Met my recruiting goal for this year

Twice in two days, earlier this year, the same pack of 4 or 5 deer were about a mile or so east of vienna, hanging out on the north side of the trail in the same spot. Both times they started running east as I approached, along the north side of the trail. Both times I had to slow to a crawl or stop because they clearly wanted to exit the area to the south, crossing the trail, and I didn’t want them running over me to get there.

Be careful out there. And keep an eye open for the suicidal bunnies.

Brendan

I saw three deer crossing the trail between Cedar and Gallows (close to Cedar) a couple of hours ago. As I rode past they were munching on a tree in a yard.

Congrats on meeting your recruiting goal. I have not been able to convince anyone, at least not that I know of. Of course I have no way of knowing how many “if that old lady can do it, I bet I can” cyclists I have inspired.

Liz

@acc 4074 wrote:

Also saw some sort of animal that looked like a beaver but I find that hard to believe.

Groundhog maybe?

The W&OD Deer and I are not on good terms. I see usually at least 10-15 every morning. I’ve collided with them twice. They seem to deal with avoidance by cutting back in front of you, invariably at the last moment.

In October of 2009 I was cooking down the trail at about 3am, just east of Hunter Mill right by the little bridge over Difficult Run. Ran smack into a herd at about 20mph. I remember one in front of me, but the next thing I remember was coming to being flat on my back and looking up at the moon. Bike was destroyed – frame buckled right behind the head tube. And I was in agony. I actually don’t even remember doing it, but gathered myself and my bike and walked back to Reston, loaded the bike and went home. Don’t remember the drive either. Got home and passed out on the couch. Wife saw all the battle damage on me and couldn’t wake me a couple hours later and panicked and called 911. To this day don’t remember any of it. Turns out I had a bad concussion, and I had badly torn the rotator cuff in my right shoulder and the collarbone was cracked.

I limped along until May of 2010 dealing with the pain (lots!) and finally let them operate to fix it. 6 weeks later I was riding again, albeit still not 100% to this day. Worst part was in about August of last year I was eastbound about the same time of the morning between Sunset Hills and Sunrise Valley and had another one jump out from the low gully on the right that I never saw coming. Fortunately I was able to turn with her and ended up hitting her and going down albeit not doing the flying endo deal so just a bunch of blacktop rash and serious panic.

Now I ride in the am with over 1200 Lumens of LED’s blazing, so I can see eyeballs glowing several hundred yards out. And the beauty of that is that they see that much light coming at them and they freeze. But you’d also be amazed at just how many critters you actually see at night with that much candlepower.

Then in Feb of this year got a good sized deer @55mph with the car about a mile from the house in the wee hours of the am – $4k worth of damage. So $10k worth to hit one on the bike given medical bills and $4k in the car. Deer and I are NOT friends.

The baby foxes right now are just the cutest things in the world!

@CCrew 4110 wrote:

Groundhog maybe?

The W&OD Deer and I are not on good terms. I see usually at least 10-15 every morning. I’ve collided with them twice. They seem to deal with avoidance by cutting back in front of you, invariably at the last moment.

In October of 2009 I was cooking down the trail at about 3am, just east of Hunter Mill right by the little bridge over Difficult Run. Ran smack into a herd at about 20mph. I remember one in front of me, but the next thing I remember was coming to being flat on my back and looking up at the moon. Bike was destroyed – frame buckled right behind the head tube. And I was in agony. I actually don’t even remember doing it, but gathered myself and my bike and walked back to Reston, loaded the bike and went home. Don’t remember the drive either. Got home and passed out on the couch. Wife saw all the battle damage on me and couldn’t wake me a couple hours later and panicked and called 911. To this day don’t remember any of it. Turns out I had a bad concussion, and I had badly torn the rotator cuff in my right shoulder and the collarbone was cracked.

Yup, the pool is starting to look good again. ..Gee whiz, I’m so sorry. I completely understand why you wanted to get home, I’m amazed you were able to negotiate your way back to the car and drive.

I’ve noticed several fire departments are located along or close to the trail between Reston and Falls Church (I’m safety conscious, it has nothing to do with the appeal of firefighters, she lies.) I’ve thought to myself I could limp into one and get help if I really wrecked myself again. There is Fire Station #25 at Wiehle Avenue and Sunset Hills Road, the Vienna Volunteer Fire Department is located at 400 Center Street South – within sight of the Vienna Community Center, Fire Station #13, Dunn Loring Volunteer Fire and Rescue is at 2148 Gallows Road just up the hill from the W&O, and the Falls Church Fire Department is located adjacent to the W&O at 6950 Little Falls Road.

There is also an Urgent Care located several blocks from the W&O and Maple Avenue intersection at 100 Maple Avenue East. However, the hours are limited, certainly not useful for early morning commuters.

I was thinking about these options yesterday when I was stupidly riding in the heat.

ann