OOPS - I did it again?!!

So I have been back in Utah for barely 3 days and already I have had more than enough adventure to last me a little while. I am slowly but surely ruining the largest organ of my body, but I suppose I should tell the story and put that part where it belongs...at the end.

Since I knew I would be missing one of my mountain biking classes while I was in Chicago, I made arrangements with my professor to make up the class. The make up assignment was great, go on the ride I missed. Since the 24th of July fell on Saturday this year, BYU had their holiday on Friday. I like to pretend that on holidays I cannot get into my office. So I used that as my excuse to do my make up ride.

Dutch Hollow is part of the the Wasatch National Forest and is located Northwest of Heber. It is beautiful in its own desert style. while riding I saw many lizards, squirrels, a few dogs, and hawk that flew less than 10 feet over my head. The air was clear and the day was bright, perfect for a roll through the gamble oaks and sage brush.

As I rode up the trail and curved out to where I could look over the Heber Valley I was awed with the stark beauty that surrounded me.

I just love these views!

When I reached the lookout over the valley, I felt so happy to be alive and be where I was at that moment. In a way I just felt contentment with life.

Zoomed in picture of Deer Creek Reservoir as seen from the lookout position.

In the next pictures you can see Deer Creek Reservoir in the middle left and Mount Timpanogos to the upper right.

The rest of the ride was also beautiful and awe inspiring but other than being terrified when a couple huge dogs came lolloping down the trail nothing too eventful happened.

The ride in Dutch Hollow made up for the missed class period but I still needed to do my 90 minutes of riding homework for the week. So on Saturday the 24th I took off to ride again. I had planned to go up to American Fork Canyon, but when I remembered it was a holiday I decided to attempt tackling the Bonneville Shoreline Trail between Orem and Pleasant Grove, again.

The ride started out hot and clear. Like most portions of the Shoreline Trail this section is exposed almost entirely to the sun. This section of the trail follows the mountain on the south and west face. Looking back over the trail.

Looking out over Utah Lake and Utah Valley - they are really unique with the names around here aren't they?

Oh, good I am wearing a different shirt than yesterday.

Well, everything was going great until I had been riding for about an hour when I started to feel really tired. So I decided to head back toward the parking lot. At this point back was almost all a nice downhill. So I began cruising back, more like riding my brakes back. Well as I came off the end of a downhill portion and the trail was just starting to level off the ground became very soft and my bike went out of control. I must have gripped my front brake too much because the next thing I knew, I was flying over my handlebars.

As soon as I landed I tried standing up, but the wind had been knocked out of me. When I was finally breathing I got up and tried to walk over to my bike. I could not see, well my vision was all light streaks and black spots. I thought that my sunglasses had cracked so I tried taking them off but then all I could see was white and yellow light. After several minutes I could see well enough to walk my bike and after a minute or so of walking I could see normally. So I got back on my bike and rode back to my car.

Once I got home the first thing I did was get in the shower and try to clean my wounds. They hurt way too much for me to get much cleaned out of them. So after my shower I found my lovely, and talented nursing student roommate and she cleaned me up with alcohol and hydrogen peroxide. It still hurt but it is easier to deal with when someone else is doing the cleaning.

The worst of my injuries were on my left arm. 

Here is a close up of the upper arm.

And then the worst part of the injuries, my lower left arm right by my elbow. You can actually see the scars from my last accident right on my elbow.

The worst thing about this accident is that it happened on the same trail where I biffed it last time I really hurt myself. So lesson learned, I need a bigger first aide kit!