When I was in Southern CA last week I had the opporunity to take a fabulous bike ride off trail in a 1,300 acre park just south of Diamond Bar. The weather was wonderful, the smog had blown out and you could actually see the San Gabriel Mountains.
Before heading out I checked with the local ranger and reviewed all the pertinent cougar and bear survival literature, in addition to a quick snake review. Dude, I was ready!
The park was gorgeous and it was kickin' my butt on those trails! The first trail was the ridge trail, which was a 2,000 ft climb over 5 miles. Ouch.
Pretty soon a came to straight away and I was trekking downhill - no stoppin' me now!
Crap!
It looks like poop on the trail.
You know like piles of little critter dung.
As I get closer I notice the piles are lookin' a bit furry.
And scattering from the trail where they were sunning themselves.
Now, I am not kiddin', they were covering the entire path for at LEAST 100 feet and the grass was over 5' high on either side of the trail.
CRUNCH.
AAAAAAAAGH!
Did you know there were BIG BLACK HAIRY tarantulas in southern CA?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is there a reason the ranger failed to mention this? Does he get a kick out of hearing grown woodchucks scream like blind baby marmots! Were these extras from the last Godzilla movie!? "The Tarantuals that Ate Tokyo"
Needless to say, I rode the entire 12 miles (up hill probably but I wasn't looking) back to the parking lot without stopping! Where SOME guy has the nerve to say "oh, yeah, I don't do THAT trail because of the spiders". Where the FRELL was he when I started out!?
Did I mention that the bike went up and down like over washboard road as it crunched through the VERY large spiders!
Hello, I was prepared for cougar, no problem - hello! kitties are cute! And I have had dinner with a bear before - actually a mom and her cub.
I would have written about this sooner, but I have been in therapy.
Shock treatments actually.
I still can't sleep alone.
Before heading out I checked with the local ranger and reviewed all the pertinent cougar and bear survival literature, in addition to a quick snake review. Dude, I was ready!
The park was gorgeous and it was kickin' my butt on those trails! The first trail was the ridge trail, which was a 2,000 ft climb over 5 miles. Ouch.
Pretty soon a came to straight away and I was trekking downhill - no stoppin' me now!
Crap!
It looks like poop on the trail.
You know like piles of little critter dung.
As I get closer I notice the piles are lookin' a bit furry.
And scattering from the trail where they were sunning themselves.
Now, I am not kiddin', they were covering the entire path for at LEAST 100 feet and the grass was over 5' high on either side of the trail.
CRUNCH.
AAAAAAAAGH!
Did you know there were BIG BLACK HAIRY tarantulas in southern CA?!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Is there a reason the ranger failed to mention this? Does he get a kick out of hearing grown woodchucks scream like blind baby marmots! Were these extras from the last Godzilla movie!? "The Tarantuals that Ate Tokyo"
Needless to say, I rode the entire 12 miles (up hill probably but I wasn't looking) back to the parking lot without stopping! Where SOME guy has the nerve to say "oh, yeah, I don't do THAT trail because of the spiders". Where the FRELL was he when I started out!?
Did I mention that the bike went up and down like over washboard road as it crunched through the VERY large spiders!
Hello, I was prepared for cougar, no problem - hello! kitties are cute! And I have had dinner with a bear before - actually a mom and her cub.
I would have written about this sooner, but I have been in therapy.
Shock treatments actually.
I still can't sleep alone.
Comments
DG
After this little bout with nature, you may never die.
I have the video here somewhere . . . seriously