the Way of the Turtle

KILDEER JUNIOR
16.9 Mile Ride on the Mohawk Hudson Bike Path
Thursday, June 16, 2016

Headed over to the bike path in Niskayuna for today's ride... after running this morning it seemed like a good idea to go somewhere that would be mostly flat. Though I did want to check on the kildeer with her eggs, which meant climbing the path along the old landfill... that bit made it clear that I didn't have much climbing in my legs today, unless I wanted to take tomorrow off from riding or running.

She was still there and seemed to still be on her eggs... until a tiny fuzzball popped out and started staggering around. Eventually the little troublemaker got far enough away that she took off after him, revealing another fuzzball and three unhatched eggs. The squirts were small enough that they may have hatched recently - I don't know if that means the other eggs could still hatch or if they're duds.

Eventually I gave up upsetting the kildeers and headed back down the hill. Made it all the way to the top of the hill just east of the Colonie water treatment plant, and decided that was enough... if I'd gone any further I'd have been doing some climbing, and the legs didn't feel up to that.

One thing I don't get is why some of the riders feel obligated to be a-holes on the bike path. On at least four occasions today I slowed down and moved to the left to pass folks walking or running - and as I moved back to the right one or more jackasses who'd gotten right on my tail buzzed by me, nearly clipping me in the process. Because of course it's more important that they maintain whatever speed their doing than slow down and pass someone safely. Admittedly I will occasionally be an a-hole myself and pass without giving any warning, but typically that's because the pedestrian or rider did something stupid like stepping or pulling out onto the path without looking to see if anyone's coming. (Which doesn't excuse my bad behavior.)

It reminded me a bit of my crash almost 10 years ago... there I was pushing my bike back to the car with some obvious scrapes and dings - and every rider who went by completely ignored me. A couple of the pedestrians asked if I needed help, but no one on a bike could be bothered.

Enough griping. And just for the record, I think there were another 5000 chipmunks running back and forth alongside and across the bike path. If they didn't sleep through the winter and spend so much time chasing each other around, those little buggers could take over the world.

JMH