I’m pretty new to mtbing, but I’ve been a roadie and a graveller for 15 years. For some reason, one of the best local mtbers has sort of taken me under his wing, which has pluses and minuses. The pluses are that I’ve learned a lot. The minuses are that I’ve crashed a lot. But I wasn’t crashing on the ride in question, back in May. I was riding pretty well. I hit a stream crossing pretty fast, one that had scared me before, and cleaned it fine. Stopping on the other side, I put a foot down, but missed the top of the stream bank where I was aiming for. That led me to fall into the stream, and I put my right hand out to catch myself, breaking one of the carpal bones in my hand and earning me two months off the mtb. I still remember laying in the stream thinking, “The water isn’t as cold as I expected.”