RR: Turnbull: 1 Pato: 0/Turnbull madness, complete with crash video

[Pato]

The day started off innocently enough. COLEKO, davidB, Hanzo, ohyeah89, stinkyrider and myself met up at Turnbull and headed up somewhere just after 8:00am. The weather was nice and cool for about the first 10 minutes then it got hotter than what I was hoping for. Don't you believe any of them when they say they are slow. I was never within 100 yards of them after the first 1/4 mile. It doesn't help matters much either that I seem to be closer related to a sloth than a cheetah.

2.5 miles of fireroad and 600' of climbing later we reach the entrance to the the 7th St. Loop. Down the nice and windy singletrack (mostly) we go. A quick regroup at the bottom to remove all excess armor/helmet/glove and whatever else I can think of that would hinder my climbing and off we go again. Up we went, navigating oh so precariously through some tight switchbacks until we hit the Great Wall of China. Didn't quite make it up on the first try so I decide to turn back and give it another go. Made it a little further the second time around, but paid the price for it. Up and over the hump then splat. Down I go on to my left side with the grace of a drunkard.

We finally made it out with everything intact (less my dignity). Off to the other side of the street to hit Cow Trail. As we were crossing the street, we ran into BandMan, I want to say singleSSpeedster (could be wrong) and a bunch of other people I don't reconize. singleSSpeedster decided to join us on a second loop of Cow Trail.

Some more nice, flowy singletrack followed by, you guessed it, more climbing. Luckily, this section was uneventful. Thanks singleSSpeedster for keeping me company in the back for a bit there coming back up.

With all the climbing out of the way we head over to my favorite section of Turnbull Canyon. The 3 B's down from the water tower followed by A Side. Down the 3 B's we all went followed by some tom foolery at the base by a few of us. After a few runs up and down the big roller at the base of the 3 B's, we head on over to the A Side.

Here we lose Hanzo as he had to be somewhere and time was running short for him (Sorry Hanzo. I'll try to pedal/run up the hills faster next time). Once you get over the fear of exposure, I find the A Side to be the best bang for your buck trail at Turnbull. It's fast and flows well for the most part. We all made it safely to the bottom where the trail exits on to the street. This is where things go south for me.

I had the bright idea of trying to clear the fence that seperates the trail from the street. At this point the trail (paved road really) is a slight downhill leading to the exit. To the left of the paved road is a dirt embankment that rises above the road and levels off while the paved road continues it's downward slope. At the end of this embankment is a fence that is maybe 30" beyond the end of the embankment. I figure so long as I carry enough speed, I should be able to clear the gap and land on the street on the other side of the fence. Oh, did I mention that there is also a tree just to the left of the gap with it's branches hanging down almost tentacle like obscuring the path of the drop? Well, there is.

So back up the paved road I push my bike after wisely removing all fragile items namely my phone, camera and MP3 player (Thanks Coleko for the suggestion). Oh, and thanks ohyeah89, for letting me borrow your pads by the recommendation from Coleko (This guy is either really smart or has had a lot of experience with these situations ). Once at the top I took a few moments to catch my breath before I attempted the drop.

Did I clear it? Heck yeah I cleared it. It was great. The landing? Not so much. At first I thought the branches were to blame since I did feel them tugging a bit on my right side. I felt it on my helmet and my bars. But the judges, upon further review of the video, ruled that I was just a unskilled hack. It looks as though my weight was too far back causing the bike to flip out from under me. It must have been a knee jerk reaction to get my weight back in case I didn't clear the gap with my rear wheel over the fence.

Hopefully davidB will be able to post the pictures and video of my fabulous dismount. After viewing it, you'll see why I was not one of the select few who made the men's olympic gymnastics team. I might have made the human bowling team though, if they ever had one, as I must have slid a good 20' feet on my back after seperating from my bike.

Next time Turnbull. Next time. I WILL be the victor!

Oh, and if anyone is going up there in the near future, please keep an eye out for a lung. I think I coughed one of mine out on one of the climbs. I know I still have my heart as it was pounding in my chest the whole darn time.

[davidB]

Got the invite to do Turnbull this morning with some of the other locals. I showed up and the group consisted of these dudes, and dudette:

Token old guy - Hanzo


Pato - before crash


ohyeah89 hiking a bike


stinkyrider on a-line/friends singletrack


me - from 2 days ago when i was there so people know who i am


Coleko - watching a pretty good video taken seconds before


onto the riding...

pato trying to make it up a well known loose climb

he didn't make it of course, but oddly enough neither did Hanzo, who did the same exact thing.

Serious ride this was not.


We climbed over to cow trail, a trail I've only done once before and knew was good. Tara leading the big bike boys down it.


and up it


We then rode up a killer of a fireroad for what seemed like forever just to get back to where we started. It was hot. And dry. Very dry and everything looked dead.


Someone said we were done. I knew better. We still had to get way out there for the fun stuff.


the real fun stuff came at the last hour of the ride, courtesy of Pato in what i can only explain in pictures.

Pato making a new line for himself and just hucking it. This kind of stuff amazes me.




he didn't get enough speed or whatever and tried it again. the 2nd jump never even touched the hill and he landed further with a sketchier landing.

everyone else watching. Note, Hanzo is saying i'm number 1


Pato airing it out again on A-line. Notice the hiker.


Mark and Tara coming down the same trail. You can't tell, but she's talking herself down the trail. "don't fall, don't fall, the camera's right there, shit this is scary....mark i did it!"



To finish off the ride we usually just take the street down to the cars, and someone will make a comment on making a jump out of this. Well, Pato decides to try it. I ask him if he wants us to move the branches hanging down. He said no because it'll look cooler breaking through it. Well....

The good:


The bad:


The ugly:



Watching the video afterwards made the whole ride worth it. Duc walked away and all was well.

[foofighter]

holy crap he slid for a few feet and no road rash?

[Pato]

Originally Posted by foofighter

holy crap he slid for a few feet and no road rash?

It was closer to a 20' slide me thinks and no, unfortunately, I was not lucky enough to escape road rash free. I'll post the picture as soon as I figure it out. I was nothing major though. Thanks to Coleko's foresight and Tara's generosity, I was mostly protected with armor. Tara's armor protected my elbow from the impact and my pack and jersey took the brunt of the slide.

Both my ankles are bruised on the right side with pieces of skin missing and my right shoulder is a little sprained or bruised as well. I'm starting to have trouble reaching out with my right arm now that the adrenaline from the ride is wearing off.

Oh, btw. If anyone heard what sounded like a girl screaming at around 2:30ish, that was me stepping into the shower and getting soap all over the road rash.

[strobelite]

dude, you were going fast!

[foofighter]

wow take some advil tonight before bed and some dermaskin? for the wound

[Pato]

Originally Posted by davidB

he didn't make it of course, but oddly enough neither did Hanzo, who did the same exact thing.

Hey, thanks for the vote of confidence there mate.

Originally Posted by davidB

Duc walked away and all was well.

Dude, I've heard stories of wartime paratroopers who's chutes never opened and they crash landed. With all the adrenaline and training in their bodies, they were still able to get up and run a few yards due to muscle memory before the body realized that it was dead and fell over. I still could be in that stage.

Originally Posted by strobelite

dude, you were going fast!

Thanks. I figure it would be safer to overshoot the gap than to undershoot it and have my rear wheel hang up on the fence.

[DBD]

Looks like a great ride but you need to get back into the editing booth, lighten that vid up a bit a toss in some slow-mo.

[Bryguy17]

yeah, you were hauling some serious arse on that one. I bet you coulda gone half as fast and still cleared the fence

Good to see you're okay though. live to huck another day

[Pato]

Originally Posted by foofighter

wow take some advil tonight before bed and some dermaskin? for the wound

Thanks for the suggestions. I started the day hopped up on Celebrex and Tylenol due to a bad knee so I've got the drugs part covered. As for the Dermaskin, the scrapes aren't too bad. Just a large area so I think I should be ok. I'm never going to win any beauty contests or become a model so I'm not too worried about scarring.

It's a good thing I read up on this thread and shaved my body before the ride just in case of and event like this. As you can see, it also made me twice as fast coming down that hill since I was so aerodynamic due to no wind resistance from my hairy body.

[Pato]

J/K

Here's the extent of my visible wounds. Well, the most major one at least. Nothing to write home about or even mention really. I think the biggest concern would be the sharp pain in my right shoulder when I reach out with it, but even that is more of a minor inconvenience than a true injury in my book.

[ohyeah89]

Originally Posted by DBD

Looks like a great ride but you need to get back into the editing booth, lighten that vid up a bit a toss in some slow-mo.

I gotta second that!!! And maybe can duc (haha hope you are okay!!!) or david can repost a version of it from photobucket or picasso or something for better detail?

These people are missing out without more detail! I love the slomo idea... I was getting scared just waiting for him to do it... It was CRAZY!

I'll post my RR of the day tommorrow when I'm bored in the office...

Great fun today though guys! I had a blast, thanks.

[mtnbikerfred]

So Duc, How *do* you say "Jacka$$" in your native tongue? 수탕나귀

Next time, just roll slow and bunny hop the fence....