Stucka By A Yucca - Biking in Nevada

Plan was to ride at Red Rock Canyon... I had hooked up with the Las Vegas Cyclery Adventure Tours to have them give me a ride to and from the Canyon - and also to provide the bike and tour guide. There ended up being about 8 people on the tour. LV Cyclery takes riders out to the canyon using vans that run on used vegetable oil:


The Red Rock Canyon was beautiful!




Pics of the terrain....





So.... Everything was going extremely well! Here is a picture of me about 20 minutes into the ride as we waited for some slower riders:



Riding fast, and leading the group - my right hand ended up clipping a Yucca Cactus that was hanging over the trail. I heard a snap as a spear of the cactus broke off into my "bird finger" on my right hand. The Yucca Cactus has a sharp spear at the end of every branch.. Here is the evil bastard -



The biking trip was over for me.. I ended up heading to an "urgent care" facility that wouldn't touch injury - due to concern of damage to tendons, etc in my finger. From there, I was carted to the Emergency Room of The University Medical Center in Vegas. MANY hours later (over 10), and with some delicate work performed by a hand surgeon - i was on my way..

Here is the injury prior to any medical attention:



Im ready to roll again....