Since I almost bought the farm this past Saturday in Sturbridge, I got to wondering what some of the worst spills/ wrecks you cats have taken in New England.

This past weekend, after completing the 5-mile mountain bike loop with my lady friend at Wells State Park, we hit the horseshoe that's next to the parking lot. It rips along, and there's almost a bit of a pump track at the end of it. The gravel pile at the end used to be a great jump, getting great air.

Used to be, that is! Now it's a solid wall of gravel with a good 3 foot drop behind it. My bike hit it and stopped completely. I was cruising along at 18mph and didn't even have time to hit the brakes when I saw that I wouldn't clear it. I went straight up and over, landing square on my head and breaking my helmet. When I got up, I lost consciousness twice. I'm scared to admit that had the ground been packed soil, I probably would have broken my neck. As the doctor put it, I had a concussion that he ranked as an 8 out of 10.

Anyhow, from a distance, the jump looked ready to hit to get some great air off of. Right before I hit it, I realized it was much steeper and had a drop behind it.




Hitting it head on, my bike stopped, sending me straight up and directly over this. You can see how the top tables off and the brown spot from where my tire dug in.




Doesn't look so bad, until you realize that it was quite a drop after that for me to go straight down into. Keep in mind I'm just about 5'11".




And, for pure humor, below is the indentation my head made in the ground. You can see it at the very bottom of the above picture, too.




Clearly had I come at this from a different side, I would've known what was coming. In the future, when you see this sucker, DON'T TRY TO GET AIR OFF IT. Here the lil' bugger is from the other side. No wonder I almost broke my neck!



RESULT: I passed out twice with a full concussion. Hospital ride, ER, CAT scan, and x-ray, but all was well. May take me about a week to get my head fully cleared again, but man, what a ride!



So whatcha got?