416 Rocky Trails

This past Sunday's Pachaug rock pile ride was decent up until the last 1.5 miles of it, when I fell and landed on my left shoulder.
Ouch.
That's not me in the above pic.


Sunday's ride was shaping-up to be half-way decent.
Although the temps were seemingly not too shabby for December 23, once out on the trails I saw that there was, in fact, some thin ice to be wary of on the numerous standing water puddles left by Friday's rain.
So, I just took it slow and easy around those parts and carried on with an air of caution in my mind.
The bike felt pretty good, as I did, and other than the standing water with thin ice over parts of it, the trail conditions and weather were decent.

One of the hazards of the ol' Pachaug enduro loop is that 4x4 trucks and Jeeps and all sorts of ATVs will go out on parts of it because these guys are looking to have some off-road fun, too.
These are two problems with that, though:

1) They're not legally allowed out there to begin with.
2) They tend to kick rocks that are either on the side of the trail into the middle of it, or stand up rocks that used to be laying flat, and this makes for a more risky ride when it's at it's worst.

While riding back toward the official start/finish gravel lot of the Pachaug loop, there is a neat little natural terrain jump where the trail (more like a rough and rocky gravel road wide enough for a 4x4 truck) suddenly drops down.
At the top of this drop, there is a conveniently-placed rock sticking up out of the ground a couple of inches, and if you hit this fast enough it is perfect for catching some air, jumping off the ground for a distance, and landing toward the bottom of this drop-off.
I do exactly this every time I ride past there, and over the course of over three years of steady Pachaug loop riding, that's a whole lot of jumps.

This time, I got bit by one of those rocks that used to be pushed off to the side of the trail but found it's way back into the line used by dirt bike riders like me.
These rocks blend-in with the terrain, too.
When I landed from the jump, I got on the front brake to slow for the next puddle of water spanning the width of the trail, and a split second after hitting the brake is when I plowed right into the rock with my front wheel without even realizing it was there.
This is probably my most-feared kind of crash on a dirt bike and one I'm always on the look-out for - hitting something with my front wheel that I didn't see coming and losing the front end and going down.
That's what happened, as the front end suddenly darted to the right and I suddenly fell onto the ground with my left shoulder leading the way.

I got up, inspected myself and the WR-250FP, and thank God there was no serious damage to either.
In fact, all the bike got out of it were some scratches in the plastic bodywork and a bent chain guide cover (that I can repair and continue to use).
The handlebars don't even appear to be bent and the grip on the left side is OK, so, the bike came out of it pretty well, all-in-all.

For me, my shoulder, which took the fall for the most part, was functioning fine for the next couple of hours after the crash (I washed my bike without trouble immediately after the ride was done, as usual) without pain or lack of range of motion or anything abnormal.
After home and relaxing, as expected, it tightened-up and became sore.
The next morning, I couldn't raise my arm very high or hold it out level with the ground.
It's now Wednesday morning (merry post Christmas!), and, thank God, I can see and feel the improvements each morning in reduced pain and more range of motion coming back with the passing of 2-and-a-half days time.

With any luck, I'll be OK in another week or so.
If I had to guess at mid-week, I'll probably pass on riding this coming weekend, unless some kind of minor miracle happens before then.
I really don't want to go back out too soon, so giving it time is the smart money, I think.

-John