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Nor'easter
By John Wimberly
Bliss?
Friday
afternoons are usually bliss for me. The day job ends at 1:00pm and I have the
afternoon to explore my New England countryside surroundings, which are proving
to be a mountain biker’s paradise. Of
course, every paradise has to have its perils and I met mine today.
I should’ve figured as much, but being as stoked as I’ve been about
riding lately the thought has even hardly crossed my mind.
I set out to explore some
ATV and fire trails (in Ashburnham, Mass) with the plan of doing a lazy loop and
returning home before the sun went down…usually around 4:30-5:00pm around here
these days. Total ride time I estimate at about 3 hours.
My ride starts out great. I
tackle some smaller ATV tracks and slosh through the puddles from the recent
rainfall ending up well off course under some power lines.
No problem, I figure. I
recently bought a USGS map of the area (of course, I’ve neglected to bring it
today) and I’m pretty sure there’s a 4x4 trail that cuts through this part
of the forest and ends up on the highway somewhere.
Turns out I’m right and I pick up a trail that pretty much follows the
power lines and I’m pretty confident that I’ll be at home by dark and in
time to put back some beers with the fellas when they get off work.
The trail is pretty technical, with the rocky trails I’ve grown
accustomed to in the Northeast, plus some good hills and puddles to fool about
with. Lots of roots and broken branches from the recent windstorm make the ride
tons of fun. I’m havin a great
time.
Its
gotta be somewhere around 3:30 and I figure its best I turn towards home and
make my way back before dusk. It
seems to get dark pretty quickly here this time of year and to be honest, I’m
thinking of crackin a beer as soon as I get home…just to make the boys jealous
when they show up from their own day jobs.
I’m looking for a path that cuts left and back to the road, but I’m
getting further and further away. The
trail is great, but it’s continuing straight and I’m starting to wonder if
there really is gonna be anything that cuts left when finally something opens
up. It’s definitely man made and
I briefly wonder who the hell made it, but I figure it’s probably the
ATV’ers-they seem pretty gung ho about that stuff around here.
So
I’m trekin along, startin to feel the burn in the old thighs with all the
roots, rocks and uphill climb and my head is down…pure concentration now.
I glance up and see a doe about 200 feet away just starin at me.
I naturally pull up short and play the stare game with her. She quickly loses and bounces off the other way.
I put my head down and get back to biking.
Right away, gunshots explode real close to the right and up the
trail a bit. One, two…three four
five. I immediately turn and book
it back the way I came-completely freaked out and not realizing I should have
shouted out my presence to the hunters. I
remembered seeing a glimpse of something man-made through the trees a while back
and I’m hopin it’s a house so that I can get out of the woods and onto a
road pronto. Gunshots continue to ring out.
I’m half walking, half riding my bike, completely freaked out and hopin
like hell these guys aren’t drunk and shooting at anything that moves. I’m
wearing a bright red sweatshirt, black pants and a gray Dave Mirra helmet.
I finally find what I saw before and make a beeline for it (In all
probability this couldn’t have been more than 30 seconds, but it seemed like
twenty minutes). It turns out what
I’d seen before was a farm of sorts, complete with horses and barking dogs in
a kennel. I realize just how close
I am to the actual hunters still and I’m hoping the farmer’s not the one
doing the hunting, but at least he won’t be around if he is.
I make my way past the horses and dogs and I see a pickup full a hay
idling by a barn. Fully expecting to catch an earful of trespassing
belligerence from the driver, I sidle up to the driver’s side window with my
story fully prepared. I’m
astounded to see an elderly farmer completely passed out at the wheel. I gently yap the window, but there’s no response.
I count my lucky stars and book it out of there tout suite.
It turns out, his driveway empties out onto the road I live on…and to
my utter amazement I realize this guys farm is literally seconds from my house
by bike. Then I realize that means
the hunters are also literally a few hundred yards away from my house!!!!
What the hell! Now, I’m living at the family cottage and, admittedly,
it’s out in the sticks, but the road I live on is fairly well populated.
My neighbors are immediately adjacent to me and there are countless
families with children who play up and down the street all the time!
I get back to my house more shaken than I’ve been in years and, well, I
crack a beer and wait to tell the fellas all about it.
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