Posted October 3rd 2005.

More useless information from your favorite curmudgeon in the Great North Woods, Layz1.
If you where successful in guessing where the Layz1 was, such a deal I have for you! You have won at absolutely no cost to you, a big box of nothing. Box not included. There is no need for you to contact me if you are a winner I will know. {I have ESP} You only need to go to your door open it up reach outside and grab all that nothing by the hand full and put it in a big box. It doesn't get any easier then that.

While I was doing my sixteen mile bike ride on Oct 1st an older couple in a car, coming from the direction that I was headed in stop to tell me that just up the road they saw a fox acting quite strange. It was in the middle of the road and warned me to be careful saying it could be rabid. While rabies has been a problem in the southern and central part of the state the last few years, I have not heard of a case this far north. But not one to take a chance I eased old Silver {bike} out to the middle of the road to give myself a little more reaction time if a mad fox did come out after me. I could not out run a healthy fox but with a weak rabid one I would stand a chance. So I put a little extra sole to the pedal for the next mile or so. The said fox must have went back into the woods so I had a clear ride all the way back to my truck. Yes I do at times take the bike for a ride in the truck to get to a new area to bike ride. A change of scenery keeps cycling from getting boring. If you noticed in the "where's Layz1" picture you can see that they have already drawn down the lakes up here. They do this every fall to make room to catch the spring snow melt. You can use this as a hint to guess where the Layz1 could be.
When I got back to the truck and loaded the bike in the back I drove up the road as I usually do to clock the miles that I pedaled this day. On my way back through I did see the fox, there was a women out of her car trying to get the fox to come take food out of her hand. The fox did not have rabies it was a fox that the tourist had tamed by feeding it from their cars. Of course I had to stop and tell this women that Oct 1st was the first day of fox season in the state of NH. With are woods full of bird hunters at this time of year that fox would not make it till next weekend alive. Most bird hunters think of the fox as a competitor and a pest and will shot them on site and just leave the bodies laying there. The reality is that fox don't kill enough birds to make a difference in the grouse population. The bird is just to fast for all but the luckiest of fox. So FYI for both tourist and locals please don't tame the wild animals you are only signing there death certificate. The state of NH allows the killing of just about every four legged creature in the woods at some time during the year. Some like the poor fox have no daily bag limit you can kill as many as you can find every day of the six month season.

Click the thumbnails below to see a few pictures from this bike ride.

0568 jpg0569 jpg 0571 jpg PS That feisty little garden snake tried to bite me when I removed him from the road. The nerve,I just wanted to save his life.

Click here to go to layz1's web page.