itsmylife: The Inners mud fest, Pitfichie and Eastridge.

Home Sunday eve! First time for ages, usually it's Monday and arriving Elgin lunchtime (ish). At least I get three days in Sunny Burghead before another bike event looms! Ah well, back to retirement mode, wander across to the Bothy for a proper heavy duty coffee and check the papers to see what's happening on our big happy planet!! Needless to say, some bits of it are pretty knackered and it will take a long time before they're anywhere near being put right again. If there's going to be conflict it should be politicians and arms manufacturers who have to do the fighting, confine them to a nice desert that no one wants and leave them to it, no war correspondents, no info to the 'outside world', lets see how long it lasts and the money saved could be used to facilitate what is already feasible, feeding the world!! Wee rant over, finished my coffee and back to put some preservative on a garden bench. Tuesday, much of the same plus a bit of shopping to stock up for Wednesday. Wednesday arrives and I'm taking Herself off to catch the bus to Inverness and then on to Edinburgh, a theatre visit is due, it appears the 'culture' batteries are running low! Back to BH and Wednesday afternoon was spent testing the newly preserved garden bench followed by the construction of a curry, no superlatives required, it was that good!!! Thursday morning, bag ready to go, moggie fed (neighbours to feed later), off for t'0755 bus. Four hours, a bacon roll and cup of coffee later I'm in Spean Bridge being picked up by Wendy. We were heading up to Paul's to help load equipment, he had two events to cover over the weekend, the IXS downhill at Innerleithen and on the Sunday a one day Pony Club thing over near Kirrimuir (hopefully no more 'expired' mounts)(see Bikes on Saturday, horses Sunday 03/07/2012). Ambulances all loaded and Paul away down the road on the Thursday afternoon. That evening I shared a fish supper and a few glasses of the red stuff with Ellie while we put the world to rights and talked psychology!! (Ellie's OU course). Friday morning was fine and sunny (something had gone wrong with the W Coast weather!), a final check of last minute odds and ends, vehicle lights etc, Forestry Dave arrived, Wendy had already gone in her car and Susie was to be collected just off the Edinburgh by-pass at The Byre, a pub by the entrance to Hillend dry ski slope. Dave and I were off at 0800 in convoy back down the A9, a steady run got us to a Tesco store on the outskirts of Perth where we re-fuelled and had a swift coffee before getting on our way to the rendezvous' with Susie. 1230 in torrential rain and having lost the driver side wiper arm near Peebles!! (it didn't make a great deal of difference to what I could see anyway!) we dropped into 4WD and ploughed through the mud into the top field at Inners!!

Photo Gregor Brearley, Sweet Protection.

Paul was already on site and had booked our Base Treatment Easy-up site, it was a little dampish underfoot! the carpet would be ruined!! The afternoon DH training was about to get under-way so Dave and Wendy, the hill medics, made a rapid exit to the course while Susie and myself finished setting up the Base unit. Once organised and ready for casualty action we had to sus out the coffee facilities, initially there were two, one a fancy 'proper coffee' and cake outlet, the other a bacon roll, burger and 'instant' facility! Both have there place but I know where the coffee was coming from! Five minutes later Susie comes wandering into the Easy-up clutching a great smelling coffee! "Where d'ja get that"? "Oh I was talking to the guys in the Shimano tent, they've got a coffee maker"! After some cajoling I persuaded her to go and flutter her eyelashes and blag me a cup, telling her she could offer them a free elastoplast if it would swing the deal!! What good guys they were, producing an excellent brew of Columbian.

Shimano at work! (first class coffee!)

Later in the afternoon we were visited by Andy and Karen, Andy, brother of Davy Irons of The Billy Can Catering Company (contract for Gravity Enduro series). Karen, 1st aid course student of a year or two ago?!? Now living close to Innerleithen they had come to see what we were up to, it didn't take long to persuade them to turn up on the Saturday to lend a hand, Karen was keen to get involved on the medical front, trainees always welcome!
The Friday afternoon produced little in the way of injuries, the usual bumps and scrapes, strapping last weeks wounds and requests for ice. Hopefully the rain will ease off and the rest of the weekend will be dry!

Saturday morning, still soggy!!

Saturday and the occasional let up on the weather, but when the heavens opened there was still a lot of water to come down!! A few piccies might give you an idea of conditions:

Photo Gregor Brearley, Sweet Protection.

Sore shoulder and damp but still smiling!

Photo Gregor Brearley (not riding (more sense)), Sweet Protection.

Oh didn't it just rain!!! The Saturday team were augmented by Jenny, Donald and Ewan, Karen was also back to get some 'hands on' training. We had a steady run of casualties coming through the Base, virtually all had to be hosed down to get to see their wounds! Once thoroughly cleaned the majority of open wounds were Iodine sprayed and dressed, one or two had to be 'toothbrushed' to get all of the grott out of their lacerations! Hardy bikers! Grit your teeth, this will hurt but fortunately I wont feel a thing!! Scrub, wash out, spray and dress. The odd bony injury presented it's self, wrists: scaphoid, lunate, radial head, ulna, all were examined and where there was an index of suspicion of a possible fracture friends or relatives would rally round and transport them to hospital. Later in the day one crash resulted in the cas being stretchered off and brought down in an ambulance, while we were working on the casualty an NHS ambulance was called to take the cas to hospital. Cas handover completed (transfer done in the car park to avoid the risk of the NHS ambulance getting bogged down!!), notes passed on to the ambulance crew and then they were off to The Borders General Hospital. Later that evening we got some feed back on the casualty, severe bruising, x-ray couldn't find any fracture and so the cas would be given pain relief and released.
The previous evening and that night we were staying at a bunkhouse in Cadrona, the Friday evening meal had been an assortment of curries delivered from Peebles and because of the size of the order loads of extras were thrown in! popadums, pakoras, prawn crackers, the works!

Photo Gregor Brearley, Sweet Protection, in a soggy Innerleithen high street.

For the Saturday evening somewhat lighter meals were chosen, folks selecting ready meals or getting some bits to make a snack meal,
a few beers and bottles of red were also added to the list and as we headed back to the bunkhouse a stop at the local Co-op was made and provisions purchased. A splendid evening ensued!

Paul was due to head off at crack of dawn for Kirriemuir and the Pony Club event. Being an early riser I was aware of him getting up, dressed and heading down to the kitchen, I dozed for a while but couldn't get off to sleep so figured I'll make myself a brew, quietly up and dressed I went into the kitchen to find Paul struggling back in through a window! Apparently he'd

The Shimano guys doing their thing.

taken some of his gear out to the ambulance and the door closed it's self behind him!! not wanting to ring the bell or phone and wake everyone in the room he decided to see if there was an unlocked window, there was, and after clambering through into the TV annex he walked into the kitchen and was a mite gob smacked to find me there with a mug of coffee in my hand!
Sunday and back through the bog in the field! The girls working at the burger van and coffee n cake place had managed to get their supply wagon stuck in the mire and were having to trip through the swamp in their bright spotty wellies carting boxes of goodies through the rain from van to stall!
We were fortunate to have 4WD vehicles and could move about the field reasonably easily and although most of our casualties were walking wounded we did have another ? spinal injury who was evacuated from the course by ambulance and transported through the bog to the car park for handover to an NHS ambulance. On a steep 'gnarley' course like this and in these weather conditions the potential for serious injury is high, hand, wrist, collar bone and shoulder injuries are fairly common, lacerations and abrasions to lower leg, knee, hips and elbow are the usual body areas requiring cleaning and dressing. Wounds can be caused by bits of bike, pedals etc, impact with rocks or trees, or abrasions caused by the same media and including skiting along the ground at a rate of knots!! This is usually the reason for a toothbrush and lots of iodine to be employed!!
A few more piccies to maintain the flavour. Pitfichie and Eastridge next post.