Saturday, August 13, 2005

Why sit in traffic?


Some mornings are just too perfect for going inside when I get to the office, and this was one of them. This lake is two blocks behind my office and is bordered on the far shore by a paved bike path that is part of my ride to work. I sometimes throw my lunch in a rack trunk and ride here for an hour in the middle of the day. A co-worker rode by this spot on her way home one day this week and saw a moose swimming across the lake. I was only five minutes behind her, but it was gone when I passed by.

On the other hand, I did get to see a large brown bear during a trail ride last night. I was riding with a friend who crashed on an exposed tree root and knocked her handlebar out of alignment. Rather than fix it in the woods, where the mosquitoes were thick, we rode a short distance ahead and stopped in an open area beside a creek. As I finished adjusting her bar, my friend said, "Oh my God, that's a BIG BEAR!" I spun around in the direction she was looking and saw an adult brownie in the grass on the other side of the creek. It was a nearly perfect bear sighting: close range, fairly good visibility despite the tall grass and, best of all, by the time I saw it, the bear was already starting to run the other way. Can't ask for more than that.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehe. Do you bring bear spray or anything with you when you cycle near 'bear country?'
should be a clip to attach bear spray to a bike frame - much like a spare pump...
Seems to me you would look like a bucket of KFC on wheels to a bear :)

Tim said...

I have a bottle of bear spray glued into a cut-up water bottle so that I can carry it in a bottle cage on my bike frame. Of course, last night was the night I decided to travel light and leave my Camelbak at home, so I stuck a bottle of water in the cage and left the bear spray on the workbench in my garage.

Doh!