Woodside Bike Ride

Woodside Road runs north off from Selle Road. It's at least a mile west of South Center Valley Road, which also runs north off from Selle Road. Woodside Road is paved, probably from materials gleaned from the gravel pit on the mountainside off to the east.

Generally, it's not a good idea to go for a leisurely bike ride down Woodside Road, at least during daylight hours on work days. Dump trucks filled with road and fill materials roll up and down that road to get new loads of gravel pit yieldings and deliver them to construction sites around the area.

I rode my bike down the road one afternoon a couple of years ago, watching carefully to stay out of the way of the trucks, but still I received a gentle warning from the dispatcher who works in a small office alongside the road that it might not be a good idea to be out there during the day.

So, I have obliged.

That has not stopped my evening rides down the road, though. The scene is just too good to bypass, and in the evening, if a motorized vehicle comes down the road from either direction, it's probably a member of the Wood family who own the gravel pit and all the land on either side of the road.

That happened last fall when I had ridden as far as one is allowed to ride without a hard hat. I'm guessing it would be about two miles. The road is flat, goes north, crosses a cattle guard and then veers off to the right toward a gateway, where one sign says 10 mph, another one says a hard hat is needed and another says "unauthorized personnel" should go no further.

So, again, I oblige.

On that evening last fall, a pickup came from the unauthorized area. It was Brian Wood, who owns the Woods Crushing operation, which is part of the greater Wood family operation of cattle ranching, meat preparation, guest ranch, etc. Brian had been target practicing in the gravel pit, readying himself for an upcoming week of elk hunting.

We had a great visit that evening, talking over old times and past trail rides we'd enjoyed long ago when we were both so much younger. I told Brian how much I enjoyed riding my bike through their land, and he seemed to be quite okay with that.

Late yesterday afternoon, I headed off toward Woodside Road for my first visit of 2009. Determined to enjoy this as a relaxing ride, I worked hard at not working too hard pedaling. Still, it all came easily, and I thoroughly enjoyed cruising past the neighbors' homes. Through the trees, I saw Wes and his kids walking through their yard.

There were lots of folks at the home next door which is owned by Seth Burnett. Two guys sitting out by the barn waved at me. I pedaled past Stacy Wood Reif's country school house, which has evolved so beautifully since she opened a couple of years ago.

There's a satellite dish on the south side of the building, an old bell in the bell tower, and the white fence around the adorable red school house keeps kids safe from wandering off to the busy Selle Road. Stacy's dream of running a country school has become reality, and it now serves as a center for many dreams to come.

Just beyond the school, I turned right on Woodside Road and settled into a leisurely pace, knowing I didn't have to keep looking behind to see if cars were coming and urging me closer to the side of the road. That's another reason I love the ride. If I want, I can point that bike to the middle of the road and weave back and forth to my heart's content----just like I did when I was ten.

As I progressed northward, I spotted five deer in the field on the left. They stood like statues for several minutes watching me. Yes, to my friend Brent---the deer were watching me. It's an old joke, and I don't know if Brent is reading, but I always think of him when I see deer watching me.

Probably the main reason I like Woodside Road is that when you get about a mile in, you're surrounded by nothing but quiet farm fields and groves of trees. A few cattle feeders sit out in the middle of some pastures, but the feelings of such solitude and insignificance in a grand pastoral setting are rare treats in this busy world of ours. I feel blessed, living in such moments.

As I turned right at the fork in the road and pedaled over the second cattle guard, taking care to ride the solid metal beam rather than go bumpety bump on the openings between beams, I saw more of those watching deer. Only two this time, but that put my wildlife quota for the night up to seven.

I rode to the turnaround gate, reminisced fondly of the nice visit I'd had last fall with Brian and almost sadly headed back. Still, no invading vehicles, but about half a mile into my return trip, the gong went off in my head as I looked to the right and saw not a watching deer but a huge moose----staring intently my direction.

That brought instant scary reminiscence of the time the kids and I were up Grouse Creek in our van. I had spotted a mother moose across the meadow, gotten out to take a picture, whistled to get her to pose, and instead of posing, she put her head down and started running toward our van.

The van didn't have a lot of get-up and go, so she covered a lot of ground before I had gunned the motor enough to vamoose from that meadow. Scared the living daylights out of me, and made me a lifelong moose respector. If there is such a thing as a "respector."

Visions of that brush with certain moose death inspired my feet to push really hard last night as I looked back at the moose watching me from across the field. Suddenly solitude was not my friend.

Other visions danced through my head as I continued to pedal really hard and as fast as 62-year old legs and feet could do. Visions of Marianne being found squashed and entangled in her pink mountain bike on Monday morning when the first dump truck came to get its load did not seem desirable to me.

I don't know how I want my death to come, but somehow making headlines and having another possible moose picture in the Daily Bee "moose" paper is not a scenario I relish. I'd rather go more silently.

Anyway, the moose never moved, but I did---as fast as possible, out of there. I lived to tell about it this morning, and I did enjoy the rest of my ride back down the Woodside Road. Tally by the time I reached Selle Road---seven deer, one kind moose and a beautiful bluebird launching from a fencepost.

A great, eventful ride, indeed. I'm hoping to take that route several more times before the snow flies, and I'm hoping to avoid the dump trucks, the moose and any other hazards while enjoying the bounties of nature and solitude at its best.

And, who knows, maybe one of those evenings, Brian will come along in his pickup and we have another visit about old times.