It's on days like this when I congratulate myself for living near a park with mountain bike trails, even if it's a small one next to a subway station:
This is called called "having priorities."
Or, if you prefer, it's called "being a gigantic bike dork."
Of course, into each life a little snow must fall, something to which I am reconciled. I am also, if not reconciled, at least used to bad drivers. Somewhat less familiar to me however are rabid coyotes, the recent advent of which is the subject of my latest column for Outside:
As any mention of snow elicits the "Minnesota humblebrag," I'm sure this mention of scary wildlife will inspire at least one backwoods dweller to casually mention that they regularly encounter grizzlies or panthers or ornery Sasquatches on their rides and that they keep rabies vaccine in their water bottles. (#whatrabiesvaccinetocytomaxratioyourunning) Therefore, I realize I'm taking a considerable risk by mentioning both snow and wildlife encounters in this post. Indeed, the only way I could open myself up to more humblebraggadocio would be to mention vehicular cycling, and I imagine someone who regularly rides in snow, regularly rides among deadly wildlife, and adheres strictly to the tenets of vehicular cycling would be the perfect storm of irritating smugness.
A rabid coyote encounter would most likely be preferable to an Internet exchange with such a beast.
50 comments:
Poop, Bitches. Now, to read
My first chance at podium,so hell for leather. Yes, I did read the post.
Up here in canada, we ride the wildlife through driving snow. No big deal.
Podium? Unlikely.
I have to admit that I don't typically "encounter grizzlies or panthers or ornery Sasquatches" on my rides...thus my standard level of cycling-smugness is somewhat low. That said, I DO have to out-wit the Chupacabra (who lies in wait along the trail) on nearly every Mt bike ride (and it's pretty quick I might add). It's eerily similar to 'training with Eddie' from American Flyers.
Great stuff as usual Snob. While I'm no tree-hugging neo-crunch, seeing critters on my mountain bike excursions is among my favorite things. Down here in Georgia this is a constant with a nonstop parade of animals doing their thing even and especially in the urban parks. I have never had any come after me, but I keep my distance, make plenty of noise (bell, loud hub, etc) and am ready to "haze" if needed. I've gotten very close to deer, raccoons and plenty of snakes not to mention seeing black bears in N GA. Coyotes, which are plentiful here generally stay away from people as the only time I've seen them during the day is when one is hurt usually from being hit by a car.
That's nothing, a friend of mine recently encountered the Screamin' Sasquatch
http://johnklattairshows.com/
To Whom It May Concern,
I just accidentally deleted two readers' comments. Apologies. I don't like moderating. But it is a necessity in today's society what with its spamming robots and people who don't agree with me and so forth. Sorry!
--Wildcat Etc.
Comment Deleted
A follow up to my response to yesterday's post. You probably would have enjoyed your ride through the park regardless, but would it have been AS pleasant with 20 other freds? I am guessing The Snob enjoys a bit of snobbish solitude in his 'surfing'.
In any case, I am envious of your snow riding. The delivery people amaze me, I doff my helment to them. Even with my studded tires I ride in terror when it gets snowy.
There's snow in the bike lane, dangnabit! Look, a baby wolf.
Fredder,
Of course I enjoy solitude and of course I can relate to how the surfers feel, but while it's important to cherish the solitude while you've got it it's unreasonable to expect it.
--Wildcat Etc.
Even rabid "errant golf balls" or "flying champagne corks" are no more dangerous while mountain biking than the normal ones. Good news for the United States Golf Association and Comité Interprofessionnel du vin de Champagne.
"faster than you can say, team sky".
wonderful how the outside article touched on so many elements of our society.
Nice article in the Outside magazine on the internets, Wildcat.
Wildlife is not uncommon in my neck of the woods (though less these days than when I was a kid, sadly), so I ain't scared of 'em. The worst critters on my favorite trailway that I use for exercise and recreating is roving gangs of soccer-moms. Be there one or twenty, they manage to make any size of pathway completely impassable, and no amount of bell-ringing, brake-squawking, or hollering seems to draw their attentions into the world happening around them. They used to walk around malls, but those have all gone away it seems.
Give me a coyote any day.
Are you getting all symbolic and allegorical on us, ala the use of snow by James Joyce in the story of The Dead (Dubliners)?
Or do you simply like to ride in the snow in the park?
Literary greatness is tough to sort out sometimes.
Bound to encounter a giant SUV being driven by Wile E. Coyote.
Yes to being burned out on sharing the road with motorists while recreating. Motorists scare me far more than a coyote or any animal.
...Gold clapping for today's OM blogulating. You are getting better and better at your craft as time passes.
...is there a correlation between how good you are getting at your craft and your riding?
Wildcat, Humblebrag averted from yours truly, But it left me wondering.
If you a Semi-professional Blogger whose stock & trade is "irritating smugness" or at the very least just general "smugness" can you really come down on the Humblebraggers of the world for their irritating smugness?
Professional Jealousy?
Jus sayin.
Mas
Nice bike but it really needs a surfboard rack. https://www.surfertoday.com/surfing/7716-the-best-surfboard-bike-racks-in-the-world
No humblebrags here, our coyotes are apparently smaller than yer Easterners, and ours haven’t yet decided to fight their human oppressors. Also, there’s more snow in NYC now than in most of CO- not intended as a “lookit our nice weather” humblebrag.
Rode face to face once with a coyote while taking a shortcut trough woods in my urban commute. Poor thing was so scared it ran away in no time. I didn't even had time to say hello!
I was once hiking on a snow covered trail when a snow mobile came flying down the path driven by what looked like a Sasquatch because of the hockey goalie type mask the driver was wearing. Bad drivers can even be found in the forests.
Hit submit once, but everything is still on the screen. Hitting agian. If a dup, sorry.
Speaking of wildlife,wildcat
Last night, my dog bet me $5 I couldn't perform the Krav Maga rabid coyote defense maneuver for cyclists.
I don't mean to brag, but it was easy.
In fact, it wasn't all that different from making a snow angel face down in the bike lane.
Not all NYC wildlife is scary.
This Uber project is like a mirror. Perhaps now, after a look at ourselves we can choose to stop running down pedestrians. I doubt it but like they say, hopes and dreams without them you'll die. Oh wait nevermind that happen anyway.
https://apnews.com/966c10fc38e542f4b2da38e1252391b1/Experts:-Uber-SUV's-autonomous-system-should-have-seen-woman
Outside headline: "The Average Driver Is More Deadly Than a Rabid Coyote"
Time will tell, whether the average "self-driving car" is more deadly than either!
Didja see that Uber car plow into the poor woman pushing her bicycle across the street, down Phoenix way? That wasn't spoze to happen! (And the pathetic "safety driver" behind the wheel - appeared to be fiddlin' with his/her "smart phone" and looked up just in time to witness the carnage!)
Yeah, I feel much better sharing the road with the lower-on-the-food-chain critters, ANY day! (Sorry to digress.)
"It lay thickly drifted on the crooked crosses and the headstones, on the spears of the little gate, on the barren thorns."
I can still feel the shiver I felt when I read that the first time. Great writing, Mr. Joyce. And Mr. Snob, too; nice Outside column.
Also, I drove through the Canadian Rockies with my brother once on the way to Anchorage in October. Unlike America, where roads tend to cross the Rockies, the Canadian Highway runs through the chain north to south. Totally wild country. At one point we were driving slowly along in the snow and a pack of wolves casually started trotting alongside us. Every one of them was checking us out, checking to see if we were hurt, checking to see if they could turn us into dinner. They would have done so in an instant if they had the chance. I've never thought about wildlife the same way again.
Bummer to hear it needs moderating. There has got to be much better use of your time.
Bikesnob Dude, Pick up a spray can of Mace at your local outdoors store. It is great for deterring coyote-sized critters. Just make sure you point it in the right direction in the heat of battle.
meeep meeep
I believe we are in agreement.
Don’t look for trouble with squirrels...there have been no known squirrel-to-human transmission of rabies. (Little animals tend to die when bitten, so they don’t survive to spread rabies)
Caveat: Stay away from a squirrel that looks aggressive...just don’t examine them.
A rabid coyote is primed by the virus to spread a frighteningly deadly disease by inflicting bite and scratch wounds. It will go out of its way to do so. Replace even one in 10 NYC drivers with one of these (let alone 1 for each) and the place will be free of humans in a matter of months. I suggest that the average driver does set out with anything like that in mind. The average driver has obviously made some stupid decisions, but if you expect them to be open to reason then be reasonable.
Gotta do it Mr. Snob,
Welcome to biking in Anchorage, AK: https://www.adn.com/alaska-news/2017/06/25/two-injured-in-separate-brown-bear-attacks-in-southcentral-alaska-saturday/
(I worked w/ Alex, but he's since moved to DC.)
I've only biked up on one bear on my way to work, and it was only a black bear, and the bears hibernate in winter, but I'm seeing moose on my route most weeks.
That being said, your absolutely right, it's the effing pickup trucks that'll kill you.
Cheers, and keep up the good work,
-Matt in AK
Hey Snob - I had a dream about you last night. Not kidding. You had also launched a podcast. We had a long but civil discussion disagreeing about helmets. I’m in Australia, so you can’t really blame me, but at least we don’t have snow or coyotes.
I don’t always encounter wildlife, but when I do, it’s usually the suburban cougar.
Anonymous 8:09pm,
How many people die from rabies every year?
--Wildcat Etc.
Regularly rides in the snow? Well, obviously, although more than a couple inches is impractical, and the side of the road gets buried under the plow tailings. Vehicular cycling? Meh. A lot of it makes sense, but sometimes you have to consider reality. Dangerous critters? No, despite the Park Ranger in Kenneth Wilson state campground (down there in the Catskills, so a lot more NYC folk than up in the 'Daks) who stopped to warn us that a bear had been sighted, but then said "but you guys are from Albany, so you know all about bears". Yup, see 'em all the time in Washington Park, two blocks from my house. Saw one last week coming out of Jack's Oyster House. Yup.
Wildcat, Anonymous 8:09 here (disguised as Anonymous Whatever Time It Is Now) - Probably more than people killed by "average drivers". Because, a person who kills people with their motor vehicle is not an average driver. I just don't think a stupid transport choice is comparable to a pretty deadly disease (more deadly than, say, Ebola, once the symptoms show). Because, ya know, the former is curable, right? RIGHT?? But probably not by making blanket statements about the "average driver".
I too think entitled motorists suck at least as hard as fixies but if we don't consider their problem curable then what hope do we have?
About two people per year die from rabies according to the CDC.
I once saw a nonpussed squirrel nonchalantly sit on it's ass and scratch itself with one rear leg, just like Leroy's Dog. The things you get to see when you remove yourself from the urban jungle. Actually it was in the urban jungle, it's the only abundant wildlife to see if you can't make it to the Cats or the Dak's. A bear in Washington Park, someone is pulling us by a bear claw.
Once you've stared into the icy-cold, black, indifferent eyes of Yonkers Deer, I don't imagine a coyote is very scary.
https://bikesnobnyc.blogspot.com/2015/11/test-cycle-chronicles-part-ii-indignity.html
My favorite wildlife sighting ever was a frog. No shit.
"Select all squares with vehicles." They're using us to train a machine-learning algorithm to distinguish "car" from "not car" so it can be used in a self-driving car that will someday fail to stop and murder one of us.
'Round these parts (one of the square states) the big rabies problem is with skunks. Not that they go biting people, but they have a nasty habit getting all weak and not defensively spraying anything that comes too close so dogs attack them. Then the only thing between Fifi becomming Cujo is $30k of shots. That's artisinal wooden bike money, that is!
robo test: "Identify all the street signs" has a no bikes sign. sigh
More relevant reading on rabies because my paying job boring me to tears at the moment.
There are 1-3 fatalies due to rabies in humans in the US every year. Post exposure treatment consists of 4 shots.
The more you know!
Anonymous 8:09/11:16,
My rabies question was rhetorical. There are 1-3 cases of human rabies a year. Between the nature of the disease, our ability to control its spread, and our ability to treat infection, your "replace 1 in 10 drivers with rabid coyotes" scenario can never and will never happen. Ipso facto, ergo etc., the fact is rabid coyotes are not that dangerous.
On the other hand, here's an interesting story nothing that, statistically, 1 in 200 drivers have been behind the wheel of a car that has killed someone. So while 1 in 200 is not technically "average," it means many drivers doing average driver stuff like the woman who worte the article have killed somebody. And just as we have rabies vaccines we also have motor vehicle laws and licensing and registration and all the rest of it. However, the latter has been nowhere near as effective as the former.
As for the provocative headline, the truth is I didn't come up with it. However, I was okay with it given the above. Would I want to be locked in a room with a rabid coyote? Obviously not. But out in the world, artificial circumstances aside, absolutely a typical driver is more of a threat than a rabid coyote.
--Wildcat Etc.
Three out of ten Americans do not understand statistics.
When over half of all Americans do not understand statistics, how are we to assess relative risk?
No way to cure the average driver since the average follows the mean? there is a cure for rabies but it's almost as painful as the disease. that conspiracy bit about self driving cars has some potential.
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