Old Railroad Bed

Rode the old railroad bed last night in the dark on my bicycle. I've done this many times. My bike light spotlighted with its AAA beam the especially active night. It's about a mile in all but seems a little longer when bats perform kamikaze aerobatics at what must be crosshairs marking your brow. And then at the last second, cottontail bunnies zip across the path, playing dodge just millimeters in front of your madly rotating front wheel; up ahead a fox approaches then retreats on seeing the strange Cyclops ahead; then the real moment of creaturely climax---a family of skunks unseen until you are nearly brushing their black/white striped backs with your pedal. All you can do is speed up a bit at that point. You realize too that a cougar wouldn't have caused the pedals to be pushed in a less casual rotation.