A Road Hazard on Hiway 32

[Time Traveller]

Mid September this year I decided to do some travelling in the hi-Sierras in California before arriving in Quincy for the Autumn Bash. I had just fueled up in Chico and was going east on Hiway 32 towards the southern entrance to Lassen Park. The State was doing road repairs all along the route so time and speed were not an issue. Take in the scenery, smell the fresh air. I was approximately 10 miles west of Hiway 89 and had just got underway again from a DOT stop. I was behind an 18 wheeler pulling a tank. He used a pull out and flagged me around him. As I passed him I waved. About a mile later I crested a rise on the 2 lane road and started a descent towards a right hand sweeper. I noticed that what appeared to be a LARGE rock come rolling down the embackment from the right. In a matter of a few nano seconds all this goes through my mind. I rolled off the throttle to drift thinking that it would come to rest in the road and I would navigate around it, etc., etc. In a nano second the falling rock hit the road and developed 4 legs! It wasn't a rock but a bear! Now in the same nano second I thought "Oh Shit!" This could pose a navigation problem. To the left was a good drop off into the timber. Hitting the bear was not an option. It could hurt the bear. Stopping was going to put the GS and I very close to Yogi, still not an option. Still within that nano second the bear shook his fall off, saw me "bearing down" on him, and sprang like a deer over the embankment and out of sight! The nano second was about to run out. I let off the almost locked brakes, leaned a little to the right and made it through the turn, as if nothing ever happened. The rest of the ride through Lassen Park and to Burney Falls was rather un-evenful.

It was a good day.

[multiplu]

Whew!!!!!!