Being an optimist, I have probably over-romanticized this bike trip – easy pedals, legs that don’t get sore, beautiful weather, no flats, lovely B&B’s, lunch on the trail overlooking great vistas… All the same, I made preparations for things that could go wrong – a Road ID tag, an iPhone with bike repair apps, bike tools…. But the other day, Annette came across a blog in the NY Times about how to write stories and of all things to use as an example, the author told a story about a woman who got badly hurt on the C&O Canal when her wheels lost traction on a wet trail. With a broken shoulder and facial lacerations, she and a friend had to leave their bikes on the trail and trudge back through the 1-mile long Paw Paw Tunnel to get to a hospital. (Any lessons on writing were lost on me as I instead focused on ohm.)
It was a sobering wake-up call. A real injury. Hhmmm. It’s OK to have some realistic fears, but I also think denial keeps you from preparing sufficiently. I came home, held my breath, and started googling terms like, “C&O bike crashes”. I only found two other stories. The first was about a guy who hit an uneven surface at one of the aqueducts and even with a helmet, got a bad concussion and other scrapes. Three days in the hospital and a leg clot later, he was advocating helmets no matter how good you think the trails are. The other was a fatality. (I confess I had googled, “C&O, bike, death” to see if anybody was dying on the trails.) A tree fell on a biker during a bad storm. Now that’s just bad luck.
I was feeling a bit more apprehensive about the trip after reading these things. And then I found somebody’s photo journal of his GAP/C&O ride. It was all sunny pictures on nice looking trails and great vistas. That returned my trip excitement and subjugated trip fears to the background again. Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s acting in spite of fear. I’m still going on my trip!
It was a sobering wake-up call. A real injury. Hhmmm. It’s OK to have some realistic fears, but I also think denial keeps you from preparing sufficiently. I came home, held my breath, and started googling terms like, “C&O bike crashes”. I only found two other stories. The first was about a guy who hit an uneven surface at one of the aqueducts and even with a helmet, got a bad concussion and other scrapes. Three days in the hospital and a leg clot later, he was advocating helmets no matter how good you think the trails are. The other was a fatality. (I confess I had googled, “C&O, bike, death” to see if anybody was dying on the trails.) A tree fell on a biker during a bad storm. Now that’s just bad luck.
I was feeling a bit more apprehensive about the trip after reading these things. And then I found somebody’s photo journal of his GAP/C&O ride. It was all sunny pictures on nice looking trails and great vistas. That returned my trip excitement and subjugated trip fears to the background again. Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s acting in spite of fear. I’m still going on my trip!