FLCC> President's Sunday Ride: notes from the back and the front (lengthy!)

[John Dennis]

Jumping ahead a bit,  Bill Wittlin is poised to make a good recovery from
his crash on Sunday.  He spent the first night at my house and has been
living and working at home since.  Tomorrow I will drive him to Binghamton
where he has a follow-up visit with the neurosurgeon who saw him on Sunday.


 

When I arrived Sunday night at Wilson Memorial Medical Center in Johnson
Center about 7pm to pick him up, I  immediately suspected Bill had leveraged
his physician status to negotiate an early release.  Yes, the neuro-surgeon
had viewed the imagery of his cervical vertebrae that showed 5 out of 8
fractured, and pronounced them “stable fractures.” He said Bill could simply
wear a cervical collar for six weeks.  There was blessedly no need for
surgery or for a halo, one of those heavy-duty bird cage apparati where they
screw bolts against your skull to keep it immobile.  But when I found Bill
in one of those windowless, curtain-shrouded emergency room bays, he was
looking like death warmed over and merely sitting up triggered a great deal
of pain. The man lying in the next bay over had also been helicoptered in,
was sprouting a chestful of electrodes, and clearly was not going anywhere.
“Maybe you should spend the night here,” I suggested.  “No, I’m getting out
of here.”  Doctor Bill, looking toward the next bay, had spoken.  

 

Considering the at times heavy fog and beginnings of light rain, there was a
lively crowd at East Hill Plaza by 10am Sunday.  I was feeling vulnerable as
an hour earlier I had taken my rear blinker off and given it to my son who
was going out by bike to do some nature photography.  As “Big Don” Tencate
and Gary Hodges led off the front going off up Ellis Hollow Rd, it seemed to
me that less than one in three riders had rear blinker lights and not all
were turned on. Riding at the back, I fretted about the risks of some part
of our group getting rear-ended in the hazy wet conditions.  Other riders in
the group included Ernie Bayles (apparently a complete novice when it comes
to Sunday rides; I worry he is not coming back), Terri Barnic, David Sahn,
Mike Richter, Dave Ruppert, Blaine Chamberlain, LiLynn Graves, Jim Millar,
Bill Wittlin, Evan Palmer-Young, Dave Hecht, Dave Elliott, Steve Powell,
Milt Taam, and Steve Bowman. 

 

In the ride miscellania dept, it is worth noting that Dave Elliott and Anna
Sapozhnikova’s 1880 house at 213 Cleveland Avenue was part of the 26-house
Tompkins County Green Building Tour on Saturday.  They use skylights and
compact fluorescent lights throughout for lighting and have never owned a
car.  It was raining lightly as we passed the Spear House at 2170 Ellis
Hollow Road, another house on the Green Building Tour.  It’s the one on the
west side of Ellis Hollow Road that has the free-standing array of
photovoltaic panels close to a gravel driveway on the way into the
house—about two thirds of the way up the first climb from Route 79 (the
point where I have already been dropped on alternate Tuesday nights).  This
house has R-28 walls and R-40 ceiling, a radiant tile floor heated by a
geothermal system, and a Whisper 200 Wind Turbine.  They produce about 3000
kwhr/year from the PV and wind turbine systems or about a third of their
annual electric consumption.  The Spears drive a hybrid car and have a nifty
little weather station in their front yard.   On the trip back along Old 76
Road, we passed the entrance to the Nicholson House at 220 Yaple Road.  This
entry on Saturday’s tour is completely off grid and despite the much smaller
PV system (820 watts), the Nicholson’s only have to run their propane backup
generator 40 days of the year, mostly in November-December. Steve Nicholson
built the original cabin using logs mostly logged on the property and did
not use power tools. The house—which is not viewable from the road—enjoys
lots of southern exposure solar gain and is heated largely by wood stove
with a kerosene back-up heater.  This home is the first driveway on the left
as you turn left from Old 76 onto Yaple (a typical Wednesday night ride).

 

Our first wait-for-the-group-to-coalesce stop was at the top of the
Brooktondale—Harford Road, a point Andrejs has described as being about 1600
feet above sea-level. The male contingent seemed to have the more active
bladders at this point.  The road was dripping wet as we descended the hill
into Harford, crossed Route 38 and then headed south to Michigan Hill Road.
There is a lovely fully-canopied section of road where the woods were
dripping wet.  Big Don pointed out the remnants of where his uncle’s farm
had once stood.  He said that the government had bought some of the less
productive land in the 1960s. Don then flatted.  After the repair, I passed
Dr. Bill who was having a problem getting his right shoe to mate with his
speedplay pedal. 

 

After a steep wet descent to Route 79, I suspected the Dr. Bill had dropped
back well behind us, but as I was some ways back myself, I was not certain
he was missing until I reached the front at the intersection of Hog Hollow
and Payne Marsh Road, where a classic 1950s farm is still in active
production.  The farm was dank with wet soil, manure, and leaves and had
“time warp” written all over it.  After some discussion, it was decided that
Gary and Ernie would go back to search for Dr. Bill.  They later spotted him
heading west on Route 79.  He had decided to pack it in on the group ride
without informing anyone.  Bill then agreed to rejoin the ride.  With Dave
Elliott joining them, they were a four-some with Gary leading off the front
and Ernie and Dave riding behind Dr. Bill.  On reaching Berkshire, they
found the lead group had not waited and so they turned right onto Glen Road.


 

Glen Road is a 3.7 mile long East-West saddle road that links the town of
Berkshire to N-S-running West Creek Road that we take south to reach
Speedsville.  Glen Road is a gem of a scenic road but one does encounter a
formidable amount of altitude to cross over from the East Branch
valley—through which Route 38 runs—to West Branch.  West Branch separates
Tompkins County to the west from Tioga County to the East. The two
south-flowing creeks merge at Flemingville (no one has ever heard of this
place) to become Owego Creek, which then flows past the west margin of the
town of Owego almost five  miles south of the merging of the two creeks.  In
other words, rain falling on either end of Glen Road is apt to end up in the
Cheaspeake Bay if it gets creek-born and doesn’t evaporate or get diverted
along the way. 

 

Some of the lead group coalesced at the T-junction of Glen Road and West
Creek and then headed the short distance south to Speedsville.  Along the
way we passed the forlorn house that for many years has been missing the
three large columns that once supported a southern mansion style front
porch. The Greek gable remains cantilevered out over the front entrance with
three toothless stubs indicating where the columns had once been. It always
looks for all the world as if it could fall down at any moment.  Three men
in camo passed us driving four-wheelers heading north, presumably getting
warmed up for bow-hunting season which I’ve heard starts on October 13th.
In the general store in Speedsville our group was refueling and I eyed a can
of “Wild Bill’s Original Jerky Chew.” I was thinking to buy it as a joke for
Dr. Bill.  A wild-eyed buccaneer type is portrayed on the front of the can
saying, “Ya don’t need teef to enjoy our beef.”  

 

Crikey, was this a back-handed way of ADMITTING AS PART OF THE AD that
prolonged use of chewing tobacco causes gum recession and complete loss of
teeth?  Was this the softer toothless-friendly jerkey for terminal chewers?
It was located off to the side of the counter, not displayed with the
mainstream brands. And what about this devious insinuation that chewing
tobacco was on a par with beef, just another red-blooded source of nutrients
essential to human life? My indignant reverie was broken when a crew-cut man
wearing shorts and knee-high rubber boots burst into the store to say he’d
just seen a cyclist lying on the shoulder part-way down Glen Road.  He said
the cyclist had a bad facial laceration and was complaining of neck pain and
numbness in some of his right fingers.  This bearer of bad tidings had left
his friend with the person I assumed must be Dr. Bill.  He told us 911 had
just been called.  The Speedsville Fire Dept., right beside the store, was
not yet responding so many of us jumped on our bikes and rode the mile plus
back to the crash site. 

 

According to Ernie and Gary, the thee members of the search team had
proceeded Bill down Glen Road and initially Bill was only 25’ behind Gary.
Gary was about half way down when he realized that Bill was no longer in
view, no longer following.  He proceeded down to the stop sign at the end of
Glen Road in order to alert Ernie and Dave that there appeared to be a
problem back up the hill.  Two motorists had stopped to assist Bill by the
time the three reached the crash site.  Bill said he blacked out during the
crash and initially had no idea where he was when he came to. He knew from
his severe neck pain that there was a problem.  The motorists ascertained
that he could push with his feet.  The one wearing the rubber boots then
drove to Speedsville to make the 911 call.  

 

The Speedsville Fire Chief Ed Klopf (539-3040) explained to me that the 911
caller had placed the accident on “Glen Hill Road” and as there is no road
by this exact name, dispatch had decided to send both Tompkins and Tioga
Counties EMS into response, logical enough as Glen Hill is in Tioga County,
but apparently the call came from Speedsville which is in Tompkins.  As
Chief Klopf is a versatile man, he is also part of the Brooktondale Rescue
Squad and he was driving the Brooktondale ambulance that transported Dr.
Bill down the hill to await a helicopter on the Speedsville football field.
We watched someone place blinking lights on the field and there was about a
15 minute wait until a Guthrie Air medical helicopter broke through a low
cloud ceiling and landed on the field. Klopf had GPS coordinates at the
ready if needed, but apparently the pilot came in on a sight landing. Klopf
reported “the bird is here” speaking first to his Tompkins County EMS
colleagues and then picking up a separate mike to report to his Tioga County
colleagues.  He had a third mike to speak over intercom to his colleagues in
the back of the ambulance, where they were placing an IV in Dr. Bill and
placing a mask with supplemental oxygen over his face.  Dr. Bill’s vital
signs were good with a pulse of 68 and good oxygen saturation.  Despite the
obvious head injury and my suggesting the EMS team run a standard field
check for concussion (whether or not pupils are equal, round, and reactive
to light and accommodation (PERRLA), Mike and I had not done this exam and I
never saw the EMS staff conduct it either. In any case, the good vital signs
indicated Bill was not going into neurogenic shock, “which refers to the
hemodynamic triad of hypotension, bradycardia, and peripheral vasodilation
resulting from autonomic dysfunction and the interruption of sympathetic
nervous system control in acute spinal cord injury (SCI).” Bill was
reasonably alert and responsive, joking at one point when I asked him what
country he was in that “I’m in Czechoslovakia.”  {A little dated as the
country hasn’t existed since 1993.}

 

Riding back to Ithaca with Garry, the Prez, Evan, Jim Millar, and Mike
Richter, I was thankful that Bill’s injuries seemed reparable rather than
paralyzing and I was impressed by the whole-hearted community spirit of the
emergency responders.  I had counted close to 30 people including FLCC and
other bystanders on hand to watch the helicopter lift into the sky. The
Leigh family had brought a blanket a half mile to keep Bill warm before the
ambulance arrived and they transported Bill and my bikes down the hill on
Jim Leigh’s 4-wheeler. Jim—who works at Therm--even brought Bill’s bike into
town the next day.  And while it had seemed logical at the time to send our
strongest riders back to look for Bill when he had first failed to appear
when we reached Payne Marsh Road, the more or less spontaneous “decision”
for the main group to continue on to wait at the fueling stop at
Speedsville—roughly 10 miles ahead of where the search party had found Dr.
Bill--probably set up a unfortunate tension.  Dr. Bill later said that he
was feeling quite tired by the time he reached Route 79.  By our not waiting
patiently at the intersection of Hog Hollow and Payne Marsh, we in the main
group inevitably created a psychological invitation to the search group to
“play catch-up” once they had found Dr. Bill.  As I’m sure Andrejs would be
apt to say, there are some advantages to the whole group having the patience
to wait for stragglers before pressing too far ahead.  

 

In future, perhaps we could experiment with ride sign-up sheets at the web
site, where each participant rider would post their name, cell phone number
and the name of a buddy. It could be “part of the routine” to store names of
numbers of other riders in one’s cell phone and for riders without buddies
to pair up prior to the ride starting.  If a rider dropped back, or
otherwise went missing, it might be a good idea if the buddy informed the
group as a whole and then went back to search for the missing rider with one
other pair for company.  

 

As they say, ride safe. 

 

john

 

 

 


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