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Be careful riding alone!

woodsguy

Ride Red
Joined
Aug 15, 2006
Messages
20,962
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11,941
Location
Huntsville
First Name
Rob
Last Name
Vaughan

31 y/o, theory is he got stuck and.....either health or temperatures over night. Sad either way.
 
Road looks pretty ordinary. I'm sure it was very slippery but the vast majority of us wouldn't give it a second thought to ride it alone.
 
That is very unfortunate.

A good reminder to do the same things as going into the wilderness solo. It's fine to go solo, but file a flight plan. Let at least one person know whereabouts you are going and when you expect to be back.
 
I really like riding alone. But this is a good example of why I don't ride alone in remote places. You can tell yourself that you will be careful and you are prepared, but life has a way of throwing unexpected things at us that lays waste to the best of plans...
 
Gee ... there has to be something else is going on here. 29 rd in Grand Junction is similar too but more populated then FM1375 where it goes into FM149. I was in more isolated areas when I went out yesterday on the Cheeseburger Loop alone. The Bookcliffs, the hills north of I-70 (the desert as they call it), are pretty popular with dirt bikers and 4x4ers. Lots of 100 to 200 foot hills with tracks everywhere. I wouldn't be surprised if he just caught one wrong. If you look at it in the Satellite View, you can see what I mean. Still it's a good reason not to go alone.
 
I really like riding alone. But this is a good example of why I don't ride alone in remote places. You can tell yourself that you will be careful and you are prepared, but life has a way of throwing unexpected things at us that lays waste to the best of plans...

Well that's life. You can have a heart attack alone in your home and die if nobody is around to get you help. I highly doubt this guy died from being exposed to the elements overnight. Said his last contact was Saturday evening and they found him sometime on Sunday. Probably dropped to freezing or only slightly below at best but he would have had riding gear on so hypothermia not likely.

Good example for the benefits of a PLB or GPS tracking device. Assuming he had an opportunity to deploy it.
 
Good example for the benefits of a PLB or GPS tracking device. Assuming he had an opportunity to deploy it.

Totally agree.

Life is risky. I have no issue with folks that want to ride alone. I get it. Just be smart and recognize it increases your risk factor.

Let's face it. Riding IS risky compared to not riding. All the other examples of ways we can die are true. Like riding, there are things we can do to minimize the risks, but we can NEVER eliminate all risk. So we eat healthy, exercise, and use good judgement when doing things with higher risks. This is why I wear good protective gear. It is no guarantee that I won't die or suffer horrible injury, but like that full face helmet I mentioned at lunch on Friday, it can make a BIG difference in the outcomes when things don't go as planned!!

229717
 
Well that's life. You can have a heart attack alone in your home and die if nobody is around to get you help. I highly doubt this guy died from being exposed to the elements overnight. Said his last contact was Saturday evening and they found him sometime on Sunday. Probably dropped to freezing or only slightly below at best but he would have had riding gear on so hypothermia not likely.

Good example for the benefits of a PLB or GPS tracking device. Assuming he had an opportunity to deploy it.

Yep, I agree, not exposure. As I mentioned this whole area isn't very far from major development. You can climb to the top of any one of those little 200 foot hills and see downtown Grand Junction. A couple mile walk and you could be at I-70. Grand Junction Airport is only three or four miles away. In the picture, you can see a building of some sort in the background.

But, this poor guy would have had to be very disoriented or had done some very foolish things to die of exposure or hypothermia. Not impossible, but highly unlikely. On the other hand those hills are VERY steep, I mean they are really steep in places. Some have wicked drop offs, even cliffs . Hit one of those wrong, or miss the down trail and it can be disastrous. Riding in the dark is a major no, no. If I had to guess, since that is what we are doing here, I think this what happened.

People come from all around to play in those hills, I think they have a name but I have forgotten. We use to drive down from Glenwood Springs just to jamboree with other 4x4's in those little hills they are that inviting. It's fun to just go watch people play around sometime if you ever in Grand Junction on a nice weekend. I think there has been some effort to shut this down though.

It doesn't take away the original premise though, that it's inadvisable to ride alone. I actually thought about that yesterday. What if I pretzeled into a bob wire fence or ended up where it wasn't obvious I was there. As it turned out, I didn't have a phone, a tracking device and really no one knew I was out there. Roll the dice ...

Just musings since I can't play with my phone ... :)
 
Joe, I guess that is why it's a good idea to tell someone where you going, but the beauty of d/s riding is I don't know. I generally tell my wife what area and hopefully, Kiser or Terry would know what roads we frequent if needed.

2-3 years ago I went to same area as our upcoming ride, I had never been before. Wife was at cabin and told her I'd be back later. She nor I had any idea where I was going. I got further in and of course phone didn't work, and while it's not Colorado, the side of the hills are very steep and over grown. And it was during the week, I met no one for over an hour for any kind of help. With no idea where I went, and no way to see me, who knows how many years to someone happens to go down the hill, lol. Next time I went I had a SPOT with me!

Just last week on I-10 near state line I watched a car hit inter wall and bounce across all lanes into the bush. Nobody but me stopped in the group that witness the wreck. If I hadn't stopped, he would have been out of luck, you could not see car from the road at all at 70 mph. Luckily he wasn't hurt but if he had been...
 
I often get chided for riding alone. I pre-ride almost every ride I put together for the local club. Maybe you're gonna read about me someday, but jeez, I can't get someone to go with me every time I go on a discovery route.... I might be gone for days.
So sad for that guy ....
 
Don't count out hypothermia just because it wasn't that cold or because he was likely wearing gear. Injuries could have caused shock which could make the body more susceptibility to hypothermia and being in contact with the ground conducts heat away from the body much faster than air will. I had a co-worker that lost a nephew to exposure when the kid passed out overnight in a field. The temperatures that night only fell into the 60s but that was enough to drop the core body temperature low enough.
Of course, the autopsy will reveal the true CoD.
 
I often get chided for riding alone. I pre-ride almost every ride I put together for the local club. Maybe you're gonna read about me someday, but jeez, I can't get someone to go with me every time I go on a discovery route.... I might be gone for days.
So sad for that guy ....

I ride alone all the time. I like to wander and explore without having to worry about someone else's schedule or preferences. That said, I generally try to keep in mind that I am alone and ride accordingly, meaning I am more cautious about the places I might right and the conditions in which I might ride. I don't think I would do much solo riding in some of the places I've ridden in Utah. However, other places like Moab or the passes around Ouray, I might do those alone just because there are so many people in the area. Still, like Rob pointed out, there are places where you could leave the road and no one would ever know if they didn't see it happen... Most of the places where I ride alone in Texas folks would see a bike wadded up in the barbed wire along the side of the road as they passed by, so hopefully, they might look for a rider too :cool2:
 
I always keep my Spot turned on and in tracking mode when riding alone. Usually two people at minimum are aware of me riding and if no "check-in" message signaling the end of my riding day, they will initiate contact. So if an incident happens and I can't activate the SOS button at least the rescue process gets an earlier start.

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If that mud is anything like northwest colorado mud a hundred miles north of there you do not venture more than walking distance from improved pavement , Terlingua comes to mind , if its wet you simply don’t go there .
 
I spent many rides alone. Good thought time, but then you start realizing, things do happen. And think your decision was a stupid one.
 
I always keep my Spot turned on and in tracking mode when riding alone. Usually two people at minimum are aware of me riding and if no "check-in" message signaling the end of my riding day, they will initiate contact. So if an incident happens and I can't activate the SOS button at least the rescue process gets an earlier start.

+1
And if I'm unable to hit the SOS or activate my PLB my wife will at least be able to tell them the general area in which to begin searching.
 
I spent many rides alone. Good thought time, but then you start realizing, things do happen. And think your decision was a stupid one.

So where is that? Where you lost or do you have all those roads memorized? Nevermind... I watched most of that. It was a good example of the kind of riding I would never do alone. High risk of of something going wrong with all the snow and being out where no one would find you for a long time... Still. It did look fun.
 
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Poor dude. My guess, medical issue, a CA. Happens even to young guys.

I like riding alone. And I go alone to camp & hike, kayak, everything I do. I also get chastised for it. My mom is the worst, but some coworkers do it too. Fact is, I'm single, work a weird schedule, and doing stuff alone is normal for me. I will tell coworker or family where I'm going or what my weekend plans are and if I don't show up to work, dispatch SAR. If I die I die, but I died living, not waiting on someone to go with me.
 
Not sure if its relevant, but just throwing this out there in case it might be of interest to someone. I came to motorcycle from cycling. When riding bicycles, most people use a ride computer to track stats of the ride. Garmin Edge computers are pretty popular. I have the Garmin Edge 820 from cycling and I typically use it on every motorcycle ride as well.

It has a few cool features while on the bike like providing tons of stats. Temp, time, direction, elevation, speed, sunset time, etc. Pretty much whatever you want it to tell you. It can also do routing functions, but its not as nice as the Zumo. If you are in a pinch and need to look at a map, you can pull over and it will show you exactly where you are on the map, where you came from, how to get back, etc. It lasts about 10-12 hours per charge.

It has a few cool features off the bike like tracking ride data and storing it on a website you can access later. Here is some info from a pickup ride from our local FB group last weekend:

229776

229777

229778


The interesting stuff related to this thread is that it has two additional (free) functions called LiveTrack and Incident Detection.

Before I ride off on the motorcycle, I just turn the Garmin 820 on and ride away. When I get over 3 mph, it detects that I'm riding and activates automatically. That immediately starts recording all my ride data and starts a new LiveTrack session. When a live track session starts, the Garmin app on my phone sends out two emails to two contacts that I've preset in there. So no matter where they are, they get an email on their phone that says I've started a ride.

If they open that email and click on the link inside, it will take them to an active map showing them where I started and where I am now. They can watch as I move along the map. Sometimes if I linger too long at a stop, I get a text asking if I'm ok :) If I don't respond, they typically start driving to my stopped point on the map. One time on the bicycle, another rider and I got caught in a bad, pop up storm and before I could even call, help was already on the way to come get us thanks to this function.

The other function is Incident Detection, which theoretically goes off if you crash. This piece has been hit or miss for me. Sometimes when I crash, it does go off and then I have 30 seconds to cancel it before it sends a panic message to my contacts with my GPS coordinates. Other times, it misfires. I was riding through town the other day and kinda did a quick zig zag maneuver to pull into a parking spot on the side of the street and it went off. It kicks off a loud siren type noise on the computer and my phone and both start flashing. I was able to get it cancelled before the panic message went out.

Both of these functions are free, but they are dependent on phone network service. So if you are riding in an area where there is phone coverage, it works. If not, it doesn't. But if you ride out of a phone network, the tracking email map will still show the last place you were on the map. When you reenter phone space, it bridges the two points on the map and continues to track you going forward.

It's not perfect, but its a free service. I'm not sure I would buy a cycling computer just to have these functions, but since I already had one, I use it. Who am I kidding, I'm a data nerd, I love all the stats it provides and would probably buy another one :)
 
Most of the places that I'd be worried about riding alone is where the cell phone coverage is spotty. As such, if I intended to ride in those places alone, I'd invest in a spot tracker. (pun intended :) )

Between the tracker and the subscription to make it work, it's an expensive solution IMO. But.... how much is your life worth? It's still the best of breed solution that I'm aware of and works pretty much anywhere on the planet.

Bottom line....for me.... a spot tracker and subscription is an entry cost to the sport of exploring alone.
 
Not sure if its relevant, but just throwing this out there in case it might be of interest to someone. I came to motorcycle from cycling. When riding bicycles, most people use a ride computer to track stats of the ride. Garmin Edge computers are pretty popular. I have the Garmin Edge 820 from cycling and I typically use it on every motorcycle ride as well.

It has a few cool features while on the bike like providing tons of stats. Temp, time, direction, elevation, speed, sunset time, etc. Pretty much whatever you want it to tell you. It can also do routing functions, but its not as nice as the Zumo. If you are in a pinch and need to look at a map, you can pull over and it will show you exactly where you are on the map, where you came from, how to get back, etc. It lasts about 10-12 hours per charge.

It has a few cool features off the bike like tracking ride data and storing it on a website you can access later. Here is some info from a pickup ride from our local FB group last weekend:

View attachment 229776
View attachment 229777
View attachment 229778

The interesting stuff related to this thread is that it has two additional (free) functions called LiveTrack and Incident Detection.

Before I ride off on the motorcycle, I just turn the Garmin 820 on and ride away. When I get over 3 mph, it detects that I'm riding and activates automatically. That immediately starts recording all my ride data and starts a new LiveTrack session. When a live track session starts, the Garmin app on my phone sends out two emails to two contacts that I've preset in there. So no matter where they are, they get an email on their phone that says I've started a ride.

If they open that email and click on the link inside, it will take them to an active map showing them where I started and where I am now. They can watch as I move along the map. Sometimes if I linger too long at a stop, I get a text asking if I'm ok :) If I don't respond, they typically start driving to my stopped point on the map. One time on the bicycle, another rider and I got caught in a bad, pop up storm and before I could even call, help was already on the way to come get us thanks to this function.

The other function is Incident Detection, which theoretically goes off if you crash. This piece has been hit or miss for me. Sometimes when I crash, it does go off and then I have 30 seconds to cancel it before it sends a panic message to my contacts with my GPS coordinates. Other times, it misfires. I was riding through town the other day and kinda did a quick zig zag maneuver to pull into a parking spot on the side of the street and it went off. It kicks off a loud siren type noise on the computer and my phone and both start flashing. I was able to get it cancelled before the panic message went out.

Both of these functions are free, but they are dependent on phone network service. So if you are riding in an area where there is phone coverage, it works. If not, it doesn't. But if you ride out of a phone network, the tracking email map will still show the last place you were on the map. When you reenter phone space, it bridges the two points on the map and continues to track you going forward.

It's not perfect, but its a free service. I'm not sure I would buy a cycling computer just to have these functions, but since I already had one, I use it. Who am I kidding, I'm a data nerd, I love all the stats it provides and would probably buy another one :)
My coworker who road cycles uses that (or similar, I remember the screens you show). He'll send updates or a link to keep track of him.

Great idea for a resource, and definitely something that translates from sport to sport. Thanks for posting that.
 
Most of the places that I'd be worried about riding alone is where the cell phone coverage is spotty.

Guessing here, but I'd say:

97% of the time I ride alone or otherwise, I am in phone coverage areas.
The 3% of the time I'm out of phone coverage, I'm riding with someone else.

This year I might do a solo ride somewhere there is no phone coverage and if so, I will probably buy a Garmin InReach for that.
 
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