Just one more thing to worry about while riding

[John Nettles]

Oh, the joys of cycling and getting close to nature.  I just don't want to get this close if I ride the Southern Tier near Alpine, CA:
https://www.foxweather.com/earth-space/deer-escapes-mountain-lion-attack-california?dicbo=v2-46MJNzy

The problem with mountain lions & cougars is they give no warning before they pounce.  At least a bear huffs and puffs while you pull out your bear spray (and pee in your shorts).
Tailwinds, John

[Pat Lamb]

Oh, great.  Now I'll have to find the picture I took from my bike of a (black) bear looking over a down tree trunk 25 feet off the road.    I'm not sure I ever digitized that, it was probably a slide.

Isn't it funny, though, how the things we don't deal with normally are scarier than ordinary (for us) things?  Rationally, I'd be more worried about the yappy dog that kept trying to bite my ankle this morning.  That's far more likely to cause an infection, or even rabies, than a grizzly that I saw once in (fill in the blank) decades was to harm me, or a black bear I might see every two or three years if I'm lucky.  And the thought of a mountain lion gets my blood pumping even though I had to look Alpine up on a map -- never been there.  But a little yapping dog is just a minor annoyance.

[Mark Manley]

I recently completed a ride across India and came across this sign in a national park which I know was for real as on a previous ride through the area I had stopped to ask a stunned looking local who was sat on his motorcycle in the middle of the road if he was alright and he said "did you see the elephant?" he went on to say it had run across the road in front of him and he had missed it by a meter.



Another sign from the same national park.