By Mike Genovese

          First off, let me explain the title of my monthly column. Actually, come to think of it, it's pretty much self-explanatory.  I am by no means a professional, or for that matter, semi-professional rider. I ride low-end equipment, and I'm rather new to the sport.  So, you may be asking yourself, why is this guy writing a regular column about a topic that is relatively new to him?  Allow me to attempt to explain.  See I am the webmaster and as you may already realize, I can post whatever I want even without the editor knowing about it.

   No, seriously, I mainly ride trails and consider myself an amateur to average rider.  I don't have a killer mount, I don't exercise other then biking regularly, nor do I watch my diet.  I ride for the joy of it, and as long as my physical condition allows me to enjoy it, I am satisfied.  That said, I want to try and relate to the less hardcore, less experienced riders such as myself.  I don't want to get caught up in titanium frames, expensive riding jerseys, or insane cliff dropping, but rather share my regular riding stories with the regular joes out there. Who stumbled upon this site and figured, hey I have a bicycle in the shed.



   Since we find ourselves in another hunting season, I thought it would be appropriate to share a past deer season ride I've had.  A couple years back, I was taking advantage of an exceptional fall day in late November and just sticking to the roads, enjoying the fall colors.  Soon enough though, I came across a very tempting fire road that lead into thick woods.  As I am not a hunter, I never even considered that it was that time of year as I turned on the trail.  The conditions of the dirt couldn't have been more suitable, hard pack and not a puddle in site.  After about ten minutes of casual site seeing, I came across an open field where the trail ended.  I paused for a breather and a quick sip out of the ol water jug when I heard an angry voice.  I quickly looked around and saw nothing.  Then I heard it again, this time a little louder.

            "What do you think your doing?" Came a rather unpleasant
voice from above.  I looked up and to left then to my right before finally focusing in on the hunter in a tree stand. (side note: those things really do work!)

   "I could hear you coming down the trail for five minutes, and I'm sure that if there were any deer nearby, they heard you too."  He looked as if he was about to jump out of the tree and attack me.  And its common practice for hunters to carry big weapons these days.

            "Oh man, I completely forgot it was hunting season, I'm
sorry." Was all I could muster.

            "Didn't you see the posted sign anyway?  Get the hell outta
here." Was the reply I got, and I was glad for that, considering he was
was nearly invisible to the naked eye.

            "Won't happen again."  I offered as I hopped back on my
mount and quickly peddled back to the trail. 

   On my way out I noticed just how loud the leaves were crackling under my tires.  I felt the hot face of embarrassment as I left the woods, this time taking notice of the posted sign by the road.  Since that pretty much put a damper on my day, I decided to head home, and mused over how lucky I was that I didn't get shot by accident (or on purpose for that matter) in the woods.  Needless to say, I've never forgotten deer season again on a ride.  So for all you non-hunters out there, please, mark your calendars and remember to stay out of unfamiliar territory when the deer are running for their lives. And above all else, never wear those silly helmets with deer antlers!