Is a cougar best measured in
grams or ounces?
So let’s
assume for argument’s sake that I ride for a reason, or reasons. What are they?
Often I’m in a slump and have ‘reasons’ not to ride, but then remind myself
that each ride is different. I chant, “Don’t judge the ride before it is
over”. Lately the weather here has
been…well, apocalyptic, and I’ve been chanting a lot. We’ve had in close
succession heavy snowfall, very heavy rains, regional flooding, more snow, more
rain, flash flooding, more snow, and freezing temps. Our town gets 300+ days of
sunshine a year. Normally. Not this year though, and getting my 100 miles a
week in on my bike outdoors has been impossible the past two weeks.
I’m
constantly reminding myself that my TD training has not started yet, so don’t
worry about the mileage. Sure. Another chant on my rides, when I notice that I’m
up to training pace is, “I’m not training yet!”. I talk to myself a lot during the rides.
Sometimes I get a third opinion that sneaks in from somewhere. Hah. A month
until I start the real TD training.
So I changed
gears a bit (oops, pun). Flooding? Well heck, I’ve got TD-grade rain gear, no?
So out I went in torrential rains and howling winds to view our neighborhood
and the flooding near our home (we’re 50’ above flood stage, not so lucky for
all of our neighbors). The small stream near our house was a raging river. Holy
torrent, Bikeman! One of the two access roads into our area was under water.
I rode over
the one remaining (and shaking!) bridge that was open and down to the major
thoroughfare across the river that runs through the city, where it was
barricaded off, and I stopped to speak with the officer guarding the
intersection. I figured that it even though the sign said, “Road Closed”,
the bikepath next to the road didn’t
have a sign. Not surprisingly he asked what I was doing out in the storm. I
answered, “Science experiment, gear testing”. After a bit I asked if I could
ride down to the bridge across the river. He thought a moment and then said
that I could, but the County workers there might yell at me. Perhaps he thought
that bikers were expendable?
At the river
I was stunned by the amount and speed of the water which barely cleared the
underside of the bridge. Add to that the whole trees and other debris being
carried away by the flood. Yep, the County workers, there to assess the damage
and guard the bridge, had the sandbag trucks parked on the bridge (!!), and
they were watching the flood. When they noticed me I yelled, “The cop said it
was OK to ride down here!”. Heh heh.
I’m
beginning to dislike spin classes at the gym and trainer sessions in my garage.
About a dozen hour long sessions in the past two weeks. Plus weightlifting at the gym. And I snuck in a few rides
outside, ice permitting. Oh, and getting bundled up from head to toe is getting
old. My balaclava facemask actually feels like a second skin now.
A while back
I was riding near the small stream noted above. Suddenly a coyote darted out of
a ravine twenty feet in front of me. He and I came to a quick stop. Not that I
was worried about him, just didn’t want to collide with any critter having
teeth. I had seen him before sneaking around in the field nearby, but from a
couple hundred yards distance. He watched me, cocking one eye up, and I watched
him, cocking one eye up. We stood there, cockeyed, for thirty seconds, at which
time he trotted off casually. A beautiful animal; a fluffy winter coat with
orange-brown color highlights.
For those not familiar with coyotes, they have
the body mass of a wet poodle, but their fur coats make them look much larger.
They don’t bother humans, unless it is to snack on their small dogs and cats. The
day before the flood I saw his cousin, on my paved street, at one in the
morning. We have rabbits in the area. We don’t have outdoor cats. I like cats.
And cougars. One was found hiding under a house right next to a sign on my
training route that said “End Bike Path”. Perhaps it should have added, “…and
Start Cougar Trail”. We’ve had bears come down from the mountains in search of
snacks, and I’ve seen bear scat a couple times.
Aforesaid
stream flows along 12 miles of my route. At one point it crosses an earthen dam
(only a few feet high, and the water flows across the roadway) that forms a
large pond. Egret, ducks, geese and storks frequent the waters and surrounding
swamp, and wild horses come here to water and mooch from misguided people that
feed them. In the hills above the pond, a wild horse actually came up to me and
ate the map I was holding!
On one cold
day I noticed a bike parked on the dam, and the rider was wading in the pond
with a fly rod in his hands. Since there was a thin layer of ice on the pond,
both the fly rod and someone wading in freezing water rattled my brain. I
stopped and waited until he came back to his bike and spoke with him. Seems
that he was from an eastern European country, here to work temporarily. We
talked about fly fishing, and what species of fish were in the pond (I had seen
large carp spawning there in the spring), and a bit about his wonderment that
this lovely pond saw no fishing pressure. Uh, hello, it’s like frozen! I rode away with a new
appreciation of the pond, and felt good about having stopped and talked to a
fellow biker/fisherman, even if he was a bit optimistic about fishing through
the ice.
Yesterday I
managed to get a forty miler in, riding in a steady drizzle with high winds,
dodging ice and snow banks. During the ride I passed two farms that had Llamas
munching hay, one that had Alpacas, and another where the peacocks strolled
unconcerned. A ways farther the Texas longhorn cattle were resting in a field
where another coyote is often seen looking lustily at the geese feeding on
small grass shoots. Speaking of geese, we have a huge gaggle in town. They have
babies in the spring, and the cute tiny fuzzballs are a joy to watch. Last year
I counted forty-two fuzzies being herded by three nesting pairs of geese.
Each ride is
logged into my paper journal, and in my electronic one, plus analyzed and
charted in my master ‘too-much-data’ spreadsheet. I’m constantly testing gear,
weighing it and making notes of its performance.
Why do I
ride? Perhaps it’s because I’m noticing that not all is time, speed, distance, weight,
and frequency. Now, how to log all those
storms, floods, coyotes, geese, horses, ducks, fish, cattle, storks, and other
animals into my tracking spreadsheet? I may need more columns. But then again, I
would have to weigh a cougar. Hmmm…
