Waddling to Safety

Solo night rides are usually a little creepy. Strange sounds in the trees and glowing eyes peering at you from the darkness. Tonight's was all that with plenty of deer, some sort of large animals in the canopy on the Bonus Loop (birds I presume), and June Bugs as big as grapes thumping off my helmet and chest down by the boat landing.

But this ride ended on a particularly humorous note when I stumbled upon an opossum on the Lakeside Connector. Once I satisfied myself that it wasn't a skunk, I closed the distance to about 5' as he tried to waddle down the trail to safety. He must have waddled along - brilliantly illuminated from above by my dual LED headlamps - for half a minute before he finally shuffled off the trail into the safety of the woods.

When riding I've had close encounters with a baby fox, been nearly run over by a herd of deer, hit in the head by an owl, and chased by coon-dogs, but this was my first opossum encounter. God I love this place.