Friday, August 21, 2020

Austell Ramble

There's all kinds of dirt in and around my neighborhood. I found so much that I was recently able to ride 32 miles, within 5 miles of my house, and over 20 of it was dirt. Dirt everywhere! But, I'm always looking for more, and with that pursuit in mind, a few weeks back, I headed west down Veterans toward Austell.

Turns out there's dirt out that way too! Dirt everywhere!

But, there was also a little park - Legion Field I think, with a little paved trail, and a little beach on Sweetwater Creek, and a bathroom, that turned out to be locked. It also had this sick drop:

Sick Drop

Check out that sick drop! I just had to send it. Full send bruh!

All joking aside, see how the section of concrete leading up to the step kind-of notches into the hillside. Even though it has that strip of yellow paint, from the top, you can't see the step unless you know it's there, the slope of the sidewalk above the step perfectly matches the slope of the section of sidewalk after that one notched-in section. The sidewalks just blend together and the step just fades out.

Or, it did for me, at least. I was riding down from above, didn't see it, and just rode off of it without realizing. Suddenly the bars weren't in my hands. Then, the front wheel kind of bounced, and it was even harder to find the bars again. I don't know exactly what happened next, except that I ate crap and, per the marks I found later, the stem must have hit me in the lower left side of my chest.

On the upside, I managed to not dislocate any shoulders. On the downside, I managed to bust some ribs. I don't know if they're broken, fractured, or just super bruised, but they felt at least fractured, as compared to other confirmed fractures I've had in the past. Four weeks later I'm just now finally, barely able to sleep on that side. I swear my ribs are made of styrofoam. Every decent crash - busted ribs.

No TNGA for me!

What a year.

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