Peaks and Valleys, July 11, 12, 13, 2020

Life gives and life takes, and the year 2020 has been more of a taker, than a giver. . .

Saturday we went SUPing (stand-up-paddle-boarding) at East Canyon Reservoir, Sunday we went mountain biking on the "must do" Strawberry Narrows Trail (per utahmountainbiking.com) which is really on Soldier Creek Reservoir, not Strawberry, and Monday I had surgery to reattach my ruptured Distal Bicep Tendon, which I tore while BC skiing doing a kick turn in upper Mud Bowl of Farmington Canyon on May 17, 2020.


Saturday, July 11, 2020, SUPing at East Canyon Reservoir:

East Canyon Reservoir

 

Mt. Biking, Sunday, July 12, 2020, Strawberry Narrows Trail, Soldier Creek Reservoir:

Soldier Creek Réservoir

Strawberry Narrows Trail, named for the fjord-like water filled canyon that connect Strawberry and Soldier Creek. 

Fjords of Soldier Creek

The trail is quite narrow (not here) from overhanging grass and brush, a sign of lite use, which I'm all for, because it's all about 'dodging the herd.' 

Soldier Creek Reservoir peaking through the forest. It was a hot day (mid 90's) which made it tempting to jump in the lake, but we never did. 

The trail is rated "early intermediate" but it does have some short, loose, steep-ish ups and downs that we walked.   

Much of the trail is like this, a bit over-grown. 

This was as far as we rode, about 4.5 miles from the trailhead, due to Kara's front tire slowly going flat. To get this far we had already burned through three CO2 cartridges and we only had two more to get us back. As it was, two were not enough and we had to walk the last half mile because her tire was totally flat. Kara's mountain bike is tubeless and I did have an inner tube, but, by using C02, I hoped the Stan's would do its job and fill the leak, but it continued to leak. In fact, it seemed to get worse with every inflation. In hind site I just should've put in the inner tube because I hadn't added any Stan's since last fall, and it must been dry. I'm lazy at heart and didn't want to field dress the tire with a new inner tube - I was there to ride - and, with five C02 cartridges, I figured we had plenty to do the whole ride. So, instead of riding 24 miles we rode 8, and walked the last half mile.  

The crux of the trail (not pictured) was a very narrow, quarter-mile section that traverses a steep, open steep side-hill just above the water. When I say narrow, think of riding the top of the curb in front of your house. It's about an eight-inch wide single-track bordered by brush, and it trends downward due to the natural degradation of the overall slope. Any average rider can hold an eight-inch line, but when the consequences are serious an easy line can mess with your mind. A confident rider won't even hesitate and will ride it without a thought, but it was scary for one biker we passed who had dismounted and was walking that bit. In their defense, if your front tire happened to go off track you would probably yard-sale all the way down the steep slope to the water (think road-rash and trauma), all the way down to the water that drops off into inky-blackness, swallowing your expensive bike into the depths of Soldier Creek.  

Distal Bicep Tendon Reattachment, Monday, July 13, 2020:

I tore 99% of the Distal Bicep Tendon off the bone while doing a simple kick-turn. It happened while back country skiing in Farmington Canyon on Sunday, May 17, 2020. On a steep side-hill in upper Mud Bowl, due to brush blocking the way, I planted the left ski pole (downhill pole) behind me, twisting my upper body at the waste one-third the way around, set the right (uphill) ski as a platform, then attempted a kick-turn with the left (downhill) ski. When I kicked the lower ski around, the platform ski (right ski) suddenly slipped about six inches downhill as it wasn't set solidly (over confidence kills), that resulted in the left arm hyperextending behind me when my ski pole held firm in the wet, sticky snow. I've done this move thousands of times with no problems, so why this time? I'm sure it was the heavy, grabby, wet-concrete-snow that did not give. Colder, powder snow will always give way, even if just a bit.
When I slipped I heard an audible pop with immediate, intense pain. I thought I had broken the elbow, but later that day at the Urgent care, the X-rays confirmed no broken bones. Three weeks later I still had pain, and, while I could ride my bikes (road, mountain and gravel) and ski (two more powder days after the injury), I couldn't do simple things like pick up a gallon of milk, a basket of laundry or take out the garbage with my left arm. I went to a Sportmeds Doctor who ordered an MRI, which confirmed that most, but not all, of the Distal Bicep Tendon was torn off the bone. Almost two months after the injury I finally get it repaired, which will require eight weeks of rehab before I can return to normal activity. If it had broken, or torn 100%, the repair would have been easy to diagnose, and I'd likely be close to full recovery by now. Fence sitters never win.   

July 22 update: one more day and this thing comes off. Sweaty, itchy, and it's tough to type, put in my contacts, and among many other things. I need my left arm.