Mountain Bike Lives Status = 2 down, 7 to go!!!

Well another real close one yesterday, myself and a couple of buds, Mike & Don, decided to hit a local developing trail system in the Detroit area, "Trail 47". It's a part of the Wayne County Hines Park system, which we are working with to develop this trail. Right now it's about a 15 mile out and back but the possibilities are endless. There's so much land that the trail could snake through for endless miles. But I regress.......

We were riding for about 15 minutes when we came to a short, but steep incline and at the top of the hill was a large root going across the trail and that's what I targeted to try to hop over. Mike and Don make it up and then I followed. Well I kept my eyes on the root as I attacked the hill and the next thing I feel is my head exploding with a violent BANG and I felt my whole upper body compress down on the bike. I started to lose control of the bike and fearing that I might start to fall backwards, I gained control and ended up jumping of the bike. As I tried to gain my balance, the pain was throbbing in my head, neck & shoulders. I just stood there dazed & staggering around while the guys came to see what had happened. What I had not really noticed was the humungous tree across the trail forming an arch over it. I guess I did see it but the other two riders cleared it so I just ignored it. I must of not followed their line and I took one with less clearance.

Mike & Don came back to the top of the hill and looked at me and said in amazment, "MAN, look at your helmet". I knew I collided hard with the tree but I was shocked to see the damage on my helmet. I had hit a stump of a limb that someone had chainsawed off the arched downfall. My helmet made perfect contact into it headon as you can see in the pics. The force was so great that it made a HUGE dent in the front and cracked the helmet all the way down. I will say right now if I was not wearing head protection I truly don't think I would be writing this right now.

That stump of a limb would have peeled the top of my head right off. So kiddies wear your helmet ALL the time...just a tip from Hodaddy!!!

So, now after the crash that caused the broken ankle & almost freezing to death and now this, is the life countdown dwindling away?

Quit riding you say???

NEVER!!!!!!

Muuuuuuuuuuwaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhh (evil laugh)

Update - Went to Doctor to see if any real damage since it was a head injury. I have a Stage 2 concusion. The x-rays for the most part were negetive except for one which shows something in the C-6 & T-2 plus there's alot of pain in the base of the neck. As they looked at the xrays I overheard them say "He came close to breaking his neck!!" So a shot of demerol and a shot of muscle relaxers and an appoitment for an MRI on Tuesday @ 6:30am and he sent me on my way. No biking of any sort for a week after the pain in the head stops. This is in case I crash again and hit my head. The Doc said that would be a very bad thing for me to do right now. So no biking and no kickboxing = SPINNING!! AGGGHHHHHHHHHH!!!!