October 25th (Morning)

Pretty good ride this morning. Physically I felt good, but at 1° I was rather cold at first. I finally started to become more comfortable around Rose Hill and Frolek’s land.

The bike did good, no missed shifts and the brakes were pretty solid. The front squeeled a bit on one downhill, but no where else. It also started rubbing again near the top of the Peterson Creek climb (west side). I actually dismantled the caliper entirely this weekend. I cleaned it out ‘till it was sparkling, re-greased everything and even replaced both brake cables. However, it still starts to rub again? What is going on? I suppose the magnet that holds the pads to the piston could be getting weaker? From what I’ve seen on other disc brake set ups, the pads are on a spring that pull them back after the lever has been released. My brakes, though, don’t have that spring. Instead, they’re held in place magnetically. I suppose that if that magnet starts losing it’s strength, the pads would stop retracting fully. Anyways, I’m not going to worry about it too much right now unless it gets substantially worse. The way I see it, a rubbing brake pad means a better workout whereas a pad that doesn’t engage at all means a long time off due to broken bones… Hah!

The light was good again this morning, I’m getting to where I can manage the switch as I’m riding with my gloves, so I don’t have to stop any more. As I came out of Juniper, however, I had a bit of a scare with a coyote. I’m not sure what his (her?) problem was, but near the end, right where the trail runs parallel with Rose Hill road for about 100 feet, a coyote just off the trail in the bushes (maybe 20-30 feet away if my “sound” distance estimation is anywhere close) suddenly barked and growled at me. It was closer than any coyote has been yet, and it really made me jump (remember, it’s whisper quiet all morning, so the sudden noise is rather jarring!). But what really had me unsettled was the fact that the coyote wasn’t just howling and yipping like the ones I’ve heard before. This one howled a bit here and there, but it mostly barked and growled at me! Yes, growl… snarl… whatever you call the noise, this coyote was NOT pleased with me being there. At first, I thought about getting off the bike so I could point the light towards the noise. Thinking, however, that doing so might make the coyote feel more threatened, I continued on. I did try talking to it, kind of like I’d talk to a dog. Does a coyote respond like a wild dog would? Who knows. Either way, it stayed where it was and I rode by. As I continued on past Rose Hill road, it still was barking here and there but eventually I couldn’t hear it any longer. I wonder if it was injured? Most coyotes run away when I’ve gotten that close. But being right next to the road, it’s possible it got hit by a car or something, and was laying in the bushes wounded and therefore letting me know not to get any closer. Whatever the case was, I got the message!

At the end of the ride, as I came out and into Pineview, I came up behind a guy walking his Golden Retriever (only it was darker in colour, more red like fur). The guy saw me first, and as he didn’t grab his dog I figured it was fine. As I got closer, the dog saw me and turned and lunged towards me, barking and snarling (bad morning, I guess, maybe I didn’t shower? ). I hit the brakes and got ready to stop, but the owner managed to call him off. Still, as I started to ride by (dumb owner still didn’t get the message yet and never grabbed his dog), the dog again started to lunge at me, chasing me. I yelled at the dog, and then unclipped my foot and was just about to give the dog a taste of my heel across his jaw when it decided to back off (meanwhile, of course, the owner is yelling uselessly). I’ve not yet been that close to having to kick a dog, but owner there or not, I would gladly give any dog a mouth full of cleat if they’re that aggressive. I find it hard to believe that this dog hasn’t shown any similar signs of aggression before, so why the owner didn’t see fit to control his dog at the beginning is beyond me. But, at least it ended without incident! Hopefully next time the owner will grab his dog before anything happens, and hopefully next time it isn’t me riding by!