Never Ride Alone!

Never, never, NEVER go off alone on an Off Highway Vehicle. You may be an excellent, even professional level, rider, but accidents can still happen. If you are injured and unable to ride out you may easily die before anyone even knows you're missing. And even if you don't die, you could find yourself in a world of hurt.  I have an adult friend who is a a very experienced and excellent rider. One day he took an "easy ride" alone on some familiar desert roads. He was very much enjoying his ride and the solitude -- until he crashed:  just hit some rain ruts on an easy desert road that grabbed the front wheel. The bike went down, he went over the bars. He broke an ankle, a collar bone, and a couple of ribs. How would you like to try to pick up a 300# motorcycle with your body in that condition? Somehow, in spite of great pain, he managed to get the bike up, get it started (no electric starter, just a kickstarter), and ride back to camp, load up his bike, and then drive himself 100 miles or so to ER for treatment. The closest I have come to a similar situation was when I was riding with this same friend I broke my collar bone when I crashed about a half mile from camp. I didn't have to worry about getting my bike up alone since I had help, but just riding it back to camp and then driving the RV home from the desert with a broken collar bone was definitely not the kind of fun I'd come out for! I cringe when I think about the pain my friend went through picking up his bike and loading it by himself with the additional injuries he had sustained.

My grown son went riding his dirt bike in one of the canyons in Utah near his home. He is an excellent rider. He was very familiar and comfortable with the trails -- perhaps TOO comfortable, since he set out alone. He was on his way back down the mountain after a wonderful ride. He was crossing a rock slide where trail skirted a large boulder in the middle. There had been a light rain so the rocks were slick. He approached the boulder with more caution than usual and that was a mistake. His bike stalled right next to the boulder, leaving him with no place to go uphill and about 15 feet between his downhill foot and the ground! The bike fell over downhill and rider and bike went sliding down the steep slope. Fortunately he was not seriously injured (thanks to proper riding gear and some skill in getting off the bike before it fell on him). He was also lucky that there was a clump of brush growing up through the scree that arrested their descent. After catching his breath, he wrestled the bike up and tried walking it across the rock slide toward the trees -- not an easy task! The slope was too steep to make his way back up to the trail pushing a 300# bike. It was probably too steep to even climb back up in riding boots! So he had to look for a way down hill and an alternate route back to his truck. He felt relieved when he entered the trees but that presented a new problem: twisting the bars and tweaking the bike through the tight thicket. He was relieved when he came to a little clearing and thought he could make some quick headway. He pushed off into the clearing with great zeal, only to find the tall grass covered a nasty nest of fallen trees that ensnared his feet and the wheels of his bike. Crossing the clearing was NOT the easy relief he expected, but one he started he had no other choice and managed eventually to reach the other side. He found a little game trail heading downhill that finally intersected with a fire road that led back to the main road. It was quite an adventure and, while makes a good story now, it isn't something he wants to ever repeat. The rain had picked up again on his way down and the effort to get off the rock slide and down the mountain and delayed him until it was headed quickly toward dark. He had no lights on his dirt bike and was afraid he might have to spend the night on the mountain in the cold rain. Violating another cardinal rule, he hadn't told anyone where he was going, so we no one would have known his was missing or where to come looking for him. He pretty much learned his lesson and always finds someone to ride with him now. And his experience has been a lesson to his siblings as well. He was very lucky it turned out as well as it did. A situation like this could have had disastrous results. If he had been seriously injured when he fell (he missed a good chance!), or if his bike had been disabled, or if hadn't been able to get it off the rock slide, or if he'd gotten stuck in the log jam in the clearing, he might have been stuck for who knows how long and might have even died before anyone found him.  Even summer nights in the Utah mountains can get pretty cold and add rain, hypothermia within 2-3 hours is almost a given.

It isn't just riding dirt bikes and other OHVs that will benefit from not riding alone.  Horseback riding and even fishing, hunting, and hiking should always be done in groups too.  There may have been a time, glamorized by Western movies, when your horse would bring an injured rider home safely, but now, with having to trailer horses many miles to riding areas and with fences and roads and other development to contend with, there are few places even the most loyal and capable horse would be able to succeed.

Always ride with a buddy. Or even two buddies. If there are two of you and one gets injured, the other can provide first aid and then go for help. Of course, it is even better if you have more than one companion so someone can stay with the injured rider while someone else goes for help. If you have enough riders in the group, send at least two riders to get help. Remember NEVER ride alone! Someone hurrying to get help is likely to be distracted and could easily be injured themselves.

Always let someone know where you are going and when you expect to be back, Even when you ride with a group, Even groups can get into trouble in difficult terrain and may need to be rescued. But who will know to come looking for you if you haven't told someone where you're going and when you should be back? Let someone know where you are going and about when you expect to be back. Try not to significantly change your planned route once you set out. You don't have to over-limit your choices on the trail and take the fun out a ride, but stick to your plans when you can -- just in case someone has to come looking for you. And, unless you take off in a completely different direction that you told people you were going, they',ll at least have some idea where to start looking for you if you don't return.  Letting someone know where you're going applies not only to overall camping trips but to individual excursions out of camp.

Riding with others is not only safer, it is a lot of fun and presents opportunities to learn --or teach -- useful riding and navigation skills. In any group there will always be someone with either more or less expertise than you have (often there are both!) so you an either learn or share your skills and tips. Both learning and teaching new skills are personally satisfying and help build friendships with your fellow riders. Who doesn't like learning a new skill -- or showing off what you already know by teaching others? Not that teaching others has to be showing off. Mostly it is just sharing experience and expertise for another's benefit so, unless you are deliberately showing off for the sake of showing off, don't feel guilty about it.

Never ride alone!