august

well, august is running by in a hurry. we are finally into some hot weather, though my friends visiting from Memphis continue to insist it is not "hot". well, sure to them. but they also refer to this time of year down there as "hell".

i really do not have that much going on, as i have been scrambling to finish my wonderful place in ovando, which now is done and looks amazing. soon it will have it's own site, as i hope to rent it out on a nightly basis. think: fishing, hiking, hunting. okay, so that is all of montana. but this one is a bit more quiet, a bit more real. a bit more like "real" montana.

i do want to include a story that was recently submitted to me. as i hope any of you still reading this know, i am the "Bike Patrol Coordinator" for the new Whitefish Trail. we have 15 patrollers, and many of us just took our first aid and cpr courses this spring. two of our new patrollers were up close viewers to what could have been a massive injury, as well as first responders. please read and enjoy.

My self and fellow patrol Erin were spectators at the Lone Peak Revenge Downhill Race on Aug 14th in Big Sky, Mt. There were probably 50-60 riders in the event, with multiple practice laps and two timed runs down a double black diamond trail. Erin’s husband, Noah Bodman who is a very experienced rider mentioned that it was probably the toughest course he has rode this race season and is more difficult than our local DH trail Runaway Train. There were 1minute intervals between each rider. During the second lap of the event a Category 1 rider, 19yr old Bridgett LeBer went over the handlebars directly in front of Erin and myself. The area was probably a 30degree washed out slope with intermittent rocks and roots. She got about 10-12ft of air and landed on her left side and head. Immediately she started to scream. I jumped up and started to work my way down to her. Erin went for help from the local bike patrol/ski patrollers stationed above us with a pickup and backboard. When I got down to her she was shitting up and I could tell she was in shock. I did a quick assessment asking her name and age. I could tell that she probably had a concussion but no broken neck. She wanted to lay down in the trail. The race was still going on, I had to work quickly to get her off the trail so another racer did not crash into both of us. It was a hard decision to make because I could tell that her helmet visor was broken and she could possibly have a neck injury. It would have been hard for a racer to miss both of us and if they hit us would have caused more injury. So I helped her up and we moved 5ft to the side of the trail. I laid her down next to a log to help brace her body and her head. Again I did an assessment asking her name age and the day, where she was at and what she was doing. She had a slight concussion and some of the shock was wearing off. She wanted to finish her run, I told her that it was not a good idea because her helmet was broke and she has a concussion. Here left wrist had a sprain, but it was difficult to tell because she had elbow pads that reached down to her forearm. About 2-3mins after I moved her to the side of the trail, the patrollers showed up. I gave them a run down of her stats and what happened.

Basically the patrollers started completely over with their own assessment of her. When he asked her what her name was, he repeated her name incorrectly at Brittney, she caught it and said no it’s Bridgett. I immediately picked up on this and thought to myself that this guy was really experienced and did that on purpose. We looked at her helmet and made the decision to take off her helmet. Spending about 5 more minutes with her, we walked her down the trail a short distance and loaded her in a pickup for the bottom. She asked me on the way down how the wreck looked. We knew then that she would be ok. Bridgett just ended up having a sprained wrist that the patrollers mobilized with a smaller Sam Splint with a thumbhole. I saw her during the awards and she thanked me and had a smile on her face. It was here that I knew the training that I had a bike patroller, helped out during an event away from home. It was very rewarding to be part of the team that helped this girl out. I learned quite a bit from the experience and believe that it made me a better patroller.

Erin was able to locate the patrollers, stop the race, and find this girls mother and boyfriend. She had the difficult task of running up the steep, heavily wooded terrain. After the incident we debriefed each other and were excited that we were able to help.