Swooping Owl Trail Ride

Greg and I got together after work yesterday to go ride Tranquility trails in the upper 50 degree temps. We heard reports that the trail was 98% dry on Wednesday. But last night it sure wasn't. Since riding frozen trails early last Monday, the North Creek section heading north to kiosk was far from dry. It's severely rutted in places. So when we saw the damage we turned around and rode the trail to the kiosk backward. But even that was a bit soft. There were very ride worthy sections out there. New Trails north of Fort St. were fine. The south hill and creek was real good. We saw Cole S. and rode with him. He said the trees – nursery – fort st loop – and north creek had many areas that were muddy and loaded up his tires. So we avoided that too.

We rode up the meadows and stopped for a bit. Even though we hadn't seen owls last night we were talking about seeing owls on the trail in the past. This conversation must have been a premonition. Once we took off into the pine trees on the North Hill Descent a huge owl swooped down right in front of me. I've never been that close to a flying owl and it's quite a rush. About the time I regained my nerve another owl did exactly the same thing, The second owl was not as big but shocking just the same. We did also see the deer back on this ride. Good to witness the ecosystem working in full force at Tranquility. Great ride Greg and Cole.