Nagaredama and I did the Cannell Plunge for the first time on Sunday. It was unusual that the trail was still rideable this time of year since its usually covered in snow by November.
We packed up the car and headed to Kernville.
We arrived less than 3 hours later at the Lake Isabella Motel, can't beat $62 a night out the door
The pool area (closed, darn):
The 'lower' parking lot:
The room was pretty small but clean and the beds were surprisingly comfortable. There wasn't a lot of room to move around with 2 bikes inside (I'm up against the wall):
We decided to head down the the local spot for a drink to finish off the night. Shot some pool, got a free drink from a local and met the bartending sisters:
Next morning we packed up and ate breakfast at the only place in town that was open. Nagaredama ordered the special, "1/2 ham & eggs." Turns out it was supposed to read a half pound of ham. It looked more like half a pig!! That thing was freaking huge!
Met up with the others and drove to the top (our local rider Gene's mom was our shuttle driver. Thanks!)
Unfortunately, as I've seen in many Plunge reports, I didn't get any riding pics. There's so much ground to cover that we had to just keep moving the whole time. Here we are taking a break while enjoying the amazing scenery:
And that's when it happened. Nagaredama was in front of me and I saw him boost off a little lip that was in the trail. When I came to it I did the same and rode away into the clear straightaway ahead. Well, I thought it was clear. There was a dead branch about as thick as my wrist crossing right through the trail in front of me. I swerved as much as I could but any more would have sent me off the trail to a nasty fall. I'm used to wearing armor so I figured I would just tuck and take the hit hoping the branch would break.
It didn't break.
It smacked the edge of my hand hard and snagged my arm. One of the broken twigs had left a mini-stump that did the damage. I looked down and saw an unfamiliar sight: muscle tissue and fat.
Oops.
Luckily my wife had given me a small first aid kit last year for christmas. I whipped it out, cleaned the would and bandaged it up. Surprisingly it didn't hurt too bad, just stung a little. My hand was a different story. It felt like my pinky was broken but I could still move it. May have fractured my hand or knuckle but I'll find out tomorrow when I go to my doctor It hurt to grip the bars but luckily we were just finishing the rockiest part of the ride.
We stopped for lunch on a nice rock formation. Nagaredama and I both brought canned fish but forgot forks. I opted to dump my tuna into my mouth. He, being much more civilized, used a Pedros tire lever to eat his salmon
(note Nagaredama's sweet helmet hair)
Back on the trail my arm felt fine although it was starting to bleed through the bandage and the sports wrap Ian let me use (thanks Ian!). Hand pain would come and go, mostly dependent on how much fun I was having to keep my mind off it.
We reached "The Plunge" and hit the best view of the ride:
That's the last trail picture I took. Nagaredama took a couple which I'll add once I get them.It was fun, nothing too crazy although I was feathering the brakes most of the time. The elevation loss is so drastic that i never had to pedal, only let off the brakes for an instant speed boost.
We finished up the ride and went our separate ways. I wanted to get my arm looked at to see if I needed stitches. It still didn't really hurt but I wanted to make sure. We opted to go to the hospital in town with hopes of faster service than back home in LA.
They were just hopes.
Walked in at 4:30, walked out at 8:45. They said I'd be in and out until they heard it happened on dead wood which carries a lot of bacteria. Thus began the four hour process of numbing, cleaning, scrubbing, X-raying, numbing, scrubbing, numbing and finally stitching.
Turns out I needed 10 stitches but since it was a bad area for movement he double stitched it. 20 stitches for one lousy branch. I didn't even mention my hand since I still had mobility (although it stiffened up as the hours passed) and I didn't want to spend another minute there.
I'm glad they took the time to do it right, I'm just sorry that Nagaredama had to wait so damn long.
Here's the finished product:
We'll definitely be doing the Plunge again next year. I need to work on my climbing before next time though, I walked a few too many hills.
Special thanks to everyone on the ride for making it a great time
We packed up the car and headed to Kernville.
We arrived less than 3 hours later at the Lake Isabella Motel, can't beat $62 a night out the door
The pool area (closed, darn):
The 'lower' parking lot:
The room was pretty small but clean and the beds were surprisingly comfortable. There wasn't a lot of room to move around with 2 bikes inside (I'm up against the wall):
We decided to head down the the local spot for a drink to finish off the night. Shot some pool, got a free drink from a local and met the bartending sisters:
Next morning we packed up and ate breakfast at the only place in town that was open. Nagaredama ordered the special, "1/2 ham & eggs." Turns out it was supposed to read a half pound of ham. It looked more like half a pig!! That thing was freaking huge!
Met up with the others and drove to the top (our local rider Gene's mom was our shuttle driver. Thanks!)
Unfortunately, as I've seen in many Plunge reports, I didn't get any riding pics. There's so much ground to cover that we had to just keep moving the whole time. Here we are taking a break while enjoying the amazing scenery:
And that's when it happened. Nagaredama was in front of me and I saw him boost off a little lip that was in the trail. When I came to it I did the same and rode away into the clear straightaway ahead. Well, I thought it was clear. There was a dead branch about as thick as my wrist crossing right through the trail in front of me. I swerved as much as I could but any more would have sent me off the trail to a nasty fall. I'm used to wearing armor so I figured I would just tuck and take the hit hoping the branch would break.
It didn't break.
It smacked the edge of my hand hard and snagged my arm. One of the broken twigs had left a mini-stump that did the damage. I looked down and saw an unfamiliar sight: muscle tissue and fat.
Oops.
Luckily my wife had given me a small first aid kit last year for christmas. I whipped it out, cleaned the would and bandaged it up. Surprisingly it didn't hurt too bad, just stung a little. My hand was a different story. It felt like my pinky was broken but I could still move it. May have fractured my hand or knuckle but I'll find out tomorrow when I go to my doctor
It hurt to grip the bars but luckily we were just finishing the rockiest part of the ride.We stopped for lunch on a nice rock formation. Nagaredama and I both brought canned fish but forgot forks. I opted to dump my tuna into my mouth. He, being much more civilized, used a Pedros tire lever to eat his salmon
(note Nagaredama's sweet helmet hair)
Back on the trail my arm felt fine although it was starting to bleed through the bandage and the sports wrap Ian let me use (thanks Ian!). Hand pain would come and go, mostly dependent on how much fun I was having to keep my mind off it.
We reached "The Plunge" and hit the best view of the ride:
That's the last trail picture I took. Nagaredama took a couple which I'll add once I get them.It was fun, nothing too crazy although I was feathering the brakes most of the time. The elevation loss is so drastic that i never had to pedal, only let off the brakes for an instant speed boost.
We finished up the ride and went our separate ways. I wanted to get my arm looked at to see if I needed stitches. It still didn't really hurt but I wanted to make sure. We opted to go to the hospital in town with hopes of faster service than back home in LA.
They were just hopes.
Walked in at 4:30, walked out at 8:45. They said I'd be in and out until they heard it happened on dead wood which carries a lot of bacteria. Thus began the four hour process of numbing, cleaning, scrubbing, X-raying, numbing, scrubbing, numbing and finally stitching.
Turns out I needed 10 stitches but since it was a bad area for movement he double stitched it. 20 stitches for one lousy branch. I didn't even mention my hand since I still had mobility (although it stiffened up as the hours passed) and I didn't want to spend another minute there.
I'm glad they took the time to do it right, I'm just sorry that Nagaredama had to wait so damn long.
Here's the finished product:
We'll definitely be doing the Plunge again next year. I need to work on my climbing before next time though, I walked a few too many hills.
Special thanks to everyone on the ride for making it a great time
That breakfast looks good. Those pics with blood are sick.
