Nearly Attacked By Demented Swan

Photos
These pictures taken at the Windsor boat launch yesterday.
Left: a pile of rubble caught by a log jam on the north side of the bridge.
Right: the river is not too far from the top of the embankment at the picnic area. Notice the old beaver chew on the tree. That happened last year during the spring flood. Once the river is where it belongs, that chew is maybe 4-5 off the ground.

Yesterday's bike ride
Thursday, yesterday, was such a beautiful day I had to ride. It was the second day in a row I rode, and I have to confess my butt hurt, my legs were super tired and I was agonizing over how was I ever going to ride 9 days in a row averaging 40 miles per day. I have to remember this is only mid-April. All that other stuff is 5 months away. So the agony switches over to is that enough time for me to get my distance capabilities, strength, and speed up to where they need to be. One agony after another, and, so it will go until September gets here. The only way I will ever be sure of the answers to any of those questions is to be dropped off in Niagara Falls with nothing but a bike for transportation and Kathy to keep me out of trouble.

Quasimodo Swan
While on my ride, I stopped on the Strong Road bridge over a branch of the Podunk River. As I was looking into the water on the north side of the bridge, I heard the pitter patter of feet behind me. Looking up I saw the swan that guards this area. One look and I yelled, “Oh no you don’t.” Thank goodness I can still move fast! I took off like I didn’t want to be attacked by this lunatic. He looked like a bad imitation of Quasimodo on drugs, dressed in feathers! He had one wing held at an awkward angle, his neck seemed to be unnaturally crooked and he was looking at me with only one eye. This bird attacked me a couple years ago. That was before someone beat the poor thing to near death when the swan attacked someone else. I don’t know who – I only heard the story. I think all it did was scramble its brains and made it more vicious. Swans are nasty to begin with. I wish I could have taken a picture of this so you could see what I mean, but there was no time.

On the way back I looked for him again. He was swimming back and forth from one side of the bridge to the other and his appearance had returned to that of a normal swan. That made me feel better.

Windsor Boat Launch
I rode to the Windsor boat launch. The river is high but receding. I could see the mud line and the ground all around the picnic area was very soggy and muddy. I’ve seen it higher in past years.