The rather pleasant and unexpected surprise of a window of warmer weather has my brain working full time to figure out what to do...It will most likely be the last weekend of good weather so the pressure and anticipation is on to take full advantage before the white stuff starts to hammer us. I am torn between trying to get out on the fat tire both days, or a skinny tire on one of those days. Regardless, it will be great to get out and play while mother nature gives us a couple of bonus days of nice weather (although I suppose we are long overdue considering our weather this year....knock on wood).
The wifer has been prepping for the X-Terra Tri in Utah this weekend. She will be taking the day off on Friday to get down and register, etc. It looks like this window of good fortune relative to the weather will stay open in Utah for her event on Saturday.
The pups and I will be staying in Montana and seeing what kind of trouble we can get into while the wifer is in Mormon-land doing her Tri...
On another note...and of course it has to be a bear note given our summer of 'bear'....Some friends went on a mountain bike ride here in Butte this past weekend and encountered a bear on one of the trails that I often ride. The bear was actually really close to Hwy 2, just sunbathing on a rock. Based on the pics, it looks like he was fairly young and very ready for hibernation given his portly figure (video of the ride with da' bear)- he was not aggressive but was also not all that concerned about seeing people which must mean he is used to seeing them. It sure makes me wonder how many times I have missed seeing wildlife in the woods just because they are well hidden and our senses are just not acute enough to pick up on that stuff. It makes me think that there is something to it when you are riding backcountry somewhere and you start to feel the hair on the back of your neck start to stand up because you sense 'something'.
Given the options it seems like a much better option to run into a bear than a mountain lion...unless of course the bear is a grizz then all bets are off....or it is a mama bear with her cubs...for the most part black bears seem somewhat afraid of people. Mountain lions are definitely around but they don't want to be seen and will sneak up on you from behind. It is a good thing we have plenty of elk locally to keep them from getting hungry! I read a post somewhere that a guy was riding in mountain lion country and he pasted a couple of stickers on the back of his helmet that look like eyes so that the mountain lion would not think you had your back to it...might be time to read up on them or make something up to sticker on the back of the helmet.
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