Body on a Bike Trail

     It started out as a typical Saturday morning, loading up the bike to meet my buddies on a nearby mountain bike trail.  Our bike club would meet once a week at one of the many trails in the area, this time we are headed for Lost Valley to ride a familiar trail (about 8 miles long).  We never knew how many riders would show since we all have families and family activities always took precedence. Some days there could be 12 or more riders other times only 2; everyone was welcome even those that weren't in the club.

     This morning there were just three of us, Bill, Pat and myself.  We have been on many rides over the past years and considered ourselves experienced riders.  By that I mean we could traverse most terrain successfully, repair tires chains and other minor damages on the trail and continue on our ride.  We were self-sufficient in that we could handle any difficulty that we encountered, including injuries.  When you ride off road as frequently as we do you see many interesting sights but every once in awhile you run into something that surprises you as happened on that Saturday morning ride.

     We rode in the morning because the weather was cooler but that was not the case on this July morning in Missouri.  It was hot and muggy even at 8 am.  Sweat poured down our face after the first mile, the perspiration made our bike jerseys cling to our chest.  There was no breeze just the hot air on our bodies as we pedaled fast down the trail.

     This was a quite morning with no other riders in sight, the early morning heat may be the reason the trail was empty.  The heat was unpleasant but we took a path that was unfamiliar and not well travelled.  We pushed through tall grass and once we got to a small clearing we found were covered with deer ticks.  We spent the next five minutes picking these little critters off before we continued on our ride.  We had ridden 4 miles but we were off the main trail so we had about 5 more miles to go to get back to the trailhead.

     We had been so busy with the deer ticks that we didn't notice the sleeping bag next to the oak tree.  As we got back on the bikes Bill yelled to us “Wait look over there.”  Pointing to the sleeping bag.  We walked over to see if there was someone there.  We poked the bag to see if there was a response when we heard a groan and a guy peeked out of the bag.  He looked dazed and confused but in all fairness we woke him abruptly.  We asked him what he was doing sleeping on the trail (not that it was our business), he responded that he was traveling across the country and just needed some rest.  Seemed odd but we wished him luck and hopped on our bikes.

      It wasn’t but 5 minutes later we were riding down the trail with Pat on the lead bike when he jumped a log and lying on the other side was a body.  We all came to an immediate stop.  It was a man on his back, the same guy we saw in the sleeping bag but he was dead.  “How could that be?”  We just talked to him minutes ago, this can’t be happening.  How did he die and how did he get way over here?  His shirt was torn and we saw a fresh scar starting below his shoulder that travelled down toward the upper part of his chest. There was no cell phone service so we decided to head back too the parking lot to call the police but as we rode down the trail we noticed a guy walking ahead of us with camping gear.  As we got closer to him we were shocked to discover that it was the same guy, the dead guy.

     Now we are getting freaked.  We asked him if he camped alone. “Yes” he said. “I’m headed back home to see my brother, he’s my twin.”  Holy crap was all I could think looking at Bill and Pat.  “When was the last time you talked with him?”  “Three days ago, why?”  “Is there any chance he would have come to see you?”  “No, he was in the hospital, recovering from heart surgery.”  We checked our cell phones and we now had service so we told him to call his brother.  He looked puzzled but called and found out sad news, his brother had passed away over night. We told him about the body we saw in the woods with the scar but it couldn’t be his twin, we must be mistaken about the resemblance to him.

     We stayed with the camper until we got to the parking lot then called the police to tell them about the body on the trail.  We waited to take the police to the spot where we found the body, but found nothing.  No sign of any body or evidence of a body being there.

     We left shaking our heads in wonder.  I said “I think I’ll skip next Saturday’s ride.” Pat and Bill agreed as we drove out of the parking lot.