Day 255: Lion Hunting While Nursing my Cold

I woke up feeling a lot better than I did yesterday. The latest cold has moved through me quickly, at least that’s how it’s going so far. Tonight I’m feeling like I still have sandpaper grinding around in my throat, but I do feel much better.

I think that taking it really easy yesterday was helpful to getting me on track to recovery.

I didn’t take it so easy today. I did what’s become natural for me, and that’s to ride with people whenever possible. I was so alone during this winter that I will now always choose to ride with others rather than to ride by myself. So today I did just that.

I met up with “F” and “B” whom are colleagues of mine. We planned on sneaking out at lunch for a quick lap of the Marin Headlands. We met at our world headquarters in Mill Valley where we prepped our bikes before heading out for our lunch ride.

As we left the parking lot we decided to go hunting for the Mountain Lion that has been seen multiple times during the past week in the Marin Headlands. In fact “B” saw it last week while it was sauntering across the fire road right in front of him! I’m somewhat jealous that he’s seen one, and I haven’t, but I’m also glad that I haven’t seen one, if you know what I mean?

We rode up our usual route to the trails before taking the Panoramic Highway over to the Miwok trail. The Miwok Trail (This is the section of the trail) is precisely where “B” saw the Mountain Lion last week, and that’s also close to the other sighting about ten days ago on the Middle Green Gulch Trail.

As we rode up the fire road I really didn’t think twice about the lion, and instead focused on giving myself a little push up the hill after not feeling so great at the start of the ride. So I pushed ahead of my buddies until I was a couple of long corners ahead of them where I stopped for a couple of photo opportunities.

We rode back down the hill via the Miwok Trail and then onto to Tennessee Valley Road. I really like the Tennessee Valley for its trails, and natural beauty. I’ve done a lot of dog walking here. It was one of Fifi and Tugboat’s favorite places to walk, especially during the hot summers. I miss those walks.

So no Mountain Lion sightings today, but I did catch this really cool Red-Tailed Hawk at the summit of Miwok Trail just before it descends into Tennessee Valley. It was catching the winds and hovering very close to us. There's almost always wildlife to be seen in the Marin Headlands.

We cruised back to the world headquarters while continuing to talk about life, business, and bicycling. Thanks for another great ride guys!

To "V" in Moscow, thanks for contacting me.