I awoke to another beautiful summer day, wanting to do what I always wanted to do. I hurried to get ready and was headed out the door to a day of trail riding by myself when the phone rang.
"Hello? Hey Richie what's going on?" "Not much, what are your plans for the day?" "Oh, I was just headed out to ride some trails, do you want to go?" "Yeah, pick me up." "Alright see ya in a minute.".
As I walked to my truck, I noticed my helmet sitting on the porch, I hadn't worn it much lately, but I decided to grab it just in case. I drove to Richie's house thinking of what a great day it was going to be. I pulled into his driveway, where he was waiting. We loaded his bike and were ready to leave when he asked me "Should I grab my helmet?" "Might as well I've got mine." I replied. .
We had small talk on the way up the mountain, both of us excited to just get riding. Finally we were there. We unloaded our bikes talking about the trails we would ride that day. As we were ready to take off I again noticed my helmet.
"Richie" I yelled "You wearing your helmet?" "I don't think so, it" to hot and uncomfortable." "Yeah but we"ll be riding all day maybe we should." "Ok, throw me mine and lets go.".
And we were off. It was so gorgeous. We rode two or three easy short trails, and then we decided to take a steeper longer trail that would lead to some great views. I was feeling great, I could smell the trees and the grass and the sun was shining brightly. As I came up upon a steep decline into a canyon I up shifted and headed down feeling on top of the world. I couldn't get going fast enough to satisfy me, so I shifted into neutral and let gravity take its course. I glanced over my shoulder to see if Richie was keeping up. I gestured for him to hurry up, and as I turned back around I saw the mound of dirt that was going to make me realize how important my helmet really was.
There was no time to stop or even slow down.