Sunday, November 19, 2017

Be Kind Whenever Possible,

And it is always possible. Today was the first ride of this year's Fat Bike Series. I rode my Mongoose "Ralph" for this one. The weather was great! Cool enough to keep the sweat down, but certainly not warm. I was riding along on the High Trestle Trail when a smell wafted out of the timber and caught my attention. It smelled like a Ginko tree, but it didn't make sense that there would be a Ginko tree out in the woods, so I looked closer. When I discovered what was producing the smell I was shocked. There was a young deer, probably from last Spring's generation, that had caught it's hoof in a fence. It was hanging by it's leg, and had probably been there most of the day judging from the blood and the freshness of the dirt it had scraped in it's attempt to get out of the snare. I think that the smell was actually a distress scent.
I jumped off of my bike to find a non threatening way to approach the fence. Then I grabbed my Leatherman out of my Camelback and took a look at the fence to see which stands to snip. The poor little guy was squawking a little from the pain and fear, which made it hard to concentrate, so I just cut a strand of fencing. That seemed to help a lot, so I cut the other side of the same strand and he was free. Sadly, I think the hip was dislocated. The deer ran away on three legs and found a spot in some tall grass to lay down. I hopped back on my bike and rode the rest of the way to Slater to get my entry registered in the Fat Series. I checked to see if he was still laying there when I was on my return trip, and he had moved to some other location, which I took as a good sign. I hope he'll be ok and live as happy of a life as a deer can. Beats dying of thirst or exposure in most people's book I guess.


              
 

4 comments:

NoVisibleLycra said...

Hey, Gravelo! Happy New Year to you and your family, thanks for your earlier message, which I've now published. I hope all is well is Boone, Iowa. I'll be in Philadelphia next May and I think LA at some time too. Keep cycling and keep blogging too. Best, Matt, NoVisibleLycra.

NoVisibleLycra said...

Hi, Greg! Happy New Year. I can't believe that I haven't commented on your blog for a whole year, but it's true. Hope all is good in Boone. As with last year, I'll be over in the US this year too, Pittsburgh. Twice! March and May. Keep cycling, my friend. All the best.

Gravelo said...

✓ 1 2

Gravelo said...

I can not post a new entry on my own blog. This is a problem, hope I can figure something out!