Here's a press release just sent out by River Valley BMX in Sumner:

During the Washington State Finals on Sunday September 14th, River Valley is proud to host a special homecoming for Jill Kintner, BMX Racing Bronze Medal Winner at the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games. Jill Kintner, a native to the Puget Sound, grew up racing northwest tracks and won her very first national at River Valley BMX, and now her Olympic Dream has become a reality!

=> Read more!

My 7-year-old boy and I had a rather unique father-son moment earlier this week, but we’d both rather somebody else had the experience instead of us.

Someday it will definitely make a good story, but for now, well, put it this way: I’m writing this from home because he’s missing school for the second day in row.

We went on a bike ride Tuesday night that concluded with father-son endos.

What’s an endo? Well, for you non-mountain bikers just think of it as short for “end over end.”

Ever since we passed that golf cart while riding a tandem on Catalina Island, he’s had a thirst for speed. So he told me he wanted to speed down a large hill near our house to see how fast he could go.

I rode my road bike and he rode his standard kid bike. After a number of runs down the hill he hit a top speed of 21 mph with no trouble.

We then pedaled around until we found a much larger and steeper hill and Alexander decided he wanted to give it a try. With no traffic in the area, it was a perfect place for him to try to pick up a little more speed and get used to larger hills.

I gave him a little pep talk about not slamming on his brakes and not going too fast. He absorbed none of this.

We shoved off from the top of the hill going slow at first and then we started picking up some serious speed.

We hit 28.5 mph when it was time to slow down. But that’s when trouble hit. Alex slammed on his brakes and found out immediately why I’d told him not to.

What happened next Alex told the doctors “was awesome.”

It looked like slow motion to me. He flew over his handle bars and hit the pavement.

My reaction was to slam on my brakes, which, of course, meant I went flying over my handlebars too. I hit the pavement hands first and my bike flipped and landed on my back.

I jumped up and sprinted to my son who was, of course, crying. His screams were so loud that at one point a woman came out of her house and offered to call an ambulance.

Alex said his left shoulder hurt, but he could lift his arm without pain so I thought we were going to escape with just a serious case of road rash.

I had small scuff marks on my hands and aggravated some tendinitis in my thumb from a mountain biking endo I pulled off in July.

Alex’s road rash was much more impressive. In addition to a bunch of small nicks, he had two gold medal size scrapes.

But later that night it became clear his injuries were much worse. As he lay on the couch I realized I couldn’t even see his left collar bone. He said he wasn’t in pain, but it was pretty clear what had happened.

Wednesday morning I took him to the doc to confirm. After getting X-rays Alex and I sat on a bench and pulled out the pictures. I held the X-ray up to the sky and my suspicion was confirmed.

His collarbone was broken. Nothing small either. It was snapped in half.

Of course, I was feeling pretty guilty about all of this. As much as I like to let Alex explore his adventurous side, I clearly let him bite off too much.

The doc sent us to the orthopedic doc who gave us the first bit of good news of the day. All Alex has to do is keep his arm in a sling for a month and the bone should heal.

Alex looked at the doctor then looked at me.

“Dad I wish we could trade injuries,” he said with a smile.

“Tell me about it, bud,” I said. “So do I.”

Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission regulations have resulted in the closure of bus service on the John Wayne Pioneer Trail at Iron Horse State Park, according to a statement posted on the shuttle service's website.

Here's a statement from Bus-Up 90.

The Bus-Up 90 Snoqualmie Shuttle has ended service due to regulations by the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission (WUTC). Although Bus-Up 90 was a concessionare of Washington State Parks, the Washington Utilities and Transportation Commission has stepped in and determined that the shuttle service is subject to regulation as an auto carrier, rather than as an excursion service or a charter service. The WUTC regulations and requirements make it impossible to continue the shuttle. Service has ended, Labor Day, September 1, 2008 was the last run.

=> Read more!