I endo’d over a big dog yesterday. I was taking Kila out for her first run in a week, since she spent our Colorado vacation in Byron’s backyard. As usual, we immediately went rocketing down the street and were at close to 20 mph by the time we reached the mailbox. Then I noticed a dog I’d never seen before, sprinting out of a house I’ve passed thousands of times. Things happened fast. Kila started to cut in front of me to go see the dog, then realized she was getting her paws run over as the edge of the tire grazed her and I yanked her back to my right side. The other dog was suddenly right in front of me, I slammed on my brakes, t-boned it, and went over the bars.

I think I still had Kila’s leash when I got up off the ground. I was rattled and a little amped, but other than having to re-align the bars and the stem, and a few very minor scrapes, I was perfectly fine.

The owner of the house, my neighbor for many years who I have never met, grabbed his dog and was aghast and apologizing before I quite realized what happened. Realizing I was fine, the bike was fine, and Kila was fine, I became worried I’d hurt his dog. But he said the dog was good. He offered another apology which I accepted and said “no worries, I was partly to blame” and then I rode on to the park. I was just a little too full of adrenaline to stick around and make sure everything and everyone was settled.

Technically, the other guy was 100% at fault. Realistically, there is no way in hell I’m going to be mad at a dog or an owner when the dog runs out right in front of its own house, something Kila does almost every time I open the garage. Nor will I point a finger when I am hurtling down the street with my own attractive nuisance that I was not able to completely control. I hear it on MTBR all the time and I get sick of it – people blaming everything but themselves for their inability to stop. Fact is I was out of control. Fact is I could not stop. If you are riding a bike too fast, and you can not stop, the crash is your fault.

I’ve gotten into some animated discussions on the message board regarding this topic, and was kinda glad to see that when the skin met the road I still felt like I’ve always preached. Maybe I’d have felt differently if I’d broken my wrist — I certainly would have expected the other guy to help pay my medical bills under those circumstances — but I kinda don’t think I’d have been blame-throwing even then.

Down at the park, I reflected on all this, and began to worry about the other dog. I nailed it pretty good, and hoped the owner wasn’t just saying his dog was cool in order to avoid a confrontation. I wanted to be sure that he knew how hard I hit his dog, but, I worried that if I went back and talked to him he’d think I was coming to start an argument or sue him! I went back and forth over whether I should go knock on his door, but eventually decided that it was the right thing to do for the dog and the man to put his mind at ease that I was ok. If nothing else, it would be a good deposit in the karma bank. With all my preaching about how trail sharing is easy if people just communicate, having a good conversation with my neighbors in an awkward situation would be a test of my own potential for hypocrisy.

My neighbor — Steve — was a little tense when he opened his door. I quickly smiled and introduced myself, said I lived just down the street, and was worried that his dog was ok. He immediately lightened up, apologized again, I demurred again saying I was partly to blame and that what occurred was nothing I did not do to myself every week on South Mountain. We shook hands, wished each other well, and got on with our evenings. Wouldn’t it be great if all such situations got resolved that way?