I had a fun motorcycle ride plan mapped out. We would start at Apex (a.k.a. Nellis Dunes) and ride across to the Old Spanish Trail which connects to Bitter Springs. Basically the route in purple on the map below. A big loop that returns to Apex.
OnX link to North half of planned route: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/offroad/share/content?share_id=01HNNZ4MSD8Z9VKDXGFW01MHRP and South half: https://webmap.onxmaps.com/offroad/share/content?share_id=01HNNZ6R78S90W9A76WT85QXR3 .
The weather was perfect. We got to Apex which is a large open riding area of mostly sand dunes. We needed to get across Apex to start on the Old Spanish Trail (blue arrow on map below). We started at the left of the map below.
Apex is a web of trails and dunes so not so clear to navigate through. Since we were on off-road focused motorcycles, the obvious route was as straight as we could go, sort of. The blue trace below is from my Garmin Messenger which sends updates every 10min. We made it to somewhere in that red circle below.
Here is a closer satellite look below. The crash happened somewhere in this area, likely that dune drop just below the 2 blue dots. You can see the semicircle where the dune drops off. That will have a sharp edge and drop where the sand blows over the dune. Of course, these dunes shift all the time so the image below my not represent what it was like when I crashed.
Here is a higher resolution map of the area: https://maps.clarkcountynv.gov/ow/?@844538,26805354,8
In hindsight, this is the route we should have taken (below)
I do not remember much past pulling off Rt 604 where we started off-road. The next memory I have is riding home passing the I215/I95 interchange. This would be about an hour I have no memory of now, including the entire accident.
We got home and removed my riding gear. At that point Jeff finally got a better look at my shoulder. I do remember this. The look on his face when he saw my shoulder was not good. It's that kind of look you never want anyone to have when they are looking at you. It was that "of man that looks really bad" look. Kelly got home shortly after and took me to the hospital. They found several cracked ribs, a concussion, and a broken Clavicle bone (a.k.a. collar bone).
A couple weeks later I had surgery to repair my clavicle (collar bone). It took twice as long as they had planned since the bone was in 3 pieces. Now I have some new hardware holding that bone together, as well as a scar from my neck to my shoulder.
Thankfully, the bike survived nearly unscathed. I have a Insta360 X3 camera I mount on the handlebars, which was still there and unharmed. Unfortunately, I had not started recording. There are some new scratches on the front of the front fender, and also on the left hand guard. I think the front forks took much of the impact.
I had not ridden the Old Spanish trail or much of the rest of this route. When I rode Bitter Springs before we had taken I15 all the way to Crystal. Bitter Springs itself is a fairly easy ride.
Once I get healed up and riding again, we'll have to try this again, except maybe we will bypass the dunes altogether and of course stay very focused on riding.
3-14-2024 Update
Finally got my post operation x-rays. You can see the hardware they added. Bones aligned and healing nicely. This was taken 1 month after the surgery.
