Backside Three Gaps and Dana's Wreck

06:53:55 AM: Off to north georgia for a ride on the backside three gaps. Heading to Kroger for some energy gels and then meeting Dana and Marc at Panera for a bagel. Owl in the back yard hooting. Rain front coming.

07:55:32 PM: Marc, Matthew, Dana and I met at Panera for the ride-invigorating bagel breakfast while about 30 people waited outside at a discount cat spaying truck. We headed north to the backside three gaps. It takes a good bit longer to get to the backside three, but the difficulty of Hogpen makes it worthwhile.

It was wet all day. Patches of road were dry but much was wet. We all stayed in the base zone... Marc's beeping gps device made sure of that. We told stories of... well... let's just say stories... to keep ourselves occupied.

Then we made it to Hogpen, the big climb of the day. We stayed together and worked hard, but within limits. A sponsored team with a team car passed us. At the top we gawked them and then departed a few seconds before them... a lucky choice by Marc.

The backside of Hogpen is the place in Georgia to max your speed on a bike. There are turns but also straights. It's very steep. The pavement isn't perfect, but acceptable. I did 52.3 mph. The Crouch brothers broke 53mph, ahead of me and Dana. I was last in the group.

The pavement was wet. Not much sun on the backside and so it hadn't dried at all. Dana popped off her bike, flipping over the handlebars, at about 45 mph going into a turn. I busted the white line while she yard saled all over the place. I felt guilty not wrecking and not stopping immediately but jamming the brakes would have made things worse. About 50 yards down the hill I was able to stop, unclip and head back up.

Dana was sprawled in the middle of the road. After a quick check that she was breathing and alive I had to worry about traffic. There were somewhat blind turns above and below us. A couple seconds later a set of bikes whizzed down and couldn't stop in time. Then a car. Lots of waving. Then the cycling team. At that point they positioned somebody at the crest of the turn above us and we could stop worrying about getting hit.

Dana was in a bunch of pain. It was a really bad wreck. She slid a good distance and was really flying when she hit. We didn't want to move her and started to get an ambulance en route. After a few minutes Dana was able to wiggle everything and could sit up. Then stand up. Then walk into the team car.

They gave her a ride to our cars. I headed down the mountain and found Marc and Matthew climbing back up. It was a short ride back to our cars where we found Dana in her car, alone. A few seconds later an ambulance and police car arrived. Pretty quick response time, all things considered.

We took Dana to the Union General hospital in Blairsville for some x-rays. She checked out, which was great to hear. Internal bleeding could have been an issue. It's just impossible to tell with a wreck like that.

Afterwards we headed to Moe's for some food and talked about the day. Then we caravaned back to Atlanta.

Dana's gonna be really sore for a while. But, amazingly, she isn't cut up too badly. Very little blood. Which is great news.

Hogpen was just mad that Dana made it up without stopping this time. Stupid Hogpen.

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  phone camera pics

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  dana matthew marc phone camera pics