Life changing experience -- almost

[cedar]

This morning I decided I'd ride to work. It's a 62 mile trek one way, but worth the saddle time to me. I ride most days. It was a brisk 24* this morning, so I bundled up accordingly and hit the road. Driving along I see a very large buck mule deer on the right shoulder walking toward the road from the tree line. I slowed to see what he was going to do. With about ten yards between us, he decided he wanted to cross the street. He stepped into my lane and I thought that was going to be the end. I was able to steer around him because thankfully he stopped. My heart was pounding, but I continued along my way. There was some snow yesterday, but it had been sunny in the afternoon and not really any accumulation left on the ground, so I dismissed the possibility of the road being slick. One should never dismiss this possibility in November in Colorado. Areas of the road that are shaded during the day still had some ice. I hadn't seen any to this point because that part of the road was exposed to the sun all of the previous afternoon. Most icy spots had dry tracks from traffic, but there was one ~30 yard stretch that was a sheet of ice. I rolled off the throttle and held the Nomad as straight as I could. The bike was wiggling around on the ice so I put my feet down and skied across that little rink. After these two incidents within moments of each other, I considered that riding season may really be over for 2016. Nah, but I don't think I'll be riding at 5:30am again, at least until Spring.