Draft Dodging

Drafting on a bicycle is a good way to save your energy on longer rides. To draft someone, you follow them closely. This makes riding easier because the person in front of you cuts through the air and reduces the wind resistance you face. Drafting can be very convenient. Bike racing teams use it, much like birds do when they fly in formation. Drafting has also led to some interesting encounters out on the trails.  

You generally follow closer when drafting. Just make sure
you let someone know and ask permission.

I was pedaling north along the Neuse River trail one day. It was hot and sunny. As I picked up speed on one of the long, straight stretches, I happened to glance to the side and was shocked to see a second shadow right behind me. And he was close. I twisted around to confirm that it was indeed another rider. I decided to pull away, so I increased my speed. But he stayed with me. I kept trying to pedal harder, but every time I checked my shadow, he was still there. We kept going for several miles until we got to 401. He turned off on the suspension bridge and I kept going. He was wearing nice biking clothes and had a good bike, so I don’t think there was anything untoward going on. But I have to admit to being a little relieved when he finally went the other way.

In an interesting side note, I mentioned this experience on Facebook and got some memorable comments. They all boiled down to stopping and letting someone like that go on by. I think if I encounter Captain Creepazoid again, that’s what I’m going to do.  

Another time I was heading back home after taking a break at the end of the trail near Horseshoe Park. In an interesting bit of irony, I was coming back across the suspension bridge there at 401 (the same place where Captain Creepazoid finally left me) and turned out in front of two riders on good road bikes. I picked up speed quickly and led them for a little over two miles at almost 18 miles an hour. The difference was, as they caught up to me, one of them announced their presence. “Do you mind if we draft you for a few minutes?” I said, “no problem.” They announced it when they finally passed me and offered to let me draft them, but I had to decline. I couldn’t keep up. It occurred to me that day that the key to drafting, like passing and many other encounters, is communication. I soon received another lesson that hammered home that point.

I reached the southern end of the trail in Clayton one day and stopped for a break. It’s the perfect spot to catch your breath and cool off. Other riders had the same idea and several individuals and pairs came and went while I was there. On the way back I began catching up to and passing some of the riders who left before me. As a courtesy, I announced myself as I’m coming by. I came up behind a woman on a bike just as we were getting close to a series of bridges. I decided to pull up and wait to pass her because bridges are not ideal for passing. There’s enough room, but if anything happens, you can’t veer out of the way. She was going slower, so I downshifted. The click and clang of the gear shifting wasn’t loud, but it made her jump and she whipped her head around and I saw fear in her expression. I called out, “I’ll pass you, but I don’t want to do it on these bridges.”   She looked relieved, but wary. “Okay.” She flashed me a look again as I went by, and I thought of Captain Creepazoid.

Her frightened look has reminded me to announce myself not only when I’m passing, but whenever I come up behind someone. That’s a good rule of thumb for all your encounters on the trails. There have been letters to the editor in the local paper recently complaining about bikers who race by on the trails. One thing that's obvious from the letters is that many of these bikers don't announce themselves when they pass. With all this in mind, here are a couple of golden rules of the trail: 

• Announce yourself when you're passing someone. That way they know to stay out of the way. And you never know; the person in front of you may be about to turn around. That could cause a bad accident.
• Ask permission if you want to draft. I was behind a couple on bikes the other day when the woman saw me and asked two times if I wanted to pass. I was making up my mind and eventually passed them, but she sounded a little irritated.

 

 

Mr. Slithers

Editor's note: I wrote this post almost two months ago, but I've been waiting for another encounter with a snake so I could get a picture or two.

I often walk Hershey – our Hershey-bar-colored dachshund – with one of my neighbors and her dog. On one such walk we were talking about encounters with snakes. She described seeing “Mr. Slithers” in her yard, and the nickname stuck.

I stopped to allow this fellow to cross in front of me. He was
nice enough to move slowly so I could take his picture.   

You can’t ride on the trails in the spring, summer and fall (and even warm winter days) without seeing snakes. They’re out there in the woods and they frequently cross the trails. Most of the encounters with snakes are brief and benign. My first one wasn’t.

Awhile back I took a half day off from work to be at home for a visit from the Time Warner repairman. They give you a window of time for their visit and in this case it was noon to 6 p.m. Of course, that usually means he arrives at 5:57. That day he got there at 12:15 and was finished at 1. I took advantage of the opportunity to ride up to Planet Fitness for a workout. It was already hot in March of that year, so I put on a pair of gym shorts and a t-shirt and off I went. I was still riding my first bike and the brakes were very worn so I couldn’t stop quickly. I rode around the subdivision, doubling back several times to go uphill whenever possible, before getting on one of the walking trails (my favorite part of the ride). A small creek runs beside the trail, and the gurgling of the water is always welcome. Near the end of the trail, it turns and crosses the creek. As I approached the sharp turn onto the bridge, a water moccasin slithered quickly out of the brush coming right at my front tire. I knew I didn’t have the time or space to stop, and besides, who wants to stop right by a snake?  So I stomped down on the pedal one more time, raised my feet to my handle bars, yelled “shiiiiiiiiiit,” and ran right over him as I turned onto the bridge. I rolled to the other side, braked and looked back. The snake had coiled up and was looking around like he was asking, “what just happened?” I got mad at that point, put down my kickstand and started back toward him. I had malice in my heart, which was pounding away at about 1,000 beats per minute. But the snake disappeared under the bridge. I rode on, with my pulse slowly returning to normal. To this day I wonder how I didn’t actually do what I yelled.

Fortunately my other encounters have been far less…stimulating. Most of them have been with black snakes. Those are the ones you see most often. There are green snakes, garter snakes, brown snakes and the occasional copperhead. Water moccasins are around, but I haven’t seen another one. You tend to see snakes more in the morning and evening. You also see them more often in the spring. They’re hungry and horny, and move around more. The best thing is that they can’t hide on the concrete. In fact you see them clearly most of the time even if they’re just off the trail. The city crews keep the ground surrounding the trails mowed and clear and that makes Mr. Slithers easy to spot. Some of them are small, just hatched in some cases. Others are larger, including the Godzilla of copperheads.

I saw him while riding south on the Neuse River Greenway one evening in September. I was on a long, straight stretch of trail, and I saw him about 200 yards ahead of me. I couldn’t tell what kind he was at first. The nights were already getting cooler and he was just lying there on the concrete warming up. As I got closer I saw the distinctive tan color and pattern on his back. I also noticed his size. He was more than five feet long and his body was as big around as a weightlifter’s arm. I’ve never seen one that large, not even in a museum or zoo. That night he was lying still. So I moved over to the edge of the trail away from him and increased my speed. I shot past him. He didn’t budge. I guess he didn’t have anything to prove.    

Most of the snakes you see on the greenway trails are black
snakes. They're not particularly aggressive out there.

As I’ve mentioned previously, I give Mr. Slithers every benefit of the doubt out there. It’s different if they come in my yard, but that’s a whole different story. I’ve come to a complete stop several times when a snake is crossing ahead of me. One time I was going in and out of bright sun and shade, and a black snake appeared in the shade in front of me. I didn’t have time to stop or miss him, but I did swerve to the side so I only ran over the tip of his tail.

I’ve never made a particular study of snakes, but I do think they have good hearing. Sometimes I even think they can follow English. One time I stopped in front of a long black snake who wasn’t in any hurry to finish crossing the trail. I sat for a minute watching him and he didn’t budge. So I called out, “Hey there, how about making some room.” And he did. He went on across and into the bushes. Another time I came up on a small copperhead near the edge of the trail. I moved over to the other side and said, “Watch it, little guy,” as I went by. He immediately coiled up in his strike pose. But I was long gone and out of range.  

In all but my first meeting with snakes on the trails, I’ve left them alone and they’ve returned the favor. Even the few times I had no choice but to run over them, they just kept going and got off the trail quickly. It seems like they don’t know quite what to think of people on bikes. Possibly bikes make people seem both bigger and faster, and therefore, more formidable and not to be tangled with. Either way, I’m not a fan of snakes. But we have a fairly satisfactory truce out on the greenways. Hey Mr. Slithers, just stay out of my yard…

Racing The Rain

When you ride the greenways, you’ll eventually get rained on. Most of the time it’s just a few sprinkles. Occasionally it’s more. If you don’t pay attention to the weather, you can sometimes get caught in a thunderstorm. Since bikes are made out of metal, that’s really not a good idea. If you enjoy riding and are committed to it on a regular basis, you do sometimes take a chance with the weather. I call it racing the rain.

Riding time is limited for most of us, so planning is a must. Part of that planning includes watching the weather forecasts on television and monitoring weather radars on your phone. The information is very detailed and you can plan around it successfully most of the time. You can take your rides before the rain moves in or ride where it’s not going to rain. You can also alter your route so you don’t get that far from home. And lastly, you can ask someone at home to watch the weather and contact you if it starts to look bad. All of these methods have worked for me, but they failed spectacularly one time. I was heading back south near the 401 bridge when the bottom fell out. I had checked the forecast and rain wasn’t due for hours. But it came down in sheets and I was soaked in seconds. I stopped under the bridge to wait it out and found a text message on my phone about approaching rain and a flash flood warning. I waited under the bridge for 20 minutes or so for it to ease up, but it never stopped. I rode the 12 miles home in a constant drizzle. I learned that day that the bike is much harder to clean up and dry off than I am.

I took a morning ride recently when the forecast called for a cloudy day with rain starting as early as lunchtime. It had rained the night before and there were still wet patches on the trails. I headed out on the Mingo Creek trail before turning south on the Neuse River trail. It didn’t take long to figure out that a lot of people had the same idea. There were 25 or so other bikers at Anderson Point Park, many of them stopping to get water and use the restrooms. I stopped for water myself (and to check the radar) and overheard two separate groups talking about how they had to finish by lunchtime to beat the rain. I rode south past Auburn-Knightdale Road, Battle Bridge Road and the water treatment plant. There’s a large field of sunflowers near the plant and they were in bloom. That’s a sight to see.   

The sunflowers were in bloom that day.
Note the clouds in the distance.

 

The clouds kept the temperature down, but the sun actually broke through a few times and you could see your shadow. It was nice to be a little cooler because the southern leg of the trail has hills and you’ve really got to work to climb some of them. The radar had shown a line of showers moving past south of Raleigh and, sure enough, I could see them when I got to the top of the large hill past the sunflowers. I pedaled a little further before turning around. On the way back I turned west on the Walnut Creek trail and followed it out to the tunnel under the 440 beltline. The tunnel gets very muddy when it rains so it was the ideal place to turn around. There were many other bikers out that day. I’ve never seen the trails so busy.

Sometimes it's really simple. If you're racing the rain,
keep an eye on the clouds.

I stopped again at Anderson Point Park for more water and to check the radar. A line of rain was headed for the west side of Raleigh and it looked like it would be in Knightdale in about an hour, so I rode north almost to Buffalo Road Park. I wanted to go further, but the radar clearly showed rain on the way. So I turned around.  There weren’t many other bikers or anyone else on the trail on the ride back.  As I came out of the trees into the open near the bridge to the Mingo Creek trail, I could see the rain clouds coming towards me from the west.

The breeze picked up as I crossed the bridge. I rode quickly back to Knightdale and took the first turn off the trail to get home. The breeze felt great but you could smell the rain. That made me pedal even faster. I felt a few sprinkles as I turned into my driveway. The rain started in earnest as I was wiping down the bike and hanging it on the rack in the garage. There was no thunder, but it rained pretty hard for about 30 minutes. I stood watching and listening to it for a few minutes before going inside the house. I had won the race against the rain that day…but it had been close.

I won the race with the rain that day. Sometimes I'm not so lucky.