Trail encounters

Ok, I meant to post this yesterday, but the disruptions in my office, which have continued through to today, kind of prevented me form finishing it. Anyway here's what I wanted to say:

Monday night I decided to head out for a mountain bike ride on a trail system near my place. I have to say that this city has done a great job of providing trails for mountain bikers and not just paved trails that far too many "mountain bikers" ride on almost exclusively. Though the biggest praise has to go to the guys and girls from MORC. They do a fabulous job of maintaining, improving and aquiring new trails in the cities. Which is why it was really cool that my third encounter of the night was with a group of them doing some trail work. I caught them just as they finished a section and rode out the rest of the trail chatting with the guy in front of me. Of course I also thanked them for all the work on the trails.

The other two encounters were a bit more unusual. The first encoutner actually happened twice, if that makes any sense at all. I wasn't terribly far into the ride when I came upon a gentleman walking the trail. Now this is just plain odd, this trail is kind of out of the way and not exactly a large walking trail as you can see from the picture. In fact there are a couple of areas where my handlebars are a bit to wide to get through without some fancy and fast leaning maneuvers. Anyway this guy just looked way out of place, I think he had a jacket over one arm and may even have had a breifcase with him. After passing him I kind of got the sense that he was either pretty stoned or just really out of it. Either way I was still too surprised to see someone walking on the trail to bother mentioning to him that it might not be a very safe idea. But the second time I saw him I did mention this, his mumbled and rather delayed responce only further confirmed my suspission that he was chemically enhanced at the moment. Though they were clearly not performance enhancing drugs.

The second encounter was more pleasant but almost more surprising. As I came around a bend I saw a deer on the edge of the trail. Now this trail is rather forest like but it is pretty close to the main body of the city and I haven't seen anything bigger than a fat squirel as far as wild animals go. So when I saw the deer I decided to stop right away and see what would happen. I guess he heard me because he perked up and moved back from the trail about 15 feet. But I could still see him pretty clearly. Which is about the point that I realized that he was a he, with horns. Now I know that a deer isn't a dangerous animal most of the time, but when they have horns and decide to be territorial, things can get a bit dangerous. Or maybe it was just because I had the memory of this image from a race in my head:

Yes, the deer knocked the guy off the bike and into the ditch durring the race!

But I was able to sit a few feet away and watch him eat for a mintue or so before I figured it would be best to keep riding past him. I passed by without incident and the second time through the loop I coudln't spot him at all. Though on the ride home I saw a doe and her fawns in a marsh area near the road and bike path. It's always funny to realize just how many large wild animals live right around us without us noticing most of the time.