A few days ago, I was headed north in Ocean Shores and, what to my wondering eyes did I see other than someone on a bike headed against traffic. Now, that is not totally unusual by itself, but the wrong-way dweeb had a dog on a leash running alongside his bike. I thought about yelling out, but then the missive "only a fool argues with a fool" took hold and I simply shook my head in wonderment about whether the guy would fall due to the dog diverting his front wheel, due to the dog darting toward a nearby dear just as oncoming traffic approached, or simply due to some other cause. In any event, it did not seem like a teachable moment. I consoled reflecting on how cycling is fun and safe, even when practiced by someone completely clueless.
Yesterday and today, I saw more intelligent actions. Yesterday, I came across a black bear about three blocks from my Ocean Shores house. The bear saw me shortly afterwards and took off, not wanting to tangle with an apex predator on a Schwinn Cruiser. Today, the same thing happened when I encountered a coyote just south of our local IGA Grocery. These two were no fools!
For the record, the bear looked well fed. The coyote not as much, but not emaciated either.
3 comments:
My brain totally shorts out when I encounter riders doing dumb things, particularly when they're stacking multiple dumb things at the same time.
Nice wildlife encounters, though.
A dumb thing indeed! In that situation, it's the dog who might be endangered, never mind the rider! But yeah, lots of cycling idiots out there.
Animals really do make more sense than humans, sometimes.
I've encountered folks like the "dweeb-with-dog" you mentioned. The worst are the one with those seemingly-infinitely expandable or retractable leashes.
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No Need for Non-Robot proof here!