Yep...this cache marks the spot where I broke my collar bone (aka clavicle).
Tell me your funny story about how you broke something (if you want, also maybe it wasn't funny at that moment).
Here is my story:
On March 11th 2025 I was riding my bike down this small slope (you can see when you get here) and my bike decided to go off trail. But my body kept moving forward, so I flew over the handlebar! I think I made a 180° forward flip and landed on my shoulder...and there it happened! Innocent me, I only felt the pain as I was there on the ground looking at the sky and thinking to myself "Well, this hurt quite a bit...maybe I should rest a bit and enjoy the sun!". I pushed myself up and noticed that my left arm wasn't fully up to standard.
But at this moment I had bigger problems! When my head hit the ground, my glasses accelerated and got tossed somewhere. So for the next 15-20 minutes I was searching on my knees and crawling through the grass. My head was 1 feet above ground and I was searching like a blind chicken for my glasses! Oh joy, I was already thinking how do I drive home barely seeing anything. Perseverance paid off and I finally found them, after carefully reconstructing my flight path and landing area!
Now with my glasses and full vision, I was ready to retrieve my bike. I took a short look at my shoulder and my initial assessment was that I dislodged my left shoulder...should be fixable at urgent care. So I started to push my main bike along this side trail and then the trail down towards Grand Junction.
I wasn't really in pain and thought to myself, you can still geocache with a dislodged shoulder and it is time to avenge a DNF from years ago. And I indeed was able to find that little bugger. I looked at my phone and roughly 2.5 Miles towards the parking area. Oh joy...that would be perfect for a bike ride. So of course I had to try to get on my bike but stopped it right away...a little bit painful today. Therefore I took the alternative approach and pushed my bike ALL THE WAY back to the car...took me only roughly 2 hours. Of course along the way I had to stop for one or two more caches...who knows when I get back to Steward Forrest!?!?
Finally I made it to my car, and put everything away with only one arm...amazing what you can do with one arm, if you have no other options! Quickly I took off, just to realize after 1 minute of driving that I had left things on top of my car, which were now flying up in the air. So I had to stop, pick everything up and check all the way back to my parking spot. Wasn't too bad...I think the adrenaline was still going strong, since there was no pain.
Another 50 minutes of driving and I was home, and the next stop was the urgent care. And what do you do before you go to the doctor...you shower and dress up nicely! Lucky me, there was not much going on at the urgent care and the doctor sent me right away to X-Rays after I gave her the short version of the story above. When she came back with the results, she looked seriously at me and told me that my clavicle is broken and that I need to get that fixed!
I was impressed by the X-Ray, and then the next day I had luck and got same day surgery and I can pride myself now that I have a titanium reinforced shoulder! The doctor at the hospital indicated based on how far the bones were apart it is best to put a plate and a few screws in, and not rely on that everything just grows back together.
