I got a new mountain bike this year. It was our 20th anniversary this year, and my wife wanted a ring. The deal was that I got to spend as much as her ring costs on a new bike for me. I went with a Santa Cruz 5010.

Last friday, a friend text me and asked if I wanted to ride with him that night at 9:00 pm. We both have good lights, ands know the Mueller Park trail well, so we went. Everything was fine, and we were on our way down about 1/4 mile from the bottom of the trail about 10:30 when he went down. He was behind me, and I heard h. Yell "ahhh" and suddenly couldn't see his light behind me anymore. I Stopped and went back to see what happened and help him. I found him laying across the trail, his buke partially on him. He said he hurt his hand, but otherwise was ok (we found out the next day he broke his metacarpal bone on his left pinky).

I looked around to see what might have caused him to crash. It was a straight, smooth section of trail. He said something hit his head that threw him off balance, but there were no branches sticking out anywhere. Best we can figure, a large bird, maybe an owl, swooped down an nailed him. He does have a small dent in his helmet. I guess I may have spooked it as I went by.

His is bike was ok, but he could put any pressure on his hand so we walked the rest of the way down.