I was out on one of my Saturday morning rides in March, starting to ramp up some for the spring season and PMBAR.

It was a colder morning so I was bundled up. Long sleeves, jacket, pants, nothing too crazy. It was dark when I rolled out and for most of the ride.

I was doing one of my favorites. Cathey’s Creek, 471D, Searcy connector to Searcy Creek Road, Lower Long Branch, then lower Butter it’s pedally, a good mix of surfaces and pretty straightforward in the dark…. After that I’d take the road back home, or if I had enough time, go over 475C to Stoney and out Joel Branch. That was still up in the air. I was going to see how long it took me to get to the hatchery and how I was feeling before I made that call.

The ride was going pretty well. Through Cathey’s and 471D, then Searcy, then Lower Long Branch. Then I made a left onto lower Butter, and that’s about the last I remember for a little while.

My phone records have me calling Katie at about 7:20. Based on my Garmin I had stopped for fifteen or twenty minutes. I remember getting up and sitting there trying to figure out what happened and what the best way out was, so I don’t think I was out for very long.

Best I can figure, I made the left feeling good and having fun, so I stood up to pick up some speed through that section. And then I’m picking myself up off the ground and I can’t really use my right arm. I must have stood up right into a laurel branch. My helmet was dented pretty bad on the top left, a spot that would make no sense for the ground to have done. Hit my head, knocked me off the bike, and I broke my collarbone somewhere in there. The collarbone I had figured out before I started walking. Simple touch showed that and any movement of it was shooting pain in the shoulder area, so that one was easy.

Luckily you have service in that particular spot. Katie was awake and able to come get me at the hatchery so I didn’t have to figure out how to get home from there. She had to get the kids up and ready first, but I had a few minutes of walking ahead of me anyway.

So I pushed my bike out one handed.

There are a lot of sections of that walk I don’t really remember. And a few that I do. I kept my right arm tucked neatly across my stomach grabbing my jacket to sort of immobilize the arm. Using my left arm on the stem of the bike to be able to steer it and push it with just the one arm. all and all it was a hoot, most of it wasn’t too bad. A few of the bigger obstacles were less fun but I got there.

When Katie got to the hatchery she decided to come in to get me, and in a rush she went up a trail that wasn’t the one I was on. I got back to the car and they weren’t there. Fortunately, I was able to get a message out with satellite, and by then she was back where I fell and she had service, so it worked out.

Getting in the car was awful. Getting my tight fitting baselayer off was worse.

We went home, got some breakfast, sat for a bit before Katie dropped me off at urgent care. The collarbone wasn’t gonna get more broken so I figured I might as well clean up and eat. Chris had soccer that morning too, so we had to get him taken care of.

The X-ray confirmed it was a pretty displaced fracture. They wanted me to go to the ER for a CT, and since it was a Saturday there weren’t a lot of other options. I passed the local tests but I had a concussion for sure.

I didn’t go. I really detest ERs, and I figured if it got any worse I’d go see a doc on Monday and avoid the whole ER mess. This probably wasn’t my smartest move ever. As time would go on the concussion proved to be more stubborn than the collarbone.

The rest of the day was a lot of pain. Any movement on that shoulder was sharp pains and I really don’t like pain meds other than tylenol and Ibuprofen.

Fast forward to Monday and I was able to get in with an orthopedic who more or less said surgery was the way to go. Within two days we were heading in for some bone repair

I ended up with a plate and eight screws. And some time for recovery.

The helmet did its job. I got home and had breakfast with my family.

Could have gone a lot worse.