A trail close to my home is Clinton Lake, and this incident happened last summer while riding with my friend Pete. We had ridden the trail numerous times, and one of our favorite parts involved a rocky uphill climb with a hard left turn at the top. Often we judge the quality of our ride around being able to complete this section without clipping out. At the top of the hill is a locust tree. For those unfamiliar with locust trees, they are the trees you sometimes see with ungodly-sized thorns growing off in all directions. These thorns get so huge, there are often thorns growing on thorns. So, on one afternoon ride Pete and I had reached the hill. Pete made it up no problem, but as I went up the incline, I spun out on some rocks I needed to pop my rear tire over. I didn't have time to clip-out, so I just fell to my left into the hill, putting my left hand down to brace my fall. Well, a 5-pronged thorn was laying right where I put my hand down, and the center thorn went straight through my glove, most of the way through my palm. I pulled my hand back as quick as I could, and I brought with it the thorn bundle. Pete looked at it and in his empathetic way, smiled and said "dude, stigmata." Pete's also a techno-geek, so of course he had his video camera in his pack. Rather than help me out, his first inclination was to put his bike down and get out his camera so he could "get some footage." With the thorn bundle sticking about 5 inches out of my palm, I had to have Pete pull it out. I pulled my glove off and had a bleeding hole in the middle of my palm. I later learned that not only are locust thorns friggin' enormous, they also have some type of irritant/toxin on the tips of the thorns. By the end of the ride, my palm was bright red and swollen. It took 2 weeks for the infection in my palm to subside, but even 9 months after, I still have a small lump and a puncture scar in my palm.
