Photo Credit: Ben Cruz
What started out like any other Saturday, complete with shuttles and riding with buddies out at the Ranch, ended with a bam and a crunch like something out of a Roadrunner cartoon when Mark Weir and four friends attempted to clear a downed tree limb that had fallen across one of the trails in a previous storm. As a result, Weir sustained a broken sacrum and fractured his pelvis in three places.
This only shows one of the three total breaks to Weir's pelvis - you can see a serious crack, all the way through, in the upper center left. Photo Credit: Mark Weir
“We were doing our typical flop the branch off the trail by walking it up and pushing it over off the steep trail,” Weir explained.
But no one expected what happened next. After standing the branch upright in an attempt to push it off the trail, it “stalled out.” Then with one final push, the 20-foot tree limb fell with the thickest, supporting end landing and pinning Weir to the ground at the waist. “Like the Wile E. Coyote, I ran in the tree’s shadow 'till it smashed me to the ground,” he said.
We checked in with Weir yesterday. “I'm the guy that hits trees, but sometimes they hit me too,” he said the day after the accident. Already home and planning his recovery, we were relieved to hear his trademark humor in his account of the incident. “So far trees have a healthy lead,” he added, explaining his disbelief that the same things that he loves so much could, sometimes, be the things that make you feel so weak and small.
Novato Fire helped tremendously once Weir was in an accessible area. The accident occurred in an isolated area higher up in the ranch lands. Mark's friends carried him down on the piece of plywood that can be seen in the corner left of the picture, his pelvis was and is very unstable so it was really lucky that the steep transition back to accessible care didn't displace it. Photo credit: Ben Cruz
At the end of the day, Weir is grateful for his good buddies who were able to get him off the hill, the Novato Fire Department for their expert care and quick response, and his family and friends for all the support.
“I'm in a good place with a lot of support,” Weir said, adding that at least Gus has some new stuff to play with, referencing the walker by the living room couch where his son rides it like a surfboard.
Shredding, it's in the genes, case in point. Keep Weir's speedy recovery in your thoughts.