So Tracy didn't have time for a longer ride elsewhere in the state, so I decided to go up to Crystal Lake via the Fox River Trail. I shouldn't need her to run support, it is a nice, paved path up to that point. So that's what I need to do.
I started out as I normally would I burned up the miles to Elgin without incident. I've never actually cycled through the city completely so it was somewhat new. I did lose my water-bottle on one of the sidewalk bumps, as I would do frequently on this ride. Still, no issues. The trail north of Elgin was a bit bumpy but no real issues going up until Dundee. There's a crossing on the major east-west road that makes no sense at all, and Dundee makes you cross every road. I almost crossed that road at a bad time because the lights were stopped only a few seconds in each direction and ... well, it is just a dumb setup considering how busy this trail is. I did spot a button to push when crossing but it isn't situated where us poor slobs on bikes can get to easily. At some point, I noticed that finally both directions were red and I crossed. Then just a lot more crossings. And bikers don't like stopping so often. It is hard to get going again, we have to downshift, stop, push ourselves up and then get back up to speed. Then another street. There's a reason these bypass most of the traffic. But I understand that pedestrians can like these.
Anyway, I got my way north of there. I didn't hold back. I figured I was hitting 15mph or so, which is a lot on my bike. I kept pushing, crossing the Fox at Algonquin. It was a nice ride up the bluff. I noticed at the switchbacks that a bunch of kids were walking up the embankment with their bikes. I kept pushing forward and reached the top along with the kids. I did the hill probably 4x faster than they did. But kids. Sometimes they don't think things through.
The ride up to Crystal Lake from there seemed to be a constant upward grade. The worst hill on the entire path was about where I turned around and it was a bridge over a very busy road. Anyway, I turned around at the corner and wondered why, a few years earlier, I was struggling with the path. I mean, I was at my wits end then coming to Crystal Lake from the North. The path was kind of unreasonable but it was only 15 miles, for Pete's sake. Anyway, I've found that I my stamina is quite a bit different now.
The path back was a joy. I hit top gear, verifying that the grade was now working in my favor. I just followed my earlier path, doing a good clip. Yeah, my thighs were starting to bark at me but I was doing fine. I stopped at a park to go to the bathroom and stretch. Then I started off again. The slight rises I anticipated from my earlier traverse proved to be no issue.
Then came Washington Street. I was so busy trying to figure out how I was going to get through this stupid town again that my mind wandered from what I was doing. I have a bad right eye at the moment and I tend to turn my head farther than normal to make sure the path is clear. So I was concentrating how to cross this busy street and make sure that, no, there really wasn't a car in either direction. I didn't pay attention to what was on the path in the opposite direction. I don't think I was going very quickly at that point.
"Hey!"
I found I had drifted left while trying to negotiate the crossing. Opposite me was someone heading straight for me. I moved right, and he was turning that way too. Nope. I turned back to my line. And so did he.
Bang!
I ended up standing on my bike. At some point I had come to a stop. I can't recall but because my arm hurt so much later, I must have hit my brake hard. I think I pulled all the muscles in the process. The other guy was stopped, head down, draped over my bike. He struggled at something on his shorts and I realized he was hung up on my brake handle. I pulled if off. He struggled up. By now, a few drivers had stopped and got out of their car to help. I looked down and my bike tire was well and twisted. So, I would have to call up Tracy to come get me.
He was banged up pretty bad, I don't think he was that angry. "It is what it is." and I think that on top of everything else, we were both distracted by the crossing and I think he had a good head of steam built up. Neither of us stopped before crossing, so we both screwed up. His bike was fine. He got up, called his significant other and off he went. I snapped the picture above, called Tracy to come get me and hauled my sorry butt to the parking lot acrossed the street to wait.
When I told her that I wanted to take this ride so as not disturb her day, we got a laugh out of it. On the way back home, she suggested that since we had the bike already loaded, we might as well take it to the shop. So we did. New front wheel, new shifter (as the brake lever had broken at some point) and I might as well get that bad bearing in the crankshaft fixed.
So that is what happened. I had a scrape on my hand, and I wear gloves so I think they protected me, a bunch of pulled muscles in my wrist and a phantom pain in my thigh. It hurts, but it isn't bruised.
I'm going to live with the stupidity of the whole event for now. I did learn something. I'll leave it at that.
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