Working through a summer cold, low energy and probably a mild case of overtraining. Going to go try to catch a few miles that have escaped me for the past few days.
I had a really cool experience on my night ride Thursday night, riding through a large park in the area. I came down a hill with a curve at the bottom and met a juvenile coyote. I talked at him, like I do with dogs, which is all that’s normally needed to send a coyote running for the nearest cover. This one started running away from me on the trail, looking back every 30 feet or so as if to see if I was catching up to him or not. What ensued was a drag race for about a quarter of a mile. I got close enough to hear his toenails scratching on the concrete trail. He was faster than me, and was clearly not running as fast as he could. I was not going as fast as I could either. I finally got close enough or he got bored and jumped off the trail and watched me ride past.
I experienced something similar with with a young coyote on a city street about two miles away a few months ago at about 5 AM. This time was at about 10 PM.
I’m just about to head out on the same route tonight hoping for a rematch.
-Matt