One of the necessary skills to be a successful — as in “don’t go down” — rider is scanning the roadway in front of you. That’s true of driving a car, too, of course. But it’s more important on a bike because you have a lot less road grip — two tires instead of four, each narrower to boot — and turning a bike involves leaning — which reduces the footprint of your tires further — where turning a car does not. So you’re constantly looking for stuff which, in a car, you would ignore, or simply hit with impunity.
The other day I was coming back on CA-84 from San Gregorio Beach — a great ride — when I saw a piece of hose in my path. I could tell it wasn’t stiff, like a pipe, because it was in curves. Needless to say I swerved to avoid it.
As I passed by I realized it wasn’t a hose. It was a big, fat, honking snake, sunning himself on the roadway. In fact, I think it was a rattlesnake. Although it might have been a California garter snake, they can look similar enough to a rattler that it’s hard to tell the difference as you zoom by at 55 MPH.
