That was my skull.....

....I'm so wasted.

I always loved that line, right up there with the "No shirt, no shoes, no dice" one.

Pre-ride of Schaeffer with chainsaw strapped to the pack looking to clear blow-downs.  I roll around a sweeping left turn, the front tire makes contact with the most innocuous little stick pointed down trail and I go down hard...into a tree....head first.  Fuck that hurt! Pretty sure I heard my spine compress. My vision was a little blurred (tears in my eyes) and I just lay there, in pain.  Fortunately,  TonyP was on hand to make sure I wasn't dead. He helps me remove the chainsaw laden pack and tells me not to move.  No problem there. A few minutes go by, I wiggle all my fingers and toes, can turn my head a little and determine nothing is severely wrong with me.  Woo hoo....I'm alive!

My Bell helmet took the hit and crushed on impact as designed. That piece of foamed saved my ass and if I wasn't wearing it, I wouldn't be writing these words right now.

I went home, popped a couple Ibuprofen and tossed an icepack on the neck. Let things rest a little bit and headed back to the park to lend out my lights for the night ride.  Yeah right, who am I kidding?  I went back to ride.  It's way too nice to stay inside.  I ain't dead and I've had worse. I go over the bike one more time looking for cracks and find a paint chip on the top tube. Next to it are some more "stress induced" cracking in the paint.  Well, I could be walking out tonight. The ride goes off as planned, the bike holds together and I felt great. Good thing 'cause I'm racing on Sunday.  I hope Spot comes through on that replacement frame. I'm fresh out of 29er's.