Saturday Night

Amazing how warm 15deg feels after a month of sub-zero temps.

Spent the evening in the front yard with a fire and Little wRider.  Did a little driveway sledding with one of the neighbor kids.

Had a FatBack in the garage, Little was asleep and Biermag was around so I snuck out for an hour of riding in the snow.  First tracks on the 3" that feel this evening.

With the clouds there was enough ambient light that there was no need for the 1,000 lumens strapped to my helmet.

You Know They Are There

You know they're there.  I pack pepper spray much of the year, just in case. 


But it is rare that you get a good look at one.

I was cruising down the bike path, over the South Fork Campbell Creek bridge,  with Allman when we spotted something moving through the grass below us.  At first glance I thought it was a young moose (a relatively common sight).  A second glance confirmed it was a shaggy brown bear (grizzly, if you will) out on the town. 

Unfortunately the squeal of disk brakes spooked it a bit, but not before we got a good look.

Pretty cool to see such a massive wild animal from a safe vantage point when you're out riding around  at 11:30pm.

Midnight Road Ride

I love summer night rides in Alaska.
I had the itch to ride the Bridgstone speedcycle all evening.
Mrs. was working, but Biermag is living here so I've got a built in babyminder.  It was later than I'd hoped, but once I was confident Little wRider had settled down to sleep for the night I got myself out the door for a little ride.

11:55pm and I pointed my bike uphill.

Midnight.  No flash.  I love Alaskan summers.

Nice 30min climb with a short break to wait on momma moose and her twins to move off the road.  Then I pointed it down and went faster than I have in quite some time.

Cute set of twins.

Aside from the driver who elected to cross the double yellow and make a good swerve at me it was an awesome evening ride.

Night Riding

Dark , getting colder, bears are almost all gone for the year.

Charge the lights, let's go ride trails.

I Hate It When This Happens

I went out for a little ride late this evening to clear my head. Had a lot going on in my life this week and few minutes of fresh air would have been good for my constitution.

I made it only a short distance from my house before feeling threatened by a motorist. It's not that this is an unusual event. I can count on a harassing honk or an attempt to guess my sexual orientation (they always guess wrong, I am heterosexual) once or twice a week at the minimum. Tonight it felt different.

I was riding off to the side of one of the main roads in town when a car decided to get menacingly close to me. Rather than traveling in the usual lane of travel this old hooptie drifted over into the gravel on the edge of the roadway and then just after they passed my the gunned the accelerator and spun out a bit in the gravel. This is all fine and good if we both continued on our merry way, it is nothing I'm not used to and I would have been able to enjoy the rest of my late evening ride. Unfortunately they decided to hit the brakes and slow down, seemingly to wait for me. I stopped pedaling and kept an eye out for their next move. As soon as I came to a stop they did too in the middle of a main street, only about 2 blocks beyond me. I decided to play it safe, so I flipped a 180 and sprinted home before I had a chance to fully determine their intentions.

At least I know this guy has got my back.

Some times I feel so vulnerable riding my bike. A few years ago I was riding home late one night after work and I felt a vibe similar to the one I felt tonight. In that instance a Ford Festiva traveling the opposite direction turned around and began to follow me. It wasn't long before they were creeping up on my back wheel and eventually forcing me off the road into people's yards. A freaking Ford Festiva, I was the only thing out on the road that night smaller than that car, and as such they decided to harass me. That night a couple of quick dashes through a few yards and the failure to signal a few of my turns allowed me make it home without sustaining bodily harm.

I'm not sure what motivates drivers in these situations, and I fully understand that these people are the exception rather than the rule, but I have worked with enough crazy people in my life to know that things could go really bad for me in a hurry if I don't act in a defensive manner.

So tonight I quickly turned off my flashing, high visibility lights, took a quick, car free short cut and made it home with no further incident. I'm not happy about my ride being cut short, but I much prefer it to having anymore grief in my life. I just don't need that right now.

Ride safe.

-bike wrider