Kit!

We had a nice ride in the park, but parked our rig at McKeldin this time. We started out later than expected and saved a good bit of time by parking at the Park headquarters.

We rode on some trails that we haven't been on in some time, criss-crossing some that we had been on recently. Things are really greening up, finally. Very few people in the park, only saw three riders, twice, and they never noticed us.

It was Bike Fest, first of the season, at the Woodstock Inn. He was sure we wouldn't get a beer, let alone fed, but for some reason they really had their act together, and we were there only a short time. There were more bikers out front in the sunshine than inside the restaurant.

On the way back we decided to go through Granite, and into the pipeline and open meadows, going a little faster. KC has been so good in the past month, that I didn't feel I had to hold him back or drag his head back up. Hopefully he has outgrown his 'bucking' stage. I ain't getting any younger.

We saw a lone deer on the pipeline and Tom wanted to chase it off the path, but he didn't and all of us stood there, eating the new grass.

I always ride 'ahead,' looking left and right and forward for any thing moving that could potentially spook KC. Winding our way down to the path, seeing no one, not even a bicyclist, we sped up where the terrain allowed, and on the flat opened up a little through the slalom-type track. Changing leads has always been difficult for KC, he is definitely right-handed. Some of the corners were muddy, slippery, but mostly dry and solid. Always looking ahead.

That's when I saw the red fox running from us, to the left and up the steep incline, away from the flat flood plain. I wanted to see where she went, if she stopped to watch us pass. I pulled up level with her trajectory, to see how far she would travel or if she stopped to watch us.

As I was stopping (it takes KC a couple strides to come to a stand-still) I thought I heard our echo in a downed tree root ball. We stopped and I heard it again, which could not be an echo because we were now quiet, stopped. Inside the uprooted tree, which created its own crater, was a dug-out burrow, and I saw a small rodent-like creature, making a weird squeaking noise.

A stubby tail, a smooshed-in face, grey fuzzy ball of squeak was trying to climb out of the root crater. At first I thought we had disrupted the fox's meal procurement, but then realized it was a baby! OMG! how cute is that! Closer look revealed it looked more like a Pomeranian pup.