Bismarck Tribune

By LAUREN DONOVBy LAUREN DONOVAN

The man who helped lead the mountain bike charge into North Dakota's backcountry sustained critical head injuries from a bike accident April 21 in Boulder, Colo.

Loren Morlock, who along with Jennifer Morlock for years owned Dakota Cyclery in Bismarck, remains in intensive care in critical but stable condition in a Boulder hospital.

Morlock sustained multiple breaks to his skull, neck and facial bones when he was urban riding through an industrial area in Boulder and rode off an unmarked sub-grade loading dock.

Jennifer Morlock said her husband was launched off his bike into the 4-foot-deep pit and his head sustained the brunt of the impact.

She said his progress remains guarded but optimistic. He had immediate neurological surgery requiring multiple plates and screws to rejoin the broken skull and bones. He remains under heavy sedation and appears to have avoided dangerous swelling to his brain and, thus far, complications from infection.

Jennifer Morlock said her husband had stopped off to bike and visit friends in Boulder en route from their winter work in Arizona, to Medora, where they've had a mountain bike tour and rental business for the past few summers.

Loren Morlock has a reputation for always wearing a bike helmet as a routine part of his gear.

Jennifer Morlock said that for some reason, he took off on the Boulder ride and left his helmet hanging in the van.

"No one plans for an accident," she said.

This week, Morlock underwent a tracheotomy to replace a ventilator and also was fitted with a feeding tube to improve the quality of his nutrition.

For now, his situation is definitely one day at a time, and Jennifer Morlock said the medical hope is that within the next week or two, he can be transferred out of intensive care and eventually transferred to Bismarck for rehabilitation.

To make that trip home, however, will require that he can endure a 12-hour car ride. An airlift would cost $8,000.

She said he's receiving excellent care and his face and features are not disfigured.

"The last few days have been the hardest," she said. "We're expecting all these breakthroughs, and they just haven't happened."

She said family members will take turns being with Loren Morlock at the Boulder hospital so that she can get to Medora later this month to start the summer season.

"I've got to have that for him to come back to," she said. "This is my worst nightmare, but he lived every day of his life."

Jennifer Morlock's sister, Julie Buresh, of Bismarck, has started a benefit fund.

Anyone who wants to help out can send a donation to: Kirkwood Bank and Trust, Loren Morlock Benefit Fund, P.O. Box 6089, Bismarck, N.D. 58502.

Buresh can be reached at 258-7284.

As a biker, Loren Morlock had great strength and stamina, and Jennifer Morlock said she's counting on those attributes to serve her husband's healing.

Minus the helmet part, Loren Morlock more than anyone understood the risk of adventure.

"He always says you're not going to get hurt if you sit on the couch," Jennifer Morlock said.