Adventures on a tricycle
Part I: Fun with bears
My ride today took me up relatively gentle grades away from the ocean and through farming country. Eventually I reached a village of about one hundred people on a large lake. For the next few hours, I rode on mainly gentle grades (with a couple of very steep ones, but short) to the end of the lake. A few fancy homes and boats but progressively more and more deserted as I rode along. Hardly any cars on the road. Tall spuce and cedar trees. Lots of birds. Even saw two bald eagles sitting high in the trees looking out at the lake.
Then the real climb began - the narrow road weaved and meandered through a long steep mountain pass. The road was chip seal, and quite bumpy. Lots of potholes and some steep dropoffs. Did I say steep? What I mean is several thousands of feet drop with no shoulder on the road. As I climbed the views were lovely. It was 6:00 am so the line of the sun just coming over the mountains bathed the tops of the trees in brilliance. No houses now. Very few cars.
After a while I had climbed another couple of thousand feet. The area was completely deserted. Then I heard something. Sort of a shuffling sound. And there right beside me, towering a few feet higher than my head, was a large bear. He was taller than me, as I sat on the trike and looked at him.
He did not know what to make of me so he went to the side of the road and I puffed by a few feet from him while he watched. Still wondering what I was, and whether it would be entertaining see if I could bleed, he paced me for a while. He was maybe three feet away. Since I cannot really speak (aphasia and other health issues) talking to him was not an option. So I slowly climbed and he paced me, snuffling a little. This went one for about ten minutes. Then sometimes he would disappear into the bush, only to reappear a little later.
At one point he got a little too close so I grabbed my ultrasonic dog dazer (to scare dogs off) and pointed it in his direction. He must have heard the ultrasonic flash because he looked back and forth trying to locate the source of the sound. A little later he gave up and I heard him crashing off through the bush away from me. So I just continued my slow ascent. But I kept and eye out for any of his friends that might be in the area. A few people around there have been mauled by bears, several had been killed.
Eventually I reached the summit. Really spectacular views. Hardly any trees that high, so I had a clear view to the ocean far in the distance. On the other side, a ring of snow capped peaks stretching as far as the eye could see. Behind me far below I could see the lake I had cycled beside earlier in the day. It was completely deserted up there, and no shade so it was pretty hot. But in compensation there was quite a breeze without trees to block the wind, so that helped cool things a little. Not a sound up there. This was cougar country though, so I kept an eye out in case one decided that the bear had made a mistake in letting me go.
Stopped to have breakfast of a couple of oat cookies and some tomato juice I kept in my water bottle, and a bit of a rest after the climb. What views! Then it was time to descend. This was a bit tense - did I mention the grades? Going up was one thing, but going down through the twists and turns of a narrow road with straight drop offs on either side was… interesting. Going 80 plus I was very glad to have a quality trike!
All in all a wonderful ride. The engine was as always somewhat wobbly, but the trike performed flawlessly.
PART II: International Trike Racing
I’m still laughing about this...
Today I went for a nice long ride back into farm country. About four hours into the ride, I came upon a steep decent down into a valley. I took it. Moving along at around 70 plus down the hill, I saw a police car with flashing lights blocking the road at the bottom. As I got closer the officer noticed me barreling along and waved me onto a side road. My first thought of course was that he was stopping me for going too fast (I could see the headlines now - disabled man on strange human-powered vehicle pulled over for speeding). But as I turned onto the road he indicated, I suddenly found myself amongst a horde of bicycle racers in their logo emblazoned spandex and flags of their home countries. All along both sides of the road were people cheering them on. It was an international bicycle race and the police officer, thinking I must have got off course, had waved me right into the thick of it.
You can see me in the picture - red vest and helment, and of course the only trike - trailing the pack of bicycle racers.
Of course I could not turn around - I would have run right into the racers. There was nothing for it - I was part of the race. So tired as I was after four hours riding in the back country, I put the pedal to the metal so to speak, and vowed not to embarrass myself too much. The people cheered, young rather attractive women in skimpy outfits waved and shouted encouragement... and every single person in the race passed me as if I was standing still. Oh the shame! Of course their bikes were maybe 10 lbs each and my trike was fully loaded for touring. They were also younger than I, and their bodies worked properly on both sides (unlike mine). But still...
Anyway, on I went. What choice did I have - the side roads (escape routes) were all blocked off by the police and crowds. But to the wild applause of the people lining the road, I continued pumping away along the course - and reached the end dead last. Hooray!. People took my picture as I approached the finish line. They shouted congratulations. The real racers started to applaud. But just as I pulled up to the finish line there was an empty side road and a space in the crowd. I swerved and bolted for it, pedalling off toward home for all I was worth to the astonished faces of the assembled throng.
When I got home and told my wife she could not stop laughing. It was pretty funny - the only trike rider, an unwitting participant in an international bike race.
Part III: Mountain Lions and trikes
Today on a trip to the Wares Mountain Range I was sloooowly climbing a particularly steep grade. The trike and I moving as one. Up and up and up.
When suddenly right in front of me there was a rustling of the brush and … two mountain lions appeared.
They were about two feet away. I could smell their breath. One was perhaps a couple of years or so old. A male, and pretty big for his age. About the length of the trike in fact. He stopped and looked right into my eyes. His head was about level with mine. Then he padded across the road. The other lion was a youngster with spots - cute as anything. She took one look at me, let out a yelp, and ran to follow her brother.
But… as soon as the little one let out her yelp there was an ominously loud rustling of the brush right beside the trike. I just sat there, and I felt rather than saw the massive presence of the mother mountain lion. There have been several deaths around here from people being attacked and killed by the mountain lions. The last one was just a couple of weeks ago, near where I was riding.
Since the grade was so steep, there was no way I could have sprinted away. If I tried to turn around she would have been on me in a flash. Nor could I try to stand up (health issues make that a really sloooow processes). So I just sat there and waited for the mother to come and rescue her young by attacking me.
Suddenly everything was deadly silent. The birds stopped twittering, no sounds anywhere. The silence stretched.... and stretched.
In the distance I heard a truck coming around the curve. This was the first vehicle I had heard for for at least couple of hours. The lion must have heard it too... nothing happened... I just sat there and so did she. Soon the truck roared up the logging road I was on, and passed by me. As it did so I sprinted as best I could and continued up the pass. I wondered if the mother lion would come after me. But I think once she saw the truck she probably just went on to join her offspring.
Bit of a tense moment though… Due to health issues there is no way I could have faught back, and would likely have become another statistic.
The rest of the ride was lovely though. I climbed quite high, had brunch above the tree line, and kept an eye out for mountain lions and bears. No people or cars or houses up there. Just the trike for company. And the incredible views.
Part IV: Riding in a winter storm
Today I thought it might be fun to go into the city. It is about a six to seven hour ride depending upon my energy, mostly along a busy highway. But the highway has good paved shoulders, so it is usually a pleasant enough ride. And my experience around here is that the drivers on this busy road are pretty friendly and give me lots of room. The highway winds through a mountain pass then climbs up fairly high before descending into the city.
The sky was overcast when I left around 5:00AM, but the forecast had been for clearing later in the day, so off I went. The trike’s lights happily flashed and bobbed as I wove through the silent forest trails here towards a logging road. A few miles later the road led to a paved single track, and from there after a few more miles to a double track paved road. An hour or so after that, I joined the traffic heading for the highway. By the time I got there, the sky was clearing and I turned off my lights. The trike is covered in reflective tape, with two flourescent flags one at seven feet and one at five feet. I am easy to see Anyway, the ride was pleasant. People waved to me from their cars. The sky was a bit cloudy, and the weather was cool. Lovely views as I climbed through the pass, and a 75 plus descent on the other side. I made it into the city with no problems. After a pause for lunch and some sight seeing, I headed back. It was now early afternoon.
I cycled along the highway’s well paved shoulder for a few hours and slowly climbed back up the pass. As I climbed, the sky darkened. I heard heavy thunder in the distance. Suddenly the sky was lit by lightening. The wind picked up. Cars started to turn on their lights. I turned on the trike’s flashers. The thunder got closer and louder. I continued to pedal slowly in to the gathering wind. The sky was completely full of black towering cumulmus now. As I reached the top of the climb, the wind really picked up. The lightening was everywhere and huge thunderous crashes of thunder all around me.
Then the rain started. It was cold! The rain came in sheets, but I could still see fairly well. I pulled out my rain pants and jacket from the paniers, and put the fitted rain cover over my helmet. The wind started to really howl. Now I was at the summit, and could hardly pedal into the wind. I had to keep going though, as the shoulder was very narrow at the summit and there was no place to seek shelter or get out of the way of traffic. My flashers are very bright so I was not worried about not being seen. Until the hail started.
When the hail came it was big - the size of small golf balls. It hurt as it hit me. It was so thick that it started to cover the highway like snow. Very, very slippery snow. I heard it bouncing off the passing cars, most of which thank goodness had slowed to a crawl. Now I was worried about a truck or SUV running into me, since the road had become very slippery. After about ten minuites the hail became so heavy and thick that whiteout conditions prevailed. I could not see more than a few feet ahead. Some cars pulled over onto the shoulder in which I was riding. This meant that I had to try and pass them by pulling into gaps in traffic - gaps I could hardly see.
Why not just pull over myself? The non-highway side of the shoulder was a shear drop off into the valley below. I knew that cyclists had been struck by cars when they (the cyclists) had stopped on the shoulder in heavy fog. The wind and hail made for conditions similar to fog. The advice of the police had been to keep moving if at all possible to try and find a safe place to pull over. Also, they had said that movement caught a driver’s notice much better than a stationary person with a bike. So I kept moving, hardly able to see, hail painfully impacting the body and trike, while horrendous thunder pounded and lightening flashed all around me.
Bottom line - it made more sense to me at the time given the nature of the storm and traffic patterns to keep moving. So I did. Very slowly and carefully to avoid sliding around too much. As cars and trucks passed, they sprayed dirty water all over the trike and its pilot. My riding glasses (never, ever, ride a trike without protective eyeware - cars throw stones up all the time) were covered with dirt and I had to stop every few hundred feet to clean them off. Anyway, things went on like that for a while. Then the storm broke, the wind changed direction, and the hail changed back to rain. I rode on for a couple of hours in that rain, until I got through the pass. At that point the clouds started to lift, the thunder and lightening stopped, and the sun broke through.
I made it home and soaked in a hot bath. Tomorrow I will clean up the trike. Great ride!
Part V: Almost killed by sub-humans
Early today I left for a century ride at 5:00 AM.
About a mile from the main road I saw a car heading my way weaving erratically. The sun was just rising in front of me so I could not make out its make or color, but as it got nearer I heard loud adolescent voices screaming "get him, get him!".
And suddenly the car veered across the meridian and came straight for me. I had perhaps one second to turn the trike to avoid being hit. As I went over the embankment at the side of the road I heard them gun the engine and roar off, still screaming at the top of their lungs. I on the other hand, tumbled over the embankment and ended up face down in the ditch with the trike on top of me. I was cut, bruised, and bleeding. I was wearing my helmet (never leave home without it!) so the rocks I fell on only dented that and my knees, ankle, back, and wrist, instead of my head. The trike’s mirror was broken, the fenders dented, the rear derailleur crushed, the seat badly torn, and tires covered in blood.
After some struggling I managed to push the trike up and back onto the road, turned around, and headed for home. No ride for me today. But I heard a horn honking repeatedly behind me and brakes screeching. Loud screaming voices too. They were back.
Their car roared. I glanced over my shoulder to see the car headed straight for me at very high speed. It just missed my rear wheel by inches as I panic turned into someone’s driveway and right up the house’s front step. The car, with its still screaming adolescents turned at high speed and in a shower of dust and small rocks which covered me, drove away.
I waited a while, then slowly started for home. Then a repeat perfomance - they had been waiting around the corner and came roaring at me trying again. But I dashed into a clump of trees where they could not follow in their car. They drove off. Eventually I made my way, painfully, back home. Since the rear derailleur was damaged and my illness means I am physically unable to walk without falling, this took a while. Fortunately they did not return.
I have no doubt at all that they were trying their best to run me over and kill me. They came very, very close to doing so. Three times. With only inches to spare each time. I have no idea who they were. Nor I am sure, did they know me. They just saw someone "different" out early in the morning when no one else was around. Since most teens give me a friendly wave as I go by, I suspect this bunch of drooling ceropithecoidea had imbibed a combination of drugs and perhaps some pure meanness as well. The continuous non-stop screaming signified the former; their actions, the latter.
Sigh. I much prefer the bears and mountain lions around here, which are on the whole peaceful and gentle creatures. These anserine alleged humans on the other hand were clearly trying to kill me for no other reason than that I was there. They would have succeeded too, had I not plunged down the embankment to avoid becoming just another hit and run statistic.
Part VI: A Charging Bear:
Left around 5am today for a ride into the back mountains. After about three hours of hard pedalling up steep grades, I spotted a new road winding up through the trees. It was paved - something very unusual in that area, where most of the roads are converted former logging roads. So I took it. It got very steep very quickly. Fortunately my new low gears kicked in and I just kept going - up and up and up. Way up past the tree line. This must have been a road leading to some rich person’s mansion in the mountains - it was waaaay too steep to have passed the legal constraints on the design of public roads. Sure enough, as I climbed I saw the "private road" sign which I suppose I had missed seeing earlier. But there was no one around - I had not seen any cars or houses for at least a couple of hours... so I just continued to climb.
After a while the road leveled out and I could see far in the distance a ring of snow capped mountains. A couple of bald eagles circled overhead. I stopped a new road for a snack - oat cookies, V8 juice, and protein powder. Then climbed some more. It was much cooler this high in the mountains, and quite windy. Almost no trees this high. Far below I could see the valley I had come from. Very beautful. Dream-like really... just the hush of the chain as I pedalled, regular deep aerobic breathing, no one around for many miles, the sound of the wind - all very meditative.
Then as I rounded a curve, right there in the middle of the road, was the very fresh carcass of a deer. With deep claw marks. Uh oh - around here that means mountain lions. I snapped out of the meditative state that triking can bring on in the high mountains, and started to scan the brush at the side of the road as I pedaled along.
Suddenly I saw something out of the corner of my eye. Moving fast was a huge (and I mean HUGE) bear running at full tilt towards me. Something they never do unless they mean to fight or kill. No one else around for miles - just he and I, both moving on very rapidly intersecting trajectories.
Without thinking I spun the trike around in the fastest U-turn I have ever done in my life. And aided by a surge of fear, took off like a shot on the now downward slope of the mountain. But as I watched in the mirror as I sped away, the charging bear also did a U-turn, and took off at high speed in the opposite direction. I realized that I was going to live after all.
What must have happened was that he had probably been so intent on the deer carcass that he had not seen me come round the corner until the last moment, just as I had not seen him. And not knowing what I was, like me he had decided that discretion was the better part of valor. Both of us charged away from each other as fast as we could.
Wow. This was the largest bear I had ever seen. I assume he was a fully mature male. He was about the size of a grizzly rather than the black bear I spoke of above. Maybe it was a brown bear (ursus arctos) or maybe just a giant black bear? Hard to tell during panic maneuvers. He was certainly huge though. Bears almost never eat large mammals, so it must have been the scent of the deer’s blood that brought him, or maybe there was a mountain lion infringing on his territory, or maybe he was just out for a morning jog? At any rate, he was longer than the trike by several feet. And wider. And taller. And considerably more muscular than me. If he had wanted to ruin my day, he could have with one swipe of a massive paw. As I said above, people around here have been killed by bears.
After that, the ride home - even down the steep slopes, was rather uneventful
Never a dull moment when riding a trike!
What to do when encountering a bear while riding your trike:
Bears are highly intelligent - more so than many higher apes, far more so than dogs, and certainly more than most politicians .
Bears kill people when people startle them of if you get between them and their cubs. Otherwise, if they hear you coming, they will keep well out of your way.
If you are interested, here’s what to do if you encounter or are attacked by a bear whilst riding your trike:
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If the bear is close - within 50 feet or so do not try to outrun it. Unless you are going downhill and already moving fast, there is a very good chance the bear will catch you. A black bear can run over 30mph from a standing start.
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Do not make direct eye contact. Eye contact is an aggressive move between almost all mammals. Male mammals in particular prefer not to look each other in the eye, since it is a considered aggressive.
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If you see bear cubs, move slowly away. All female bears with cubs will attack to kill if they feel the cubs are threatened.
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Remove your sunglasses. To a predator, sunglasses make your eyes look like those of a deer. Deer are valued by most as a very good source of food.
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Get off the trike very slowly. No sudden moves. Raise your arms. Speak quietly. Do not scream or yell. Bears consider this a dinner bell. Instead wave your arms. Let the bear know you are human, and not dinner. If like me health issues make it difficult to get up and down, use your horn, wave your arms, yell.
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If the bear moves purposefully toward you and you have pepper spray for bears, use it. If you have pepper spray for dogs, do not use it - it will not carry far enough or be strong enough to bother the bear, who will just consider the dog pepper spray a condiment.
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If the bear attacks, curl up into a ball on your side or lie flat on your stomach. Lie as quietly as possible. Play dead. Lie still, wait for it to loose interest. You are not stronger than a bear, despite all the silly movies showing people fighting them off. That is Hollywood. If you try to fight a bear, you will not only not win, you will agrivate it further. It can tear you apart with one blow. If you are about to die though, try to place your entire arm down the bear’s throat. You will lose the arm when the bear bites through it, but it will probably stop attacking and there is a chance you may live.
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Do not try to keep the trike between you and the bear, as you would with an attacking dog. A bear is not a dog. It will swat the trike out of the way without a second thought, then lunge at you.
Bottom line: While alone in bear country on a trike in deep woods or high mountains, keep a sharp lookout. See it before it sees you, and move away before it gets interested. If you cannot move away - make sure it knows you are human and not some food animal running low to the ground. Understand that it is an intelligent, curious being. You are in its territory, not yours. It will probably leave you in peace if you leave it in peace.
Part VII: Dog Attack:
Sadly, unlike most animals ’dogs’ no longer exist. Or at least not in any form other than something bred and distorted by humans. Usually for the narcissistic pleasure of the breeder. So while there are still a few breeds which retain the beauty of a true dog (some African desert wild dogs for example), they are unfortunately few.
But there are many dogs bred for viciousness, especially in the farming communities here. Aggressive dogs often have aggressive owners - don’t confront the owner should he be watching all this. Call the police instead. At any rate I carry two canisters of pepper spray held by a loop from the spot where my panniers attach to the seat. I can grab one with my good hand and deploy it very quickly. Many of the farm dogs here have been very badly treated by their owners and in consequence will often attack to kill.
The pepper spray can only be used from a few feet away, so the trick is to come to a stop and wait for the snarly barking fury to get within two arms lengths of you. Then spray straight in the eyes. If there is more than one dog, do the same thing again. I have seen on several cycling forums that you should stand up and kick - difficult of impossible to do quickly from a low trike, particularly if you have health challenges like me. I have also seen that you can outrun most dogs - again, not possible for me. Especially if you are in a hilly location.
Others say make a loud noise - I have a 110 db horn on the trike which I have used on attacking dogs... but to no avail. The horn does help if you see them in time, as they tend to recognize the sound as car-like, and slow down to look around. The bottom line is that if like me health issues prevent you from standing up quickly or moving quickly away, try to protect you neck since you are low and most attacking dogs will go right there for the kill.
In a pinch you are stronger than most dogs - be as vicious as they are and do not hold back. Punch the dog with everything you have hard on the nose. Pull its ears, hard. Go for its eyes. Go for the the rib cage. Hit it hard on the snout. Don’t hold back!
If you see a dog biting at stationery objects, wild-eyed, with thick saliva on it’s chest, then it may have rabies. If you are bitten, rabies will kill you unless you seek treatment right away. Any dog bite which breaks the skin is potentially infections, so get medical help as soon as you can.
I always carry a complete (but very light) medical kit in my panniers, complete with antiseptic, antibiotic, and pain killers - common sense when riding in the country where the dogs can be extremely agressive..
Part VIII: Fun Century Ride:
Went for another fun century ride today. (A full century is 100 miles; a short century is 100 kilometers.)
After a long drought we had our first rain and the air was cool and moist. Wonderful day for a ride. As I climbed up and up in the early morning a road racer on a 10lb bike whizzed by me as if I was standing still… which I almost was I suppose at my steady 5Km/hr up the long steep mountain pass. But he was puffing and panting and I was just breathing normally, so I wonder how far he actually got That’s the nice thing about trike riding, you can just go and go and go. Yes, bicycle racers pass you, but like the tortoise and hare, you eventually catch up when they are too tired to go on.
So up and up I went. The nice thing about climbing on a trike is that it is easy to stop and catch one’s breath. Just click on the parking brake (so as not to roll backwards into the valley far below), reach into the pannier, grab an oatmeal cookie and munch away whilst comfortably sitting in the easy chair enjoying the view. Saw a small grouse hiding from me in the bushes. Very sweet little face peeking out.oceanview
Climbed some more, then was attacked by two dogs. Whipped out the pepper spray and got one in the face as he tried for the kill. The other dog heard his yelps and took off. Sigh. These poor dogs are so abused by their human ‘owners’ around here that they turn vicious - just like their owners. Very sad. Hated to pepper spray him but he stood a lot taller than me sitting on the trike and was very obviously going for my throat. He’ll be okay, but will think twice about attacking anyone on a trike again.
Caught my breath and climbed some more. Clear blue sky. No sound at all. Crossed the tree line, no more birds. Up and up. Another pause for a oatmeal cookie and a drink. I use salted V8 juice in stainless steel water bottles (plastic bottles bleed carcinogenic plastic into any liquids) filled with a scoop of protein power. This gives quickly digested energy without a glycerin shock, and delivers electrolytes and necessary carbohydrates as well. Inexpensive drink much better than the tailored yuppie drinks in bike stores.
More climbing. I could see the ocean in the distance now, and a ring of snow capped mountain peaks all around. Very steep. Had to go down to my second lowest gear, and drop the speed down to around 4Km/hr. Up and up.
Finally reached the end of the road after about 3/4 of a metric century. Beautiful views. Only the sound of wind rustling the grasses. No humans anywhere - a treat in and of itself. Silence and peace. Sunshine and light and crisp blue sky. Just me and the trike. Wonderful.
Used the brakes to keep below 80 on the descent back. Saw the dogs in the distance as I wizzed by them - much too fast for them to catch! Then finished off the century by riding through the country side and farmland. Lots of horses, cattle, lamas, sheep, and curious alpacas.
Wonderful ride.
Part IX: What people say...
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Cool bike!
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Mostly from kids or teens
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How much did that thing cost?
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You must have thighs of steel!
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Mostly from middle aged women
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Where did you get that?
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Mostly from middle aged men
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Hey, that looks too easy!
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Mostly from middle aged men
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That looks comfortable?
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Mostly from mountain bikers
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Why don’t you get a real bike?
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Mostly from men with foreign accents, for some odd reason.
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Get off the bike path! You should be on the road!
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Mostly from out-of-shape rotund pedestrians.
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How fast is that thing?
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Mostly from road racers and pre-teens.
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Get off the road!
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Only from people in large SUVs with cell phones glued to their ears
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What a wonderful way to travel.
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Loser! You look like an idiot!
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Only from male teenagers in cars
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Have a great ride!
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Mostly from bike racers as they pace me for a while
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Can you give me a tow?
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From the driver of a huge tractor-trailer slowly going up a steep hill as I panted along beside him
