Luck Over

View from top of these beautiful waterfalls right up from campsite

I am pretty lucky when I think about all that I do and how little I get injured. I have definately had my fair shair of scrapes and bruises, only had a sprained ankle in flag football and a broken pinkie in high school. This week my mountain biking luck finally wore off. I already have received a few scars on my legs due to little scrapes from the bike itself or nature, but this week was a little more significant. No worries though, just some scrapes, no broken bones! John and I decided to do this awesome trail that follows along the Mackenzie River southeast of here. Its a little east of Eugene, OR. The trail is 26 miles long and cross country. I was very excited because I heard and read great things about the trail, but a little nervous because someone told me it was an advanced trail. Before we even get on the trail we are riding down this gravel road, I am in the lead and approaching a corner, I slow down a bit, forgetting that I was on gravel. I head into the corner and my bike totally slides out and I fall and skid along the gravel for what seemed like at least 10 feet. John said he kind of saw the fall but got a little nervous he was going to slide off the road so didn't completely see the whole thing happen. Got up with the classic Lyndsey injury that my family and a few friends know all too well. Told my parents and Luke I did a classic Lyndsey injury and they knew right away that I had scraped up my knee. I have so many scars on my knees, what's another one, right. Got my arms and left fingers as well. Bike turned out just fine except for a little evidence in the left handlebar. Then, of course, neither of us really have any first aid stuff with us, so I just clean it up a little in the creek and call it good. This was difficult because it hurt so bad washing it off and didn't have much to wash it off with besides the water, so I did not get it cleaned out very well. So we head on into our ride, my arm and knee hurting a little, bleeding down my leg, and much more reserved riding than I would have been had I not hurt myself. Needless to say, the ride took a lot longer than it probably would have otherwise, but luckily John was patient and waiting on me.


The knee looks better because the bleeding finally stopped

Besides the crash, bleeding, and hoping the injuries don't get infected, the ride and trip turned out well. It was a great trail. Had some technical areas going over lava rock, but overall the trail was perfect! Not too long or steep of climbs, nothing way too technical and the distance went by fast it seemed. Part of it went along a gorgeous lake with the hills and the sisters peaks in the background. We got to the end and I experienced hitchhiking for the first time. We actually did the whole thumbs up hitchhiking thing for a while, which wasn't working out too well. So I am over at this little general store and this guy walks out of the store and heads over to his little, old jeep looking thing. Not sure if our bikes would fit in it anyway but I decide to go up to him and ask him where he was headed. He was headed where we needed to go and didn't know how far he was going so said he would give us a ride. He had a dog in the back and a cool rack on top, so we threw our bikes on top and scrunched into the back. Couldn't talk much to him riding up the 20 miles because it was loud in the vehicle, but he seemed like a cool guy. Much better than riding our bikes all the way back up. I should have taken a picture of my first hitchhiking experience!

Last night I got to go out the the beach with some friends from work. We had a big bonfire and we attempted to do some clamming. Unfortunately we didn't even see any potential places of clams. Did some digging, but nobody got anything. The experience was cool. It's actually very difficult to get the digging thing into the sand, but it's pretty fun. Hopefully I can go again sometime and actually get something. You have to get a license to do it just on the rare occasion you will get stopped and asked to see a license.

It's been interesting here at work. We have a lady that is 36 weeks pregnant with twins and the hospital is pretty much just all about the twins. The doctor wants two doctors here for the delivery, two on backup, two nurses, one on backup, the CRNA (anesthesiologist), a respiratory therapist and one on backup, etc. Its ridiculous. Part of the small hospital mindset I guess. But the only two warmers we have are already set up for them, one they had to dig out of storage who knows where. It is way overboard its driving me nuts! There are more people due to have babies before she is. Craziness. So we have this nurse call schedule we have to sign up shifts for when she comes in they need to call another nurse in. And the doctor wants to do a c-section if she doesn't deliver before 38 weeks. Why? I have absolutely no idea! It blows my mind. Anyway, a little small hospital outlook.