A few days ago, I went out for a late afternoon bike ride at Blankets Creek with a friend who lives near the trail. I am still breaking in my new Trek/Gary Fisher Wahoo bicycle. It has been a year since I crashed my other Gary Fisher Big Sir at Blankets on the Van Michael trail. The bike was broken in two places, and I was broken as well. I had a separated shoulder, a 95% detachment of my labrum, and my pride was shattered. That ride is actually a story in itself, which I will save for another time.
In the mean time, let’s get back to my most recent ride.
I loaded up my bike on the back of my Jeep and headed over to my friend’s house so we could make our way over to the bike trail. It was a great afternoon for a ride, despite the ridiculous summer temperatures that we had been having. But then again, that’s to be expected during the summer here in Georgia. We began to twist and turn and make our way through the woods around the Lake Altoona area. We passed other riders exchanging the typical niceties such as, “How’s it going” and “Enjoy the ride.”
One of the things that I do enjoy about Mountain Biking is the general friendliness of the other riders. The reason I mention this is because of what happened next and the number of riders that stopped or slowed down to make sure everything was ok.
I had noticed that my friend had fallen behind me a bit. I stopped to wait for him and he came around the corner, over the top of a hill pushing his bike. He answered my quizzical look with, “I busted my tire.”
Normally, I would have at least one extra tire and a pump with me to take care of such things as this. After all, I learned my lesson years ago when I was in college at Lee University in Cleveland TN about what can when you don’t have the necessary supplies with you.
I was riding on some trails around the Ocoee area one time when I blew one of my own tires. I sat on the side of the trial with a couple of my college buddies trying to figure out the easiest way back from where we were when I thought, “Hang on one second.” At which point I started stuffing my rear tire with as much pine-straw as I could. The guys I was with thought I was crazy, but, once I had what I thought was a sufficient amount of pine-straw in place, we pressed on. Now it did take a bit longer than it normally would have, but it sure beat walking.
So even after that “lesson” I didn’t have an extra tire with me because I just didn’t think it was going to be an issue on this particular today. Well, I was wrong.
Sadly, none of the other riders who stopped to check on us has one either. I guess their thinking was the same as mine. Well, after being as far away from my friend’s house that we could be, we made our way back to his house. And I thought that the end of my crazy day. But I was wrong.
I loaded up and headed home for a shower and dinner. I had just left my friend’s house when a deer ran right in front of me. I hit the brakes stopping just in time. As I put my vehicle back into gear to start back towards that shower and dinner, I heard and felt a very large and loud thump. Now at this point it is very important to mention again that I drive a Jeep; a Jeep Wrangler that had the doors off because of the very hot weather we had been having.
Much to my surprise, the very large and loud thump had come from a second deer that must have been chasing the deer I almost hit. He (and I mean he as in a Buck with antlers) had his head and one leg on the passenger side seat of my Jeep. Keep in mind that all of this happened in a matter of seconds, but it felt like things were moving in slow motion.
Oh, and that phrase, “deer in the headlights look”, I think I know where it comes from now because he and I both had it. He was looking at me and I was looking at him and we were both wondering why the other one was in my Jeep.
He exited quickly and I think “Bucky” and I will be okay if we never meet up again. So, yet again I have learned a lesson. In fact, I learned two!
Lesson One: Always, always take a spare tire when biking.
Lesson Two: Deer don’t make great passengers in Jeeps; or any vehicle for that matter.
