After I had just started mountain biking with a few friends back in 2006, I had decided to go myself and do the same trail at Ringwood State Park in NJ that we had done the week before as a group. Part of the route involves taking the pavement from one parking area on the south side of the park down a hill past the park entrances to the lake on the north side of the park. We had bombed the hill at a pretty quick pace the previous week and it was exhilarating. I figured that I would replicate that same pace on my solo ride.

I'm zooming down the hill and approaching the entrance gate on the road to the lake and there is a pickup truck parked right in the middle of the lane and two people outside of it talking to each other. Still at high speed, I swing around the truck and people to see the wooden gate closed. The gate is supposed to be opened at 8:00am and here it was about 8:20. Since the truck was in front of the gate I could not see that it was still closed and did not have enough time to stop. The ancient cantilever brakes I had barely slowed me down and I hit it nearly at full speed. The head tube of my Cannondale M700 took the brunt of the impact with the 1"x6" sandwiched construction gate arm breaking in half and I flew over the handle bars for about 30 feet then rolled for another 10 feet, knocking the wind out of me and giving myself one hell of a road rash on my hip in the process.

The couple from the pickup who had been waiting for the park rangers to open the gate came over to help me and called the ambulance. After the EMTs checked me out and bandaged me up 45 minutes later I walked the bike back to the car and drove home in what I can only describe as painful humiliation. The head tube survived but got pretty scratched up at the impact point.