“Squirrely” is a characteristic unwanted in cycling; especially for group riding. The squirrely rider is unpredictable: he or she swerves and/or wobbles; and doesn’t hold a straight line. When riding close to others, this can cause unintended contact and subsequent crashes; and nobody wants that!

It’s a long time since I’ve done any group riding; but maybe I should think about finding a way to get some. If I’m to do RAGBRAI next year — or any year! — I’ll be riding with many other cyclists. If you’re unused to group riding, it’s unnerving to suddenly be in a big pack of riders.

They say that practicing on rollers is a good way to develop the skill of holding a straight line. I don’t have rollers; and I don’t want to get too much stuff too soon. My new place has more room than the old one did; but there’s no reason to hurry to fill it up. Let me have some elbow room!

When I’m riding, I notice that I tend to be squirrely, especially when handling a water bottle. Sometimes I swerve all over the bike path! That sounds like a good excuse to use a Camel-Bak; but I need to be able to use the water bottle while holding my line. For weekend long rides, I do use the Camel-Bak; but I have a bottle of electrolyte drink to deal with.

I got to thinking about this topic because of some odd squirrel sightings in the past week. I saw one that had a very short tail; and I thought maybe it had been injured. Today, I saw a similar squirrel; and these two sightings occurred several days and a mile or so apart. Unless those “bushy tailed rats” (my brother’s term) are terrific treetop travelers, I wonder whether some kind of mutation has struck the local squirrel population!