Oh the pain....

Today I hit a tree. It was not a very big one, but it doesn't take much when a tree is involved.
Ryan, Beefa, Natashia and I started out at Disco's house, at about 9:30. My ride there through the fog made me wish I had some of Elton John's windshield wiper sunglasses, as it was very thick and sticking to my specs. Disco turned out to be grounded, and couldn't go, but that was made up for by the hot cup of coffee I got from his kitchen. Divebomb came with us to the Stepping Stone in NW Portland, for breakfast. After a two eggs, ham, toast, and hashbrowns, and making it through watching them drink a orange juice filled smoothie ( I can't even look at O.J.), we parted ways with Divebomb, and headed for the trails outside of Scappoose.
Afetr parking at the trailhead, we rolled up, and did the "Wheel Off" trail first. This trail is named for the fact that Ryan, on our first or second trip there, did not tighten his wheel properly, and did a fine flying endo. ending up wedged between two logs, right on the edge of the drop. I was mere feet behind him, and it was very gymnastic, and, after realizing he wasn't hurt, very funny.
We proceeded to cruise down and up many of the fine trails available. This is private land, on which the owner and the members of PUMP have made alot of riding, including loops, drops, big jumps, little jumps, logs to ride, ladders to ride, great short downhills, and much, much more.
It was in an area we call "North Shore", where I had my little incident. In the past, I had ridden this ladder obstacle cleanly, even on my polo bike with only one back brake. It flows fairly straight for maybe 20 feet, then drops off about 5 feet steeply, then down a hill.
I made the first section no problem, then rolled over the end. The angle of the exit ramp puts you onto your front wheel in landing, so I rolled off it in endo form. The main problem is the tree located right in front of the landing, maybe 5 feet away.
This is the tree I endoed into. When riding on your front wheel alone directly into a tree, your options tend to be very few.
I realized I had to take the hit, and jump over the handlebars at the same time.
My bike hit one part of the tree, and I made it clean over the handlebars, only to hit the tree next to hit with 4 different parts of my body. I took a scrape all the way down my left arm, a scrape to my left knee, a bigger scrape on my right leg, and, the fun part, a direct hit to the ribs on the main part of the tree.
Knocked the wind out of me a little, though I got back on the bike like nothing happened (I am sometimes ignorant).
Now, about three hours later, I am about to go out on another ride, to help my friend learn mounts and dismounts for cyclocross. But my body wants to stay right here, on my bed. The only part that hurts much still where I got slammed in the ribs. I guess I better go riding today, cause I won't feel like it at all tommorrow.
This is the price we pay for fun. Sometimes it is very high..........