me! I was too slow in pulling up the front wheel and got the front tire stuck on the log. I was caring a backpack filled with 2 liters of water and about 10 pounds of radio gear and when I hit the log the pack through me and my bike forward. I hung on to the handlebars and did an endo into a few rocks. I only got some scratches on my arm and a bruise on my hip and leg, the bike got its brake levers bent a little and my new odometer (1 day old!) Got all scratched up. Anyway Jim heard the crash waited for me to get going again.
We finally reached the rider about 5 miles from are starting point. His ankle was swollen and he could not move it. We notified net control that I would ride down and Jim would stay with him. I rode a mile or so on a rocky downhill until I reached the four man medical team already hiking up the trail with a big wheel stretcher. I tried to call net control but realized that my endo had broken the antenna connector off my radio. I decided to ride to Waypoint 2 where other radio operators were posted. I made it there and waited for a few hours before we got a call that the medical team could not make it back to us. So they decided to find a landing zone and bring in a helicopter. After the helicopter got to them, 45 minutes later. The medical team was low on water and wanted me to hike up with cold water. So I crammed about 15 bottles of water in my pack and hiked up to them. I gave out the water between the 4 medical personnel, Jim, and me. We all hiked back down together and mounted the bikes onto the cars.
Now I sit and type about my first ride. It was hard yet fun, I cant wait to get back on the trails!
