On Saturday the roads were dry, but cold tires and cold pavement are something you always have to be aware of even when it’s 50 degrees and the sun is shining….there were a few of us “snow weasels” out riding….I had cabin fever something awful and was glad to get a call to go. After about 3 hours, my riding buddy and I stopped for some coffee and hung out getting warm again. Got back on the bikes and headed for home. Looked like rain…we came around a corner and 3 other sport bikes were lined up on the side and no riders, so I stopped.

Sure enough, one rider was off the side of a bank and in a creek. He was a big guy. He had apparently not caught up with his crew and after about 20 minutes they turned around and started looking for him….He landed face up in a bunch of boulders in the rushing cold water…they dragged him out about 5 minutes before I arrived.

We all did CPR for about 25 minutes until Cal-Fire showed up. I knew a couple of the firefighters and because we were so far out they were going to call the helicopter when they first arrived. I looked at the Captain and said “are you sure you want to do that?” We were both still doing CPR and we couldn’t get an airway established…too much pressure from the inside. we continued for a couple more minutes and told the guys up the bank to cancel Cal-Star….We just couldn’t save him. Internal injuries It sucked…A wife and two kids. His riding buddies were devastated as well. It was a tough one.

I am not a stranger to death as I worked in ER for many years…But, I really had a hard time with the whole thing partially because while I was doing breaths before they got there with the equipment, I kept getting blood back in my face. He was dead already and I knew it. His one friend kept begging all of us not to stop trying…it was really sad, there is this “smell” that I know from working trauma medicine for years that is familiar…and not in a good way… I had to smell it the whole 75 miles in my helmet back to the house. … I was not a happy camper by the time I got there. They say that smells often create the most powerful memories that humans retain and the connection remains sometimes for a life time. I haven’t worked in the medical field for about 15 years now, but I remember it.

I take a lot of my judgment and skill on these bikes for granted and I don’t ride over my head, but there are many people that should never own one. I know that one bad patch of pavement, a deer, a car in my lane or any one of those other scenarios can catch me at any time, but somehow I feel reasonably “lucky” in life and I practice good judgment. I say “reasonably” because I have survived so many things I had no control over. I just met a guy that didn’t.

His cell phone was ringing when we were pulling him out of the gully on the backboard. I turned and looked at his bike where his phone was strapped on in his bag and thought for one second I should answer it…and then what would I say? I didn’t answer it.

I drank wine Saturday night and today just stayed very busy. I am fine now…everyone deals with this stuff in their own way and fortunately, I have had a lot of experiences in my past with death, but it just sucks…he was only 27.

It’s pouring now…