Lost Hiker / Lost Dog / Drunk Dude / Inequality & Skunk Surprise

Re-calibrating

Ride with my niece!

Family ride!

Island ridin

I've been keeping my rides private these days, but this one was whacky enough it's worth sharing: 
Went for a ride last night starting round 7:30pm and ran into a hiker who was crazy lost up on Mt Tom- the park closes at 8pm and   she had come in via car, and if she couldn't get out in time her car was going to be stuck in the park. She was way, way lost in the opposite direction of her car. She had run into a woman before I saw her that gave her the wrong directions and had sent her even further away from where she needed to go. I helped her get back toward her car, and kept biking ahead to try and find a park ranger to give them a head's up. I tried to call the park number but nobody picked up. 

In trying to figure out what to do, we were talking about how we might have to call the police to have the gate unlocked so she could get out of the park. She said that she was scared to call the police- even the routine / non-emergency police number- because she was black, and that its not just as simple as being able to call the police even when you really need help- because it can legitimately be dangerous. She said if I wasn't there she would never even consider calling the cops. She was going to just try and get out of the park, leave her car stuck in the park overnight, try and get someone to pick her up, and then would have to come back the next day. 

It was quite a hike for her to get back to her car, but I helped her get there, and then she did need to call the routine police number to get out. She was really thankful for the help and she took off in her car, and I headed home on my bike. 

Then... near the Oxbow / Manhan Bike path / RT 5 area I see this little dog running like crazy between cars and coming SO close to getting hit a bunch of times. A guy in a car shouts at me "I've been trying to catch this dog, I don't know whose it is, but I can't catch him!" So I take off after the dog to try and catch it. 

Up ahead the dog runs past a yard with a guy that has two dogs not on leashes- the dogs all start chasing each other in the middle of the road and its chaos- fortunately we were able to get them out of the road, but I still couldn't catch the lost little dog. It was clear instantly that the guy- a white man in his late '50's- was SUPER drunk. He says "you got a phone? Call the cops." "You mean call the routine number? Not the emergency number, right?" I said. "No, no- you just call 911." There was not a single bit of hesitation for him whatsoever, and he was completely comfortable calling 911 for something that most likely is not even the responsibility of the police to handle... even while super drunk.

It was such a bizarre look, back to back into two very different worlds: I had just seen a person who was super nice, sober, responsible and was in a really bad situation and needing help be terrified of calling the cops to get the help she needed. And then minutes later, was talking with a white dude who was drunk off his ass give zero hesitation to calling the straight up emergency 911 number to have the police go chase a random dog. 

I share this experience because there are a lot of people who have had the privilege and good fortune of not ever having to be scared of the police- and hey, that's great! Just please understand that there are SO many people who have had the complete opposite experience, and they don't have the luxury of being able to 'just call up the cops' for help, even when they have done nothing wrong, even when they might be in danger, and even though their taxes pay the wages of the police. That's messed up to put it lightly. We can do better and need to do better. 

To conclude the crazy evening: that little dog ran off like a nut and kept cutting into the woods- it was all really dark at this point. I kept getting within inches of being able to grab the dog's collar, but just couldn't get her. She went down into these thick woods by the Oxbow and I could hear her collar jingling, and then a splash into the water, and then no more jingling. I couldn't see her, but there were boats going by and I started to put it together that if she fell off someone's boat, that she might have taken off trying to swim after the boats going by. I looked and looked in that area, but couldn't find her. 
Then I rode to the Oxbow boat ramp about half a mile away, and sure enough found the owners- and it turned out that the dog had fallen off their boat, swam to shore and was completely disoriented. I kept searching and so did the owners, but my headlight ran out of batteries and I never saw the dog again. The couple that lost the dog (named Kita) kept looking after I left, but they still haven't found it. They posted a pic on the Easthampton FB page that I'll post below- hopefully someone can find and catch her. 

Then... riding back on the bike path in the dark with my headlight out of batteries, while looking left n right along the path for the dog, I came within INCHES of hitting a skunk! Fortunately I did NOT get sprayed! It was definitely one of those 'interesting' rides haha!

Update: they found the missing dog the next day!

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niall g

Lost Hiker / Lost Dog / Drunk Dude / Inequality & Skunk Surprise

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Lost Hiker / Lost Dog / Drunk Dude / Inequality & Skunk Surprise

Re-calibrating

Ride with my niece!

Family ride!

Island ridin

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