Thursday, August 23, 2007

BeepBeep!



So...I dont think these two photos look very similar at ALL, but it seems the Wile-E-Coyote I saw this morning would beg to differ!

I'm up early, and out for my morning spin. My plan was to do some warm up riding on Mountain Drive, and then meet up with the 8am group ride. I am up on Mountain Drive, when I see what I think is a medium sized dog in the road. There was some morning traffic, so I was happy to see it scurry off to the side of the road when a car came. As I got closer to it, I realized it was a coyote.

I like to see wildlife, so I thought I'd ride slowly past it. I was climbing a little hill, so I wasn't going fast to begin with, and I didn't want to scare it away. I got kind of close to it...it was near a fire hydrant on the opposite side of the road. I was just about directly across from it, when it kind of crouched down and was giving me the evil eye, like it thought I was breakfast or something....when my brain was like, hmmm, dogs and cats do that when they're stalking something. I looked around and there was nothing to stalk except ME! And right about then the thing pounced! It was actually chasing me! I was pretty surprised by this, as usually coyotes are pretty scared of humans... I am embarassed to say I was actually pretty freaked out by this, and even more so by the fact that I was going uphill and could only go so fast! Let's just say I got my hard effort in for the morning! It kept up with me pretty good...was right at my wheel! It finally gave up and trotted back down the road. I rode a little further and then let up. I could still see it staring at me.... The funny part was that I had to then go back down that road, because I didn't have time to go the long way around, and had to get back to town for the group ride! So a couple minutes later I turned around and went back, but because I was now descending, I was going much faster, and didn't even see the thing.

So, do I look like a roadrunner? Hmmm. Not so sure now!

Ciao!

6 comments:

~ lauren said...

ha! they're pretty little aren't they? i can't quite remember.

good thing you're speedy, even up hills.

EB said...

Yikes! Mr. Man had a bobcat jump out and give him the once-over on a ride. I think he'd have been an attempted snack if a couple other folks hadn't shown up!

Itinerant Rick said...

I have close encounters with coyotes all the time, and none have ever done the approach. Once they realize I am near they either hide or run off. The one that chased you must have been mighty hungry or had delusions of grandeur. Look around where you saw it and see if there are any packing materials for 'ACME' brand products ;-)

Kimberly (aka. DrKim) said...

Lauren-yeah, compared to my irish setter, this little guy was pretty small/scrawny. Like a medium sized dog. He had beady little eyes, though....

Cyclistrick-I'll be on the lookout for ACME on mountain drive from now on! :-) beepbeep!

Gary said...

I will share my coyote story with you during our next group ride. In short, I was doing hill intervals one night on my driveway(yes, it was one of those long days at work) and I was on interval 7 of 10 and a coyote was following along me on the side of the ride. Needless to say, I called it quits early. Not being from around here, I wasn't sure if they were dangerous and wasn't taking any chances!!

Merkeley Bike said...

Next time if you see ACME crates on the side of the road don't stop for the bird seed. And remember you, as the road runner, can ride into that fake scenery.