When I'm not riding Sherpa, I'm out on my other bikes; since this is the Thorn Forum, he gets the face-time here.
Monday (7 May) Sherpa and I got out together for a hard, fast 126mi/200+km ride to June Mountain in Oregon's Calapooya range. It was a lovely day, and Spring seems to gave been switched on at last -- I felt like I was breathing chlorophyll with all the green things and plants in bloom.
We saw many animals on the ride, but unfortunately, all were camera-shy. In truth, I came on them so quickly I didn't have time to get the camera out and catch a photo before they fled the sight of me. There were small black lizards and a few snakes sunning themselves on the pavement, a family of racoons, deer, and a...
Bear!
Coming down June Mountain near the Layng Creek Fossil Beds at 35mph/56kph in loose gravel, we rounded a corner and Sherpa saw a young black bear (I was there, but Sherpa saw him first). More than a yearling, his coat was pretty floppy after a winter's hibernation and didn't quite keep up when he spun around and headed for the bank, no more than 10 meters away. Reflexively, I shouted "Bear!" and he probably shouted "Human!" but I didn't have time to hear him. I swerved as he scrambled up the bank, wide-eyed with shock (both of us).
Earlier in the ride, I was chased with intent by two pit bulls. I stopped at a small county park/rest area to use the bathroom and planned lunch at a picnic table, but both were missing, so I went to the far end of the parking lot thinking they might have been moved. A car pulled into the lot, a door opened, and the two dogs were out like a shot after me. My adrenaline-fueled sprint into the surrounding fields away from them was not good enough. I stopped, and as one circled with back fur up and tail low, growling, the other kept lunging shoulder-high. I tried everything -- sweet-talking them, then shouting "No" and commanding them to "Stay". When the jumping one turned for my face, I loosed my bear spray at him and he subsided. He didn't seem hurt, but certainly gave up the chase and went back to the car where doors slammed and the owner left the lot. I never saw who owned the dogs. On my return to the lot, a new owner loosed her English sheepdog on me. I froze, and as the dog with tail low kept darting toward my legs and snapping, the owner said, "Missy, she don't like cyclists, and I don't either!". I reminded her of the county leash laws and as soon as the dog was leashed I left, thinking of the old saying, "It's a dog-eat-dog world, and I'm wearing kibble underwear".
Plenty scary, yes, but not enough to spoil a wonderful ride. I'll be thinking about all I saw for a good long time.
I'll include some captions for each photoset to catch some of the highlights of a lovely ride.
Best,
Dan.
Photoset 1:
- Roadside caution sign is pictogram for "Watch out for Danneaux and Sherpa".
- Farm where my 94 year-old father spent his boyhood. My grandfather built this house himself, 90 years ago. When the river flooded the house to the tops of the beds, Grandpa raised the house to the present level. Thank goodness for dams and better flood control in recent years.
- The highway gets a bridge, residents sometimes...don't. In more rural parts of Oregon (Smith River), residents park on one bank of the river and take a little trolley like this across the river to home. Everything goes by trolley...beds, groceries, kids to the school bus.
- California poppies and Sherpa.
Photoset 2:
- Bear Creek, off the Cloverdale Highway. Deer often drink here in early morning and evening.
- Sherpa looking at the Row River. Pronounced like the "bow" of a boat, the river and valley were named after two residents got in a row (fight) with each other.
- Mowed path through the fields after being dog-chased.
- Another replica castle on Sears Road. Why? I don't know. Kinda neat, though. I want one with a moat. And a dragon to guard it.
- Elk, next five miles. Fair warning; best to give them a wide berth as males are in rut this time of year.
Best,
Dan.
