Creature Encounters on the Slippery Elm Trail

When I'm training for Pelotonia, I spend a lot of time zipping up and down the Slippery Elm Trail between Bowling Green and North Baltimore. I stick to the trail because drivers in this area are not educated on how to share the roads with cyclists, so riding through town is pretty terrifying. Fortunately, the trail is pretty well-maintained and the scenery is lovely. While you don't have to deal with motorized vehicles (all are prohibited), you do have to be prepared for animals, which can be as terrifying as an aggressive driver on a city street. Here are the weirdest, most interesting, and grossest creature encounters I've had on the trail (I see many bunnies every ride, but rabbits aren't that interesting).

The Dead Ones

These are the gross encounters. Mostly I see dead birds, which are nasty, but not too bad. I saw a dead mouse recently, but in my mind that's the best kind of mouse (sorry animal people...I HATE rodents). The worst dead one was a skunk. I actually shrieked when I saw it. This was just a day ago, so I really hope that the trail maintenance workers have removed it since we're supposed to have highs in the 90's the weekend.

The Deer

Deer on the trail terrify me. Thanks to the episode of Gilmore Girls in which a deer runs into Rory's car (yes, the deer runs into the car, not the other way around), I am constantly worried that a deer is going to run out of one of the wooded areas on the trail and send me flying off of my bike. Fortunately, so far, they've run across the trail far enough ahead for me to stop and avoid them. 

One very hot day last summer, I actually had a deer appear to race me down the trail. I was riding on a section of the trail that ran alongside a fallow farm field. I rode past a deer standing in the field and when it saw me, it took off running parallel to me until we reached some trees. The whole time, I chanted, "Please don't cross the trail. Please don't cross the trail." It didn't. It did beat me, though. Of course.

The Groundhogs

Groundhogs may be the most annoying creatures on the trail because they're dangerous for people on skinny-tired road bikes. The problem is that, for whatever reason, they like to make their burrows RIGHT next to the trail, and then tunnel under the concrete. This causes sinkholes on the trail (usually close to the sides, but I've seen a couple closer to the middle). While Wood County does a good job filling these sinkholes in quickly, there are frequently big, gaping holes that would obliterate a road bike at high speeds. The groundhogs themselves are also slow, which means I've had to dodge them a few times when they can't get off the trail fast enough.

The Peacocks

Or, more accurately, a peacock and a peahen. They were pretty but seemed pretty stupid.

The Wild Turkeys

Speaking of stupid. So, so stupid. Had to ride off the trail to get around them because they failed to recognize that a human on a bicycle going 15+ miles per hour and yelling, "MOVE!" might be a threat to their wellbeing. 

The Feral Cat Family

Last summer, a litter of feral kittens and their mother lived next to the trail, about a mile out from North Baltimore. I saw them several times and they would always hiss and arch their backs at me. One particular day, a bunch of the kittens were playing in the road that the trail crosses near their home. As I crossed the trail, I noticed a semi truck speeding down the road rapidly approaching the kittens. I yelled to try to scare them off, but they were unimpressed. I spent the next several minutes praying that I wouldn't see smashed kittens when I came back that direction on the way back to BG. Happily, I can report that they apparently escaped because I saw no evidence of a kitten vs. semi confrontation.

The Pack of Beagle Puppies

One morning last summer, I was chased down the trail by about five beagle puppies. I am not kidding. I strongly suspect that their owner was nearby and out of sight in the woods, more than likely training them to hunt (Don't train your dogs to hunt cyclists. That's mean). They were seriously cute with their distinctive beagle bark (that almost yelping ARF that they do), but kept trying to run in front of me, which would have been bad for everyone involved. They chased me for a good distance before they finally gave up. 

The Takeaway

Emily is a city girl.