Oops - I crashed

 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)

That is where things took a bad turn, or drop.  I was riding with a friend Jeff who explained that I rode off the sharp edge of a dune which was about an 8ft drop.  I landed in the riding position still but the bike and I had fallen over on the left side.  It appears I fell hard on my left shoulder and head.  Still in the riding position, my left leg was under the bike now.  Jeff got down to where I landed and pulled me out from under the bike. I was a bit out of it but conscious by then.  He said I complained of shoulder pain and wanted to just rest for a few minutes.  Almost 30 minutes later I was ready to get going again. When we got back up I insisted we needed to just find the easiest route back home.  After some basic checks of my state, we headed home. At this point we were still out in the dunes and the best route back was not clear.  At one point we were on top of a dune with a fairly steep drop.  Jeff told me to wait there while he finds a better route down.  However, I just rode down it anyway.  He was a bit surprised I did that given my shoulder pain. At another point Jeff had me turn off my bike while he searched for the best route out.  When he returned and we were ready to go again, I could not start my bike.  I kept trying but the kill switch was still off.  At this point he began to worry that I may not be thinking straight.  He could not see how bad my shoulder was and had no idea I had a concussion either.  Before we got on the highway, Jeff asked some questions and took a closer look to access my state.  I was able to answer all the questions fine so we headed home.  

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.  

Its a good thing that I had all my protective gear on that day. I had a helmet, chest protector, motocross boots, proper riding pants, knee pads, and my jacket, everything. Dunes can be very deceiving, and it is easy to miss these deep drop offs. However, I have ridden dunes often, and I know this. I really wish I could remember the accident. Looking back to what I do remember, I know we were trying to navigate across the open dune area to find the trailhead on the other side.  I had a phone on the handlebars for navigation.  Since we were not on a defined trail, I was looking at it periodically to ensure we were still headed the right way.  I suspect I looked away at just the wrong time.  I think distracted driving is the cause here.  I am a huge opponent of distracted driving.  I never text while driving.  My phone stays in my pocket.  I rarely even take calls, and never initiate one when driving.  In the future I will come to a stop before looking at the phone to navigate off-road.  Things just happen too fast, even at slow speeds off-road.  Of course, distracted driving on-road is a huge menace already and causes many bad accidents.  

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 ridden Bitter Springs itself just a couple weeks before. (YouTube playlist of that ride)

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.

Some have asked if that hardware will remain in there.  Yes, it stays.  Made from titanium and meant to remain in there forever.