Monday afternoon was sunny and warm – just the recipe for a nice motorcycle ride.

Vince Langley, visiting from Portland, chose North Bank Chetco River Road for an outing on his 750-cc Ural Tourist with sidecar.

Things went well and Langley was heading back toward Brookings, about five miles up the Chetco at 12:45 p.m., when things got crazy. The sidecar lifted off the pavement on a curve, the motorcycle swerved into the oncoming lane, and Langley collided with an oncoming 1988 Jeep Wranger driven by Karen Cammarata of Brookings.

The impact sent 61-year-old Langley flying over the guardrail and 50 feet down a bush-covered embankment.

Cammarata expected the worst.

“I thought he was down there dead,” she said. “I was pretty shaken. It was pretty damn scary with nobody around.”

She called for Langley, who didn’t respond. But soon he came walking up the hillside without so much as a scratch. A swollen knuckle on his left hand was the only injury from his quick flight through space.

Langley was conscious through it all, but can’t remember much.

“Everything goes so fast,” he said.

Langley said he wasn’t speeding, only going about 30 miles an hour. “I was just putting along,” he said.

Cammarata, who was headed out to ride her horse, had begun to slow for a left-hand turn but couldn’t avoid impact.

“I saw the sidecar starting to lift and I knew we were going to crash,” she said, adding it’s a tight turn where she always slows down.

Her car had a damaged front fender and possible broken axle. Langley’s bike was “toast,” as he put it.

Cammarata praised Brookings Fire and Rescue for a quick response, even though medical treatment wasn’t needed.

No one was in Langley’s sidecar when the crash occurred. His wife, Cherri, was at their campground in Harbor.

He anticipated having quite a story to tell her, although it started so simply.

“I was just out taking a little ride,” Langley said.