Seth-n-Jode's Adventures

It was the best mountain biking day and the worst mountain biking day.  We had just finished biking the Hermosa Creek Trail.  It was a day filled with wildflowers, cold mountain creeks, and wonderful friends.   As we hit the gravel road at the end of the trail, we turned south to follow it about 2 miles to where our cars awaited with cold drinks and snacks. It was around 2:00 p.m. Our friends, Mark and Patti were ahead of us on the gravel road.  Seth was third and I was in the back.  Its a curvy gravel road.  According to Mark and Patti, they were passed by a jeep wagoneer heading up the road at a high rate of speed so much so that he skidded around a curve.  They yelled at him to slow down.  There were many bikers on the road as the 12 hour adventure race course was going on.  The next thing I knew is that I came around a curve to find a biker in the middle of the road.  His mangled bike was off to the side.  The jeep was pulled off to the right with a cracked windshield.  I realized that it was Seth and I realized he had just been hit by the jeep.  I ran up to him and yelled his name.  He was curled up and he was breathing very hard and labored and spitting up blood.  He didn't respond to me.  I didn't notice this at the time but his helmet was completely cracked.  I didn't know what to do.  I started screaming for help.   The driver was walking around and seemed to be very disoriented.  It was so absolutely scary that my stomach just reels even writing this down.  I knew Seth was in bad shape but I was too afraid to move him for fear of further hurting him.  I didn't have a cell phone on me and no one but Seth and I and the driver were in site.  Fortunately, a couple nearby heard my screams and started running towards me.  I believe they were paramedics or had some sort of emergency training because they ran up to Seth and immediately started stabilizing him.  They asked me to go to the south end of the road to stop any traffic coming up.  I heard them yelling Seth's name and yelling at him to wake up.  As the traffic was stopped on the south end, I finally went up and held Seth's hand while we were waiting for the ambulance.  He was responding to the paramedics and answering their questions as to what hurt.  He was complaining of his left shoulder which looked to be severely dislocated.  I had also seen when they flipped him onto his back that his right leg flopped around very unnaturally.  This is another image that will probably haunt me for day, months and years to come.  I told him that I loved him and asked him to squeeze my hand.  He squeezed it so hard. 

It took forever for the ambulance to arrive (or it seemed forever). It took probably a half hour or so as they came from Electra Lake.  People were coming up to me and holding me and praying while we were waiting.  The driver came up to me as well and hugged me and said he was so sorry.  Once the ambulance arrived, it took them quite some time to get Seth onto the backboard because of his dislocated shoulder.  But everyone kept telling me that he was fine.  Someone lent me a phone and I started making calls to Seth's mom and my mom and my sister. 

They finally got him loaded and I rode in the ambulance to the airport.  Luis, the ambulance driver, had to go very slow on the gravel road as they were not wanting to jiggle Seth too much.  I could hear the paramedics asking Seth questions in the back and he was responding really well.  They asked him to visualize a bowling ball.  And then five minutes later, they asked him what they had asked him to visualize.  He couldn't remember so I knew he probably had a concussion.

It was just so scary.  I kept asking myself what I could have done differently.  I was going into "take-back" mode.  If I would have gone faster there or slower here earlier in the day, perhaps none of this would have happened.  I am just so thankful that there were trained people on site to get Seth stablized.  We were so lucky to have volunteers to appear literally out of the woods in such a remote location who probably saved Seth's life by getting him stable and talking. Mother Earth, the Universal Spirit, Fate, God, Buddha, whatever we choose to believe in - all seemed to be watching over us.