Night Rider?

No...not the Hoff.

All of my co-workers think that solo night riding is a bad idea. While it might be, it's kinda fun though b/c you definitely see/experience some different things than you do during the day. They were taking bets on whether I'd make it in to work today after riding the area I intended to check out under the cover of darkness last night (it's chock full of bears and kitties). Now even though the misses encouraged me to carry bear spray during the CTR, I'm not worried about the bears. They mostly eat berries and trash up here and to have one be aggressive would be unusual. Normally they just turn tail and run. But the kitties...you'll never know what happened. I spend hours watching them whenever we go to the zoo. They just stare at you through the fence. Even the workers who have done it for 10 years say how spooky they are to be around.

I had to climb a decent road last night before getting to the singletrack that bombs back down into town. Shortly after hitting the actual trail...I flatted. I NEVER FLAT!!! I seriously almost left my tube/tools at home since I never flat but decided at the last minute that this would be a rookie move. So there I sat on the edge of the trail changing out a tube. Then I heard it....something large scurrying around near me. Then something else. I was prepared to kill whatever beast lurked in the depths of the shadows. I grabbed my trusty light and found the....baby deer and it's mother. Whew!! I changed my tube in record time and was off again. 20 minutes later I rounded a bend and saw some cute little animal slowly making his way towards me....head on. We both stopped dead in our tracks and looked at each other. Strange to see a domestic cat up here I thought. I caught sight of the white racing stripe just as he turned and aimed his ass at me. E gads!!! I turned around and was off in the other direction (up hill) lightning fast I tell ya. Mountain biking is terrifying.