Big Mountain Riding

Story & Photos: Randy King

A simple, shocking fact is that, all too many times, one second makes all the difference. Sickeningly, we are usually never aware which second is that second until it’s too late. We say we’d love to go back and relive whole chunks of our lives, so that we could make different choices. Yet really, if we could relive less than a minute or two of key seconds, we could change so much.

Cold creek crossing on Candler's Mountain

This was brought home yet again for me on Saturday’s friendly at Liberty University’s Liberty Mountain Trail System. Mid-ride, we headed back to Five Points for a rendezvous with a friend.

Our amigo Ricardo, ever searching for the perfect bike, immediately asked if he could try out her 29-er Specialized hard tail. He jumped on her bike and took off up Rogues Gallery trail while the rest of us chatted about where we’d head next.

A minute may have passed, and then Richard began yelling from around the bend in the trail. We were bemused. However, his tone grew more strident, and Scott said “We’d better go find out.”

Just as I approached the log crossing and saw the bike lying twisted on the other side, Scott rode back and reported, “He says he broke his arm.”

As indeed he had. Broke it in such a way that he needed surgery to ensure it would reset properly.

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In the late ’90s a friend and I were visiting family in the hilly suburbs of Knoxville, TN. We borrowed two mountain bikes and as we rolled them out of the garage, I thought to warn my friend of the powerful grab of the V-brakes, but then I remembered that she had a bike with V’s. We started off down the hill and within seconds she was lying on the ground, bleeding from deep cuts to the face and hands from a too-hard brake pull.

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The summer following my senior of high school my dad and I were putting a new roof on a lake house and our boss left us in the evening with the instructions that we didn’t need to finish off the job that day. Dad kept on pushing, though, because a storm was rolling in and he wanted to get to a certain point before the rain. Tired, teen-aged and harassed by the onslaught of pre-rain mosquitoes, I badgered him for his stubbornness. Finally the rain arrived, and we struck the scene. I scrambled off the roof, and had to grab at the eaves as the ladder slid a bit on the slick deck below. Eager to depart, and angry that we had tarried so long, I didn’t offer a warning of the precarious ladder, and moments later I heard the crash and yell of pain. Broken ribs and bruised lungs resulted.

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In both of these cases mere seconds made the difference. However, two things can help us better the outcomes of these crucial seconds.

Sometimes – in a split second – we can do something to differ the outcome of a second. Once, reaching down to pick-up a log in the North Carolina woods, I had a flash of premonition, and pulled back my hand to use my foot instead to kick it over. Suddenly exposed to light, a copperhead uncoiled and slithered away.  Last summer, scrambling down the granite shore of a northern lake, I accidentally knocked loose a piano-sized boulder which my dad was sitting on. In the second that that big rock crunched over the little stones propping it up and slid into the lake like a refrigerator toppling into a pool, I reacted and helped him stay out of the lake and out from under the rock.

Seconds' difference

I won’t take credit for those decisions made in the explosive space where normalcy ignites into crisis. Nor will I profess to know the formula for always making the snap decision that avoids all pain and suffering. However, chance favors the prepared mind, to take Louis Pasteur out of context.

So, I think you can prepare yourself to make the right decision in a split second by arming yourself with knowledge and experience, and by praying for wisdom to act justly in crises.

First-aid training is available from your local Red Cross chapter for a low cost. Get it. Carrying a cellphone and knowing emergency contact numbers is important. Additionally, you should share the numbers of your ride partners with your significant other. Know the alternate access points/roads for emergency vehicles or an amateur rescue wagon to get to you. Throw some basic first-aid kit into your Camelbak if you have the room.

Ride responsibly to try and prevent yourself from becoming a statistic. Think before you act – think really fast if it’s all going bad in a matter of seconds! Once an accident occurs, channel your adrenaline and panic toward constructive outcomes. Nobody benefits from your panic.  Focus instead on getting the injured person out of the woods as quickly and safely as possible, and into professional care if needed. Remember your brain, and turn it on the problem at hand.

Wisdom will help you to do the right thing in the midst of chaos. “My son, preserve sound judgment and discernment, do not let them out of your sight; they will be life for you, an ornament to grace your neck. Then you will go on your way in safety, and your foot will not stumble. ” -Proverbs 3:21-23. Seek wisdom from its source: “The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom, and knowledge of the Holy One is understanding.” -Proverbs 9:10. We don’t have it on our own.

© 2010 Big Mountain Riding