Litter leads to injury!

[steve_sordy]

I was in the Bike Park at Sherwood Pines on Friday, avoiding the Royal Wedding (or so I thought). On the left side of the park, there are some nice deep rock-lipped bombholes that I like to have a go at. They are close together and one nicely leads to the other. The second one is about 12 feet deep and narrow.

I had just completed the first one when I saw a bottle on the trail. I avoided riding over it, but this put me off my intended line. I sailed over the edge and instead of landing half way down the face, in line with the exit, I landed on the sloping right hand side of the bombhole about four feet from the bottom.

OOOOFFF! The impact between my entire right side and the side of the hole drove the breath out of me. My knee and elbow pads and my helmet took a lot of the impact, but I was stunned for a few seconds. I lay in a crumpled heap in a tangle of bike and limbs as I did a mental inventory of how much of me was broken. Then I thought I heard another rider coming! God, I was right in the landing zone! Thought of bodily damage disappeared as I scrambled to get me and bike out of harm's way. But there wasn't anyone, it must have been noises in my head.

Thoroughly shook up, aching all down one side, and with a ricked neck, I cut short the visit and rode the 4 miles of red route back to the car park. This morning, I can only function if I keep my right elbow pressed against my side. The physio is shut until Tuesday.

And all because some tosser couldn't be arsed to even take the effort to throw his rubbish into the bushes!

[Hobo]

Dammit I always miss the good crashes.

Seriously tho' I hope you're okay dude and it's nothing more than a bit of bruising!

Litter on the trails is one of my pet hates, but the absolute worst is when you get plastered with dog-do.

[MTBLeague]

It most certainly does, tried unexpectedly clipping a bottle with the top on, never good, scum leaving that stuff around, just like the "rant" in this months mag.

Best one I did was see a pop can, can't remember where it was now and decided to go for it as it was lying side ways across the trail, it made a satisfying crump as I hit it, unfortunately it locked on to my front tyre spun around and jammed in the frock bridge locking the front wheel all in a half a revolution of the wheel.

Cant remember what happened next but I was cross at both the litterer and my own stupidity.

[steve_sordy]

Thanks for that Hobo. I'll survive. But I won't be going back on the bike until I've seen the physio; she sorted out my two previous shoulder injuries (same side as now)!

Been walking about looking like Napoleon today.
But it's comfier that way!

[PMC101]

sorry to hear that bud, its never nice to have to stay off the bike at no fault of your own. At least its just bruising.

You should write a letter/email to the sherwood pines site, you wont get anything from them or anything but it will keep them up to date with whats going on on there trails. You never know other people might of complainted in letter and they might upgrade their effect in checking/cleaning the site.

[steve_sordy]

sorry to hear that bud, its never nice to have to stay off the bike at no fault of your own. At least its just bruising.

You should write a letter/email to the sherwood pines site, you wont get anything from them or anything but it will keep them up to date with whats going on on there trails. You never know other people might of complainted in letter and they might upgrade their effect in checking/cleaning the site.

Thanks for that PMC101. And also for the suggestion to contact S/P. I'll log it on their website.

PS: I know its not just bruising (although there's some of that), because I've had this before. I've damaged the ligaments around the shoulder, maybe only strained them, but they have a poor blood supply and consequently they take a while to heal. However, they do respond well to the physio magic. Whatever you do with shoulder injuries, don't "get used to it" and try to adapt around it - after a few months they can become difficult to treat.

[greeneye]

sorry to hear that steve, it seems like an age old problem that just cant be solved without a shed load of wardens which aint guna happen.

get well soon buddy.

[steve_sordy]

Thanks Greeneye. I know that nothing I say will stop people chucking litter. I logged the incident on the S/Pines FC website. I asked them to install a litter bin near the launch ramp at the Bike Park (where all the youths loiter to chew the fat, and where most of the litter is to be found). They already have a bin in the Dirt Jump area, but it is usually empty, with a halo of litter nearby. But it can't hurt and at least it will give me somewhere secure to dump the bags I collect.

I asked the FC to send someone out more frequently to clear the litter. A couple of weeks ago, at the launch ramp, I spent 10 mins or so collecting litter in a carrier bag I found. Just cig packets, beer cans, plastic bottles, crisp packets etc. Last week it was still there, securely tied up. On Friday, it had been tipped out on the floor and scattered.

I go there quite frequently and I am prepared to collect the litter every now and then. I'll even take my own bin bags. But I need somewhere secure to dump them, otherwise they will get scattered again. The FC guys need to empty the bins weekly.

[PMC101]

well i hope they sit up and take notice, it sounds like you have quite a problem with litter in your area.

[m65]

You need some of these...