they don't call them "wily" for nothing

this time of year, we ride lots of gravel. we also have lots of fun doing so. roads we ride all the time seem different each and every night, the combination of routes are limitless, so each time out is a distinct adventure, a fact that hasn't sunk in around here during the warmer months, for some inexplicable reason. but that's adifferent rant. last night, nine hardy souls set out from waterworks park shortly after 530 for a three-hour cruise. along for the ride were chad, scott robinson and his brother "the instigator," jared, kurt, lippold, the reverend, sean, and "new guy." we headed south. after about an hour, chad signalled "old guy stop," and we did. dave, finishing first, rolled up the road. apparently, despite a warning, new guy rolled along too. the rest of us decided it was time to school new guy, and noticing they were rolling maybe a half-mile or more ahead, we turned right. eventually, dave and new guy caught back on. dave shared this tale:

it seems he looked back--dave rides with a head-mounted light in addition to a bike-mounted headlight--and saw four bikes approaching, so he and new guy continued south, as the rest of us continued our quite merry way away from them. turns out that rather than four bikes, there were several coyotes silently following them at what was believed to be a "too close for comfort" distance.
dave has been working on his sprint lately, and might want to consider adding the 5000 metre pursuit to his track resume. the gauntlet has been thrown down, the bar has been raised.

let's hear YOUR night-time wildlife adventures, okay readers? leave them in the comments section.

.....

by the way, chad and i are going to ride fixed gear bikes this sunday, december 2d, regardless of weather. we intend to do three or more long fixie rides before christmas, long being three or more hours. might include hills, will not likely include gravel. more details will be given here as sunday approaches, but bear in mind that iptv is broadcasting the iowa-minnesota wrestling meet at 200 pm, so i'd like to be home by then, so a 1000 am start time is possible.

remember, sunday morning fixie road ride.