Bike to Work, 2009, Day 3, The Snake

Again got the chance to bike in. On the way home, I took a different route, one I used when I was first trying things out when the trip downtown was new to me. The Guadalupe trail runs parallel to highway 87, immediately next to it, in fact, so close that only a chain link fence and cement divider separates the trail from the freeway traffic.<br />n<br />nAs I was passing a Caltrain locomotive, just south of the Tamien station, watching the beast pick up speed on its way south to the next station and then Gilroy, I looked back at the trail just in time to see a three to four foot (90 – 120 cm) snake straddled across the trail pavement, slowly making its way from left to right. It was so close that I didn’t have time to make out what kind of snake it was, and I was moving fast enough that there was nothing I could do but prepare to run it over.<br />n<br />nI hit it at a clean ninety degree angle, with the soft thup-thup I normally feel and hear when running over a bump in the road. The trail in front of me was now at a slight downgrade, and figuring there was nothing I could do anyway, I just kept going, picking up speed, never looking back.<br />n<br />nNot sure if a snake’s spine is strong enough to handle getting run over by a bike moving about 17 miles per hour (27 kph), but I hope there was no permanent damage. It would just be a shame.