ELYRIA — A Second Street man took a 35-foot tumble down a cliff face Saturday evening and landed on a pile of sharp boulders lining the Black River.

Jason Kendall, 29, of Elyria, was riding his bicycle about 5:45 p.m. on the Two Falls Trail at the East Falls Riverwalk when he flipped over his handlebars, his niece and nephew said.

“We came right down here where the fence ends, and he wrapped about this pole,” said his niece, 18-year-old Marissa Nagle. “He flew off and went all the way down.”

Kevin Kendall, 16, said his bike peg caught on a rock — and that was the only thing that saved him from plummeting after his uncle.

Rescue workers said a huge section of the cliff face, about 60 feet of rock along the trail, eroded away two years ago, taking with it a chain-link fence protecting pedestrians from the drop-off.

The rocks smashed against the river bed below the narrow gravel trail, which the crews said was used decades ago to get automobiles down to the banks.

Firefighters crawled down the cliff and strapped Jason Kendall to a stretcher, then hauled him up the face to a waiting ambulance. He could be heard talking about severe neck pain.

Kendall was taken to EMH Regional Medical Center, where a nursing supervisor said he left without treatment.

A sign at the top of the trail reads, “No bikes, skateboards, rollerblades allowed.”

Contact Jason Hawk at 329-7148 or jhawk@chroniclet.com.

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