Intermission – May 11, 2023
I wrote this out about a week after I got into an accident on this trip back in 2010:
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July 19, 2010
Sorry about the long delay in updating my blog. Last Tuesday on July 13th I had an unfortunate accident. I’m going to go ahead and give everyone some detail online about the ordeal since I figure you’ll be curious.
First, my trip was ended by the accident. Second, I’m ok now. Third, I’m in the comfort of my home at this point. Now that that’s done with, here’s some information for you all. There’s a large portion of Highway 1 up in Northern California that has real inadequate (often flat out nonexistent) shoulders to ride on. That means that us cyclists have to ride right on the road with the cars. To add to the difficulty, oftentimes you have a straight drop off to the ocean or a big hill to fall off of to your right hand side when going southbound. Now most drivers understand that the road is shared with cyclists and move over to the other lane when there’s no oncoming traffic or at least move a few inches to their left even when there is some oncoming traffic. Sadly, some drivers think they own the road and refuse to move (or even hug the right side of the road), thus crowding you off of the road. This isn’t so bad if you’re passing farmland or at least some sort of property on your right, you just lose a little bit of balance and sometimes end up braking into some bushes or grass; no big deal.
On the day of the accident, I had a truck refuse to give up any road (any I think he hit my bike), I had a drop off down a hill on my right hand side, and I had a pot hole-ish drop right in front of me filled with some rock. It’s hard to remember exactly what happened (I didn’t knock out or anything, it just happened so fast), but basically I went over the handlebars and slid several feet in front of my bicycle. The right handlebar went down hard enough to bend it pretty severely and I think that my left handlebar must have gone into my lower abdomen. I didn’t/don’t have any major wounds on the outside of my body, so after some yelling on the ground and some clean up courtesy of a gentleman that saw me and stopped to offer me access to his medical kit, I got up and checked out my bike. The gears seemed to work alright, so I thought I would be able to ride the 9 miles into the town of Elk. Turns out I was wrong. I made it about a mile or two, but the pain in my left side was getting worse and I couldn’t keep the bike straight.
I got off and hitched a ride to Elk. I’ll skip the happenings in Elk since it was an odd ordeal, and eventually ended up 30 miles back north at a hospital near Fort Bragg. I was admitted there and given some wonderful pain medicine after a little while. After a scan, it turned out that I had a spleen injury and a severe kidney injury. They didn’t have surgeons there that could handle that type of surgery, so they needed to transfer me to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital. (again skipping some info) Bottom line is that I got a ride in a helicopter to that hospital and spent a few days there. I was lucky enough to avoid surgery and just had to endure some pain for a while. I’m feeling better now and will just have to wait a few months to heal up properly.
Final Note: I don’t know when I’ll be able to finish the trip, but I will finish it and update this site whenever that time comes.
-Chris
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So now we’re up to speed. I’m starting the trip tomorrow May 12, 2023 with my brother-in-law Isaac (I’m married now). We’re driving up to camp at MacKerricher State park (where I camped the night before my accident) and will start cycling down the coast again the morning of May 13, 2023.
Like I said, I’m married now with three kids – Amelia, Vince, and Jacob – so taking this trip is a big sacrifice in time and emotion for my family. I hesitated to complete this trip because of how it ended last time, but it is definitely something I feel the need to finish. I’m looking forward to reaching the Mexican border and sharing my experiences with my family and friends.