I woke from a horrible night of hallucinations and animals bothering me to a gentle sunrise. Highway 166 was roaring with early morning traffic which left me no choice but to hit the road as fast as possible. I didn’t time my camp takedown but it was maybe faster than waking up in Carmel. All in all, I felt decently rested.
The goal for the day was to ride out of Cuyama and to hit highway 33, climb up and over Pine Mountain Pass and down into Ojai and Ventura. At this point, I honestly didn’t feel like riding all the way to Pasadena, mostly because the idea of riding through the valley in this heat was going to be rough. The goal for the day was to at least make it to the Amtrak station and decide if I felt up for continuing on. For me, I felt accomplished enough and didn’t want to prove any points riding through that part of the city.
I began riding south of Cuyama on some long straight roads. The valley produces lots of garlic and pistachios but the air where I was smelled strongly of garlic. Before I knew it, I was passing a garlic farm full of workers harvesting it. Something about the desolation that Cuyama sits in within the scope of California and its other farming regions, made this area so much more stunning than the rest. Biking on and on, I made a turn onto Foothill Road which runs in a perfectly straight line for 8.5 miles! I still have yet to bike down the 395 but this straightness and emptiness was a sight to behold!
Every few minutes, a car would pass me and give me a ton of room. One truck slowed and asked me where I was going and coming from to which I excitedly replied and shared. At some point on the straightaway, I started racing some dude driving a tractor on the shoulder who was going perfectly at my speed. I tried to start a yelling conversation with him but sadly, I do not know any Spanish. At this point, the headwind started to pick up and my speed slowed. For the entire tour thus far, I only experienced headwind just before Big Sur and Monterrey but the wind helped cool me down.
I made it to my first stop of the day, the “Santa Barbara Pistachio Company”. I just planned on resupplying on snickers bars and soda since I had Ozena Fire Station which had running water. I talked a little bit with the lady at the register about cycling out here and she said she only really sees cyclists during the TDLP, which was the same response as Robert the previous day. It definitely made me feel even more excited to continue the climb up to Pine Mountain Pass. A lot of cyclists ride up to that pass from the Ojai side but nobody really rides down to Cuyama. They totally should since the scenery between the pass and Cuyama is stunning through and through!
The road eventually leaves the classic valley view that I enjoyed for the last few hours, and tightens up to the familiar desert-like mountainous environment. Smelling the chaparral and getting the occasional whiffs of pine, made me emotional because even though I was 100ish miles from the San Gabriels, this was the first big reminder of home. There were some caltrans guys working on the road so I stopped to say hi. They gave me a bunch of ice cold water and even let me use their wonderful porta potty! One thing is for sure, the more remote I got, the more friendly and helpful federal and state employees were. Eventually I hit Ozena Fire Station and topped off my water. At this point, I filled up water from 3 separate fire stations within 24 hours!
A few months back, I rode the Boulder Canyon Trail from Pine Mountain Camp down to Ozena with some Tour De Los Padres people. Dima, Wesweswes, me and a few others decided to bike all the way back up to camp on the highway which would take an estimated 2 hours. I was quickly dropped on that ride and was riding alone for a long time. Eventually, some dude we were camping with drove down and picked me up since I was just too exhausted. I forgot the guy’s name but he was definitely a “STOKE IS HIGH” type of dude; in general very high on life and excited to ride bikes. He was playing some rock on his CD player when the song, “Wild West End” by Dire Straits came on so he blasted the volume and sang. I had never heard this song before, nor could I recognize that it was Dire Straits, but it really resonated with me. When I got home, I looked up the lyrics and listened to it a bunch, along with that whole album. The song became permanently linked with that stretch of highway 33.
As I continued climbing up the highway to the pass, I timed the album so that song would come on near the top so naturally when the time came, I got very emotional. Just like that, I climbed to the top of Pine Mountain Pass and reached the highest elevation of my tour at approximately 5153 ft, thus completing my long climb from Pismo Beach the day prior. I took some super sick photos of my bike and texted my family that I completed the climb of my dreams, put on “Don’t Cha Get Mad” by Three 6 Mafia and descended down to Ojai on my aero bars,
Everything was fine. I was feeling strong as fuck. Final descent of the trip.
I hit a very minor bend on the road a bit poorly and couldn’t get my arms and hands on the brakes fast enough and hit the gravel on the shoulder at exactly 1:25 in the song. I flew over the topside of my bike, head first and face first into a bed of wonderfully cut gravel. Although I did not go completely unconscious, my eyes opened to bright light and a sort of zoom effect on my vision. As I lifted my head up, blood was dripping quickly onto the dirt in front of me. My white sun hoodie quickly became soaked in blood spots. I didn’t freak out at all and knew everything that just unfolded. The first thing I did was try to move every limb and toe on my body to see if I had spinal problems and luckily everything moved. I crawled over to my bike and tried to use my hands to open the front bag but my left arm and hand were not working. I also found big holes on the tops and bottoms of my hand which were bleeding. I quickly emptied my entire handlebar bag to get to my InReach which I immediately put into SOS mode while also trying to do the same on my iPhone with the satellite. When the SOS texts went out on my phone, I took a few pics and then layed there on my bike. My dad got my SOS texts and responded saying he's calling 911 as well for me. I got my exact coordinates through CalTopo so that he could relay the specifics to emergency services.
After the basics were sent to him, I texted him a simple, “I’m Sorry” text.
The day prior, he was checking in on my safety when I stopped for water and I got mad at him for being paranoid to that extent. I couldn’t even begin to imagine what he was feeling when he got the SOS text that we had talked about for years of preparedness of the worst in nature.
Shock is very interesting and cool! I knew that the pain would come eventually but for about 7 minutes, I felt nothing other than the discomfort in my left arm. I laid there on my bike in the sun for about another 5 ish minutes before the first car came. This was a dark colored minivan that I flagged down. Out came a Belarusian couple who were tourists visiting America and Ojai for the first time. They did not freak out by my injury and immediately assessed me. They spoke decent English and were able to bring me water and ask basic “do you know where you are, do you know the day” questions! All I asked of them was to keep me company and to hold a blanket over me for shade. I feel like shit but I forgot their names and didn’t get their contact info. They stayed with me for 45 minutes, talking to me, checking in on my growing pain levels, and making sure I didn’t fall asleep for any reason.
The first paramedic eventually showed up solo and started to get my vitals. This guy was very professional and let me know that all was going to be okay and that they’re bringing a helicopter to fly me out since I was 1.5 hours from the hospital if I were going by ambulance. The helicopter came but had to land up the road a bit since there wasn’t room where I crashed. Then an ambulance showed up and some police officers. I got loaded up with Fentanyl for the first time ever and I gotta say, it was not that effective in pain relief but gave me a nice tingly warm feeling which was nice. The paramedics put my head and neck into a brace just in case I had trauma, put me on a gurney, and loaded me into the ambulance. This took me 1 minute up the road where I was horizontally loaded into my first ever helicopter! Yipee!
The helicopter was uneventful but super fast. The paramedic inside was able to get his own vitals and my personal info using nothing but sign language, which was pretty neat. The whole time I was looking at the ceiling of the helicopter so I didn’t get to see the Los Padres from above but I made it to the hospital in about 10 minutes from the crash site.
Before I knew it, I was in a trauma room with a billion people touching every part of my body, speaking in fancy medical code trying to figure out what was in pain, what was bleeding etc. I did some painful x-rays and found out that I had minor fractures in my left wrist and my arm so I was gifted a cast. My bodily trauma looked identical to the stigmata of Christ, which cracked up my dad so much that he had to take a photo to send to his more Catholic side of the family. After a few other brain scans, it was determined that I did not get brain trauma and didn’t even get concussed. I got some stitches in my face and a massive stitch in my knee because I forgot to mention that there was a big hole in it down to the kneecap!
So yeah! I ended up back in my bed at home that night with my bike at the Ojai fire station. It felt pretty cool interacting with so many different fire departments in a span of 2 days. Thats 4 fire departments helping me out in some unique way! My bike tour started on Amtrak, then Bart, then Bus, then bike, then ambulance, then helicopter, and finally a long painful car ride home!
For two weeks after the crash, I was unable to really walk without assistance due to the swelling and stiffness of my knee. I thankfully received lots of get well messages and got some great visits from the homies. Shout out Sean, Dima, and Taco from our forum for keeping me company, love you guys!
At the time of me writing this, it’s been 63 days since my crash and I am quickly recovering. My bike fully survived and now just has blood stains on the handlebar bag from when I tried to get my InReach. The rear wheel did get knocked out of alignment but I fixed it with my Uncle John’s trusty truing stand. I think I was back on the bike less than a month after the crash, the day I got my stitches removed on my knee and also the same day I fully bent my knee since the crash.
Mentally, I needed time to reflect, and that's why I haven’t shared this last trip report until now. To say that this tour was life changing is an understatement, since it’s shifted my perspective on my own strength and the fragility of my life. Sometimes when we feel our strongest, one simple mistake can fuck it all up and for me it was coasting on some damn aerobars.
Also, my InReach never sent out a ping since I didn’t have my monthly plan activated. I mean, I paid for the new device, paid the activation fee, but didn’t activate the monthly subscription because I thought the SOS would just charge my account. But no. Just the iPhone and the Belarusian couple saved me.
402 Miles completed in 6 days
Stoke is still astronomically high
Can’t wait for the next tour!
SF to Ventura: Day 7 - A Fantastic Finish
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Matthew
- Supercaff
- Posts: 670
- Joined: Mon Nov 30, 2015 8:25 am
- Location: Pasadena
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stoke is high
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Sean
- Cucamonga
- Posts: 4487
- Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2011 12:32 pm