Witness to Oddity

Spending so much time outdoors can make you witness to or participant in many of life's oddities. This column will detail these occasional oddities.

This past weekend in one single bike ride of 54 miles I witnessed two bizarre incidents. A fire and a medical miracle.

I started out from my house at 6 am choosing the early hour to avoid as much traffic and trail congestion as possible. In that vein, the return is always worse then the peaceful start. The trail I ride most often has a series of wooden bridges that allow you to traverse over various creeks and ponds (sewage runoff truthfully, but the city beautifies that by naming its various arteries). I was riding along at about 18 mph or so when I saw a man standing near one of the bridges. Riding alone, I generally speed up when I see folks standing around, so I naturally accelerated. At a distance of 30 feet I could see smoke rising from the bridge and as my front wheel hit the bridge I noticed the wood in the center was completely missing but for 2 feet on either side. For those that believe in the supernatural, it looked like a meteor hit the bridge and landed in the creek.

This was no supernatural occurrence, of course, but instead arson. I asked the guy standing there if he called the fire department, he answered affirmatively. I was on mile 4 of my long ride and as I could not be of further help, I decided to proceed across the bridge with care. The bridge was solid assuming you missed stepping into the smoldering hole. A half-mile away I found the firefighters wandering through the woods looking for the bridge. I provided them with directions and continued on. Later when I returned the bridge was closed and all traffic had been rerouted.

The fire was like a strong cup of Joe. It heightened my awareness for the remainder of the ride.

Within 8 miles of the fire I saw a jogger off in the distance. I thought she was a bit too-well dressed for jogging but as I got closer I realized it was not a neck scarf that she was wearing but a neck brace. Now, I'm not a doctor but I have to think if you need a neck brace it's probably not advisable to jog.

Is there a cosmic message in my bearing witness to these events? Now that's a frightening thought.