There was a time that both Mary and I worked in the western suburbs, West Des Moines and Urbandale respectably. A long way from home it was. On bicycle, during the best weather conditions it was a 30-mile round trip commute for me, a few more miles for Mary. If the weather was poor, 24 miles for me.
We would make use of the trail system as much as possible. Just a half mile ride to Mullets to enter the trail system. Take this to the Bill Riley Trail and ride through Water Works Park. Seamlessly, the trail changed names to the Walnut Creek Trail and then the Clive Greenbelt trail. Mary and I would part at NW 128th St. She would head north to Webster Elementary School and I south to Farm Bureau. 10,000 mile years!
This true story took place on the Greenbelt. It must have taken place in October of 2016. I checked my bike log but could not find the proper date but found a period of time in October that we commuted to work on. Our road bikes. I recall that it was a bit chilly but one tends to warm up during a 15 mile ride. Always dark. We had to leave early in the morning before the Sun had its coffee and went to work.
The Greenbelt is curvy, fun and dangerous. Before 6 am, it is usually free from other cyclists. Speed on! Mary led and I was only a few inches from her rear wheel. After cross a bridge and turning south toward the park and the subsequent right curve/turn that was approaching, I saw danger. Nano seconds.
An opossum was crossing the trail. I do not believe she saw it. I did and watched in horror as she hit the poor thing. Nanoseconds. Mary remained upright as if the collision never occurred. After noting she was safe, I thought about what a filthy animal it was. The impact knocked a significant pile of leaves and debris off the marsupial. My mind recorded an explosion of leaves and sticks in black and white. Exploding possums. Had it been hiding in a brush pile? Was it camouflage? No time for further reflection as 3 nanoseconds had passed and it was my turn to enter the flotsam and jetsam of the impact site. Once there I looked down and felt worse. Not debris. Not leaves. Her babies. One moment riding peacefully on mom and the next knocked off her by a person riding a Trek. I think I missed them all. No blood on the trail. Keep moving. Time is tight and we still had about 5 miles to go. Sorry.
I took the same route home. No evidence of the event. I hope she was ok. This was not the first opossum I have witnessed getting ran over by a bicycle. Back in the 1990s, before the Great Western Trail was paved, The Des Moines Cycle Club used to ride from Orlandos to Cumming on Friday nights during the winter. Mountain bike rides. One snowy night yours truly had a possum run across the trail and made contact. I did not go down but I felt the bump. On the way back it was gone. They must be tough.
 |
| Copilot AI images. It would not create an image of the opossum being run over by a bicycle, but it agreed to let a pile of leaves get hit. |
 |
| This early creation of the scene has the opossum in the image, exploding despite the bicycle not running it over. |
 |
| Real time edits! I went back to the image without lights and asked Copilot to add lights but it also added a smile to "Mary" and removed the possum/leaf pile. She did not smile when this happened. She was not smiling in the image at this beginning of this post. AI also assumed that I wanted road bikes, probably based on later revisions. |
